A Uaymitun Story: The Convent Route

One of the well known tourist routes in the Yucatan is the "Convent Route", which takes you south-east of Merida through a myriad of small towns and villages to visit the many churches and convent buildings from the colonial era.

Sprinkled along the route are some well known Mayan ruins as well.

Our tour started started in the small town of Acanceh, where we parked in the main square and headed to the church.

Across the street from the large church was a smaller chapel built to honour Guadalupe, the patroness saint of the Yucatan.

As with all Mexican towns the main square is always nice to explore.

a local Taxi

enjoying a quiet spot in the square

Acanceh in Mayan means 'moan of the deer'

market day in Acanceh

Now for the most interesting part of our visit to Acanceh. Also right across from the church is several Mayan ruins. These are very famous for the well preserved stucco masks that were uncovered during reclamation of the site.

a Mayan ruin next to a modern building on the main street

The corner has been partly excavated to show what was overbuilt

a second pyramid that's untouched with the church in the background

the stucco masks of the gods

our guide with the final mask

Our guide then led us on foot for several blocks to the "Palace of the Stuccos" which contains several elaborate friezes.

trees appearing to grow out of the base of the palace

the friezes were protected under a canopy...

... so we were able to see the many images...

... of people and animals

our guide showed us a map of the whole stucco frieze

Next time we'll think to where something other than flipflops to the pyramids!

On our way out of Acanceh, bound for Tekoh, we passed by the local bull fighting ring!

The road into Tekoh was lined with trees and rocks all whitewashed... very pretty.

On the square, in Tekoh, we parked and toured the quite large and ornate church.

the church grounds are built on the foundations of a Mayan pyramid

strolling the grounds

built in 1751

quite impressive for the size of town

very ornate altar area

the square in Tekoh

the tree lined avenue

We left Tekoh and we, based upon the map in the "Yucatan Today" magazine, headed south out of town. After 10 minutes of driving we agreed that the map was wrong and that our destination restaurant was actually on the bypass around Tekoh. Oh well, it was worth the backtrack!