Merida Tours: A Review Of A Mayan Village Tour

Published by Cassie on 27/05/201927/05/2019

In a life jam-packed with adventure, excitement and enthusiasm I feel extremely fortunate to have had yet another truly fabulous experience whilst exploring my beloved Mexico. This time my adventure was aided by eco-tourism agency Co’ox Mayab and the lovely people of San Agustin ejido, in rural southern Yucatan, who invited my family and me to spend some time with them learning about life in a modern Mayan village.

Please note that I am aware that the correct adjective is ‘Maya’ and not ‘Mayan’ but if I use ‘Maya village’ or ‘Maya tour’ instead of ‘Mayan village ‘ or ‘Mayan tour’ my article will languish and never be found by google. It was a tough call but I decided to go with the word people are actually searching for the hope of people reading my article, going on tours like this one and learning the correct word.

I hope I was 100% clear that this was a hosted weekend. We didn’t pay for the tour although we did pay for our own petrol since we used our car and we paid for our own entry into sites. All opinions are entirely my own and completely honest. In addition, there may be affiliate links in this article. If you click on one and make a purchase, I may make a small sum that helps me continue blogging. 

Why Did I Take A Tour of A Maya Village?

People have asked me this and it’s a fair question to someone who lives in Mexico and might be considered to know Yucatan pretty well. But, we live in the large(ish) modern city of Merida, where we have access to almost everything we could want or need. Our city life, in no way, permits us to be so naive as to think we know about life outside of the cities. We travel around the Yucatan Peninsula regularly and we, of course, drive through small villages, but like most people we don’t stop because we assume there’s no real reason to stop. We drive through, peering out of our windows at this world we don’t know (except, of course when our car broke down in deepest Campeche on our way home from Calakmul!), possibly wondering what’s going on and who lives there.

This, to me, seemed like a fabulous opportunity to learn more. I always want to know more about everything, especially Mexico and Mexican life. I wanted to know what life is like in these small villages.

I also have another reason and actually, it’s less about Mayan village life and more about wanting to be useful.

• I want to help visitors to Mexico figure out which tours are worth taking and which aren’t.
• I want to help small, eco-tourism cooperatives reach an audience they might never otherwise reach.

When you visit a new place it’s easy to say you want to learn about it, it’s easy to say you want to go off the beaten path and not just follow the crowds. But it’s also easier to go to Chichen Itza with everyone else than take the time to see which other fabulous archaeological sites are available to people visiting Yucatan, especially if time is limited and you’re not sure about the quality of tours or even how to find a trustworthy agency.

In Merida, sure, you can pick any tour from the strip on Calle 60 and you’ll probably have a fabulous time but some people want more. Maybe they’ve already done all the more obvious trips from Merida, maybe they want to get deeper under Yucatan’s skin, or maybe they just actively enjoy working with small and local tour groups where the money goes back to the communities they meet.

With Co’ox Mayab you can visit the main tourist sites AND peek behind them to meet the people who live nearby.

I LOVE working with small, sustainable tour agencies who really know their region and really care about their people. I love being able to help visitors to this country that I love to make informed decisions about what they’re going to see and how they’re going to do it.

If you’re interested in sustainable travel,  eco-tourism or sustainable tourism in Merida then, thank you! You may also wish to know more about what’s going on in Merida to create a more sustainable city, or where to find the .restaurants, shops and services working towards less, or zero-waste in Merida

What Did We Do During Our Weekend Trip To A Mayan Village?

We were planning to leave home at 7 am to be at Uxmal by 9 am, only our son got an infection the night before and we ended up having to go via the hospital. We really didn’t want to be three hours from our fabulous hospital if he was going to be miserable and ill. Only once we had the all clear and the requisite medicines, could we finally begin our journey. We soon realised, though, that we weren’t going to make it to Uxmal as planned, enjoy exploring and get to San Agustin by the agreed 1 pm so while my husband drove, I had a quick search through my memory and google to see what other options were open to us.

Uxmal and any the other Ruta Puuc sites were really just too much once the hospital had eaten into our time. We could have stopped off at the Choco Museum opposite Uxmal but we’ve been there three times already (it’s fabulous). We could also have stopped at a cenote but when your son has just been given the all-clear for an infection that’s often caused by his apparent inability to not swallow non-drinking water (he’s six) we decided that wasn’t our best plan either.

So what did I come up with?

MUNA!!!

Yes! Muna. Fabulous. While the town itself wasn’t going to entertain us for long, the Mirador Muna was a perfect stopping point. This mirador, I believe, is the highest point in Yucatan (not saying much, I appreciate). We loved it here and I highly recommend a detour if you’re in the area.

View from the mirador

Entry is $20 pesos ($10 pesos for kids) or just $5 pesos if you only want to go up the mirador. I recommend the $20 pesos because this gets entry into the little cave, allows you to walk around the very attractive gardens and head up the mirador (where, to be perfectly honest, the view is lovely but Uxmal and the other sites are really too far away to be seen without binoculars).

On-site, there’s also a lovely little tourist shop and you can buy drinks and snacks too.

My actual favourite thing here though was the chat we had about bees before we had even paid to go in. The man who works (owns?) there is extremely passionate about bees. He has a number of hives for non-stinging bees and he took great delight in explaining all about them to us. It was fascinating. Who knew there were 30 types of non-stinging bee? And I’ve heard from others that they’ve wound up in a fascinating conversation about traditional musical instruments so I suspect this man is just super interesting and well worth heading to Muna to meet!

Beehives – non-stinging bees

Small girl emerging from cave.

From Muna, we hightailed it to San Agustin (to be accurate the tiny village of Salvador Alvarado in the ejido of San Agustin) to meet our hosts for the weekend.

Lol-Tún Caves, near Oxkutzcab

Another great option is the Lol-Tún caves. We stopped off here on our way back to Merida because I’d heard a lot about them and have wanted to explore them for a while now. Were they interesting? Yes. Were they worth the money, yes but mainly because we speak good enough Spanish to be able to join a Spanish speaking tour group.

Let me explain.

You pay an entry fee to get into the caves (oh the fun we had here. There is one price for residents and another for tourists. On a Sunday Mexican residents pay a reduced fee. We are residents. Our residency cards are with the immigration agency for renewal so we carry photos of our cards. We showed the guy at the ticket office our photos. He kept telling us that without our cards he couldn’t help us. We explained again that it wasn’t our fault and that we have been using photos because there’s a backlog at immigration. He randomly told us he’d let one of us in for the resident price and the other would have to pay the full price [kids are free anyway]. We pointed out that this wasn’t logical and that if he could do one for our correct price he could do both. He got mad. We stayed calm and decided to try the ticket booth next door. This man looked at our photos and immediately gave us both Mexican price entry).

General admission: $141 pesos

Mexican nationals and residents: $104 pesos (discount on Sundays)

Children and retired people  – Free

Tours available: 9.30 am 11 am 12.30 pm  2 pm 3 pm and 4 pm

On top of the entry fee, you must take a guide. This is not included in the fee. There is no set fee for the guide, which is helpful (hmmm). I had a chat with the guides to figure out what we were meant to do. Basically, their hope is to make at least $700-800 pesos a tour so if you’re alone with an English speaking guide it’s gonna cost you $800 pesos but if you join a Spanish speaking group it’s gonna cost $100 pesos because the group splits the cost. See why we opted for Spanish?

Loltun caves

You walk around 2km through the caves. Most of it is very easy walking but there are a couple of sections where you need to be fairly confident clambering over rocks or up large steps. My kids were fine but I wouldn’t have taken my parents without warning them explicitly what to expect.

Because I am such a good blogger (and daughter), I nipped back to the ticket office to ask about private tours. And, of course, if you do a private tour you can turn back and walk back out the entrance and therefore miss the tricky bits at the end.

The caves are truly impressive. I have rarely seen such huge caves. We were all quite blown away by their size although we did have to bribe our kids not to tell us how bored they were constantly. Crisps and popcorn work wonders.

Lol-Tún, in Maya, means ‘piedra de flor’ or ‘rock flower’ and the story goes that the caves were named for the sound two hollow stalactites make when you tap them. The caves are the biggest cave system in southern Yucatan, and there is clear evidence that humans lived in, and used, these caves over thousands of years.  Both human and animal bones have been found in the caves,  as well as negative handprints on the walls and even tools. The guide also told us stories about going into the caves as a small boy to look for water since there are no cenotes in this part of the peninsula and the caves’ water system was a useful source. The caves were used, by the Maya, to hide from the Spanish when they first arrived in Yucatan. They were also used for religious ceremonies, which makes perfect sense when you see the place.

Our Weekend In The Mayan Village

We arrived in Salvador Alvarado and were taken off for lunch and an explanation of how the weekend would look. Technically there is a restaurant space at the campsite (more on this later) but because this is still a new tour and not everything has been ironed out yet, we were taken to Rita’s house and fed there, which worked out great for us as it was more informal and gave us more opportunity to chat with our hosts.

The kids fell in love with the village within about thirty seconds. You see, there is a tyre swing tied in a tree by the road and the village road is so quiet that we could let them play while we sat. I say that we could leave them alone but actually every time we left them there, some adult or other would go and sit with them just to watch them, listen to them bicker in English and to chat with them in Spanish.

Highlight of the kids’ trip!

Whilst eating we had a chat about hammocks. I’m not sure why but that’s where we ended up. They found it absolutely hilarious that we aren’t comfortable sleeping in them. When I tried to explain that I don’t like the feeling of my feet being higher than my head to sleep Rita, and our newly introduced guide, Miguel just looked at me as if I were a total and utter nut-job. I felt silly. And then they admitted that hate sleeping in beds because it makes their backs hurt and they can’t walk the next day. And then we all laughed at ourselves. With that, we went from being strangers to being friends.

After lunch, we cruelly dragged the kids away from the tyre swing and their audience and we went off with Miguel. Turns out that Miguel is Rita’s nephew.

First stop: A Maya Archaeological Site With No Official Name

The locals call it Rancho Perez but this Maya site has no official name. The kids had a grand old time scrambling around (um, so did the adults if we’re honest). We were fascinated to find that many people have Maya ruins in their back yards. They’re everywhere and kind of nothing special to people who live in rural areas because there are so many of them. We asked if INH (the national organisation overseeing ruins) knew about this one. They do but they’re not likely to ever pay to restore it and, quite honestly the villagers like it that way. They don’t want fences or to have to pay to see their own ruin. They like that no one knows it’s there. Miguel told us that on a Sunday the villagers often head up with their hammocks and picnics and just have themselves some fun.

As we walked, Miguel also explained to us all about the reforestation work the village is doing alongside their charcoal business. They take their work seriously and are looking after the trees around them. They measure various species of trees to understand which are fast or slow growing, and which, therefore, can be cut down and replaced. They also have a programme to ensure they’re not endangering local wildlife with their actions. Part of this includes educating the neighbouring villages because, as Miguel told us, what’s the point in them looking after the environment if the people in the next village don’t too?

Second stop: The Village Square – Handicraft Time

I was a bit worried about this. A group of women appeared and set up their wares in the hope that we would buy something. Honestly, we aren’t the greatest of shoppers in my family so I never really enjoy browsing stalls, especially when I feel that there might be an expectation that I’ll buy something. The kids ran off towards the playground, their dad gratefully followed them, pretending they needed supervising in this, the quietest of all villages, leaving me to browse on my own (I will make him pay later). It was fine though. I bought a few small things, no one seemed to care that I wasn’t spending a fortune, we had a nice chat, everyone laughed at me some more for not being a good hammock sleeper, I said thank you and then we left.

Third stop: Sewing Workshop

We stopped off briefly here to see where the women do a lot of their work. Apart from clothing, they make full beekeeping outfits for the village beekeepers.

Fourth Stop: Wood Workshop

If you chop trees you have to have something to do with them. The village has its own workshop. We were only in here briefly, which was fine with me although my son really wanted to have a go at making planks from tree trunks. I’m glad no one was interested in letting him do this as I suspect he’d have lost a finger or three in the process.

Fifth Stop: Meeting One of the Village’s Founders

(And Rita’s dad, it turns out). We spent a good hour just sitting and chatting with Petronilo outside his house. We sat in plastic chairs at the side of the road and he told us the story of how this tiny village came into being. I’d assumed that these roadside villages were ancient, that they’d always been there but I was wrong: around 45 years ago their home-village ran out of space and sent a few families off to see if they could set up somewhere new. Life was hard. They had no easy access to water, no electricity and there was no paved road. They walked miles for water every day just to survive.

Today, the village has a municipal water tank that feeds water into every home, there is electricity and Rita has a washing machine. I note the washing machine specifically because Petronilo told us about how his wife, Tomasa, used to do the laundry for the village. She’d walk to the water source, with her small daughter on her back and wash everyone’s clothes for them. It did not sound fun to pound everyone’s clothes day after day.

Just as Petronilo was telling us about village fights over water, my five-year-old arrived and announced herself by asking if she could climb the ladder resting against his house. She quite fancied checking out his roof, she told him. Petronilo laughed so hard and then told her she was more than welcome to climb his roof. So she and Col headed up to the roof, quickly followed by my son (who doesn’t want anyone to climb anything unless he’s going too). So while my weird family climbed around on their house, I was introduced to Tomasa, Petronilo’s wife, Rita’s mum and Miguel’s granny.

Tomasa (photo taken with permission, blog explained and photo used with permission)

After a quick chat, Tomasa very kindly invited me to check out her kitchen. We’d already had an explanation of how cooking is done today in the village so seeing Tomasa’s kitchen, how she does it the old way, was super interesting. Clearly, she prefers the old way and has no plans to change to the more modern stove or kitchen set up any time soon.

New style stove in the village – three logs inside will cook an entire meal

Old style stove in the village

I felt so honoured to be invited into the heart of their home like this. This wasn’t a requirement or a designated stop on the tour, this was pure generosity from a kind (and funny) woman.

Traditional kitchen (old style)

As we left the kitchen I spied Tomasa’s hammock making room and asked if I might poke my head around the door (after all the hammock chat you can imagine how fascinated I was). Tomasa demonstrated her hammock making skills and then the five-year-old melted hearts by asking Tomasa if she could teach her how to do it too. I honestly think none of us will ever forget the sight of this Maya great-grandmother teaching our daughter how to make a hammock. My daughter was so intent on learning and Tomasa was so kind and gentle with her.

One of my favourite photos ever.

I could have cried. I was so proud of my daughter for her desire to embrace life and I felt so very lucky to be in a position to have been able to meet such lovely people and be welcomed into their lives, even for such a short time.

Other possible activities include a 9km ‘sendero‘ (trail) that is good for walking or biking but we arrived too late since this really needs to be started early in the morning. People who indicate a specific interest, such as in beekeeping, farming or reforestation can have a day arranged around their specific interests. Or, like us, you can just ask to see a bit of everything.

As I noted before, no one in the village speaks English, it’s a Maya speaking community but they’re all more or less bilingual. I am convinced that our ability to speak Spanish made this experience soar. We didn’t have to speak through guides or translators, we could just speak to each other and ask real questions. We could joke together in a way translators often preclude.

Accommodation And Food: What To Expect

I won’t pretend that accommodation and food will be the highlight of this trip for you. The food was all perfectly tasty but when you’re out in the middle of nowhere two hours from the nearest supermarket (AND you’ve stupidly suggested plain food is a good idea since your kids are fussy little sods) you’re never going to get the very best meals of your life. Food was plentiful and we certainly weren’t hungry.

Lunch

We ate, just the four of us, in the outdoor dining room of Rita’s homestead. Honestly, it felt like a bit of an adventure. The kids were thrilled to be eating with chickens and cats roaming around us!

The accommodation on this tour was two tents with blow up mattresses in a lovely dedicated camping area that we had to ourselves. There was a guard on site all night and there are decent bathrooms too. Because my husband is very tall, he did find that his feet had to hang out of the tent if he wanted to lie straight.

While I highly recommend this tour to everyone, I think you need to be sure about sleeping arrangements before heading off. If you’re at all worried about sleeping in a small tent, do enquire with Co’ox Mayab to check out other possible options. Our kids loved the experience because we love camping as a family but I would have liked to have been told that there was no bedding provided (I strongly suspect this will change in future because I have told them that people like to be given sheets  – I imagine they genuinely didn’t know, see hammock chat above!). We had towels with us (also not provided) so used them to sleep under once it got chilly around 3 am and then used them for washing the next day.

Would I Recommend This Tour To A Mayan Village?

Oh yes! Absolutely yes. This was, without a doubt, one of the most interesting weekends my family has had since moving to Merida. I don’t doubt our near fluent Spanish helped make it that little bit more special for us as we really got to connect with everyone we met but even without that this tour would have been eye-opening, fascinating, and a real treat.

What I really noted was the total lack of cynicism on the part of the family looking after us. They seemed genuinely pleased to host us, to chat with us and to talk to us about their homes, traditions and also to learn about our lives too.

Note: Because we know the region well and speak Spanish we decided that we wouldn’t take a guide with us from Merida. If you wanted to do this tour from Merida and don’t speak Spanish I recommend taking a guide as no one in the village speaks any English. I did, however, have WhatsApp contact with a member of the Co’ox Mayab team on our journey there and back (there’s no reception in the village). This was super helpful, especially when we were offered a great lunch recommendation on our way home, somewhere we’d probably never have found for ourselves.

I have nothing but respect for Co’ox Mayab. They have been professional and attentive throughout my time working with them and I loved that they were on hand via WhatsApp (when we had reception) should I have needed anything.

What To Take With You When Visiting A Mayan Village

• Small denomination bills to buy souvenirs, water and to leave as a tip when you leave (we actually struggled to persuade our hosts to take a tip but we prevailed!).
• Towels
• Mosquito Repellent
• Reusable water bottles (preferably ones that keep the water cold). We also had an ice-box full of water in the car so we didn’t have to buy additional water while we were in the village. Drinks were provided with meals but it is very hot so we were happy to have additional water in the car.
• I wish I’d thought to take something like a box of chocolates with us to give to Rita and her family.
• Swimming stuff in case you fancy a cenote dip on the way home

Check With Co’ox Mayab Before Going

• Pillow if you need one (none were provided)
• Bedding (we would have liked an under-sheet and a top sheet)

Contacts Details For Co’ox Mayab

Website: www.cooxmayab.com

Email: ventas@cooxmayab.com

Tel: + 52 1 999 447 8395. I know there is an English speaker in the office if you’re worried about getting in touch.  (not that they ever let me speak to this person, the meanies made me do everything in Spanish!!)