Valladolid

What Makes It Magical

Here, time trickles slowly by, and the past melts into the present. Valladolid’s perfectly laid out streets are lined with old mansions painted in colors that reflect the sky. This is also home to stately Calzada de los Frailes street, filled with colonial-era homes, shops, and hostels; Iglesia de San Servacio church; and the Plaza Principal with its stands selling marquesitas–crunchy tubes with sweet fillings, candy, and ice cream. The area’s crystal-clear water is a result of millions of years of formation; its churches, of brave warriors; and its culinary traditions are morsels from the gods–it is easy to see why it was once the eastern capital of the Maya.

Its Nearby Cenote Pools

• They were formed millions of years ago, in the last Ice Age.
• The Yucatan Peninsula was once covered by the ocean. When it receded, it exposed coral reef that turned into porous limestone. As the land eroded, areas collapsed into sinkholes, forming the cenote pools.
• For the Mayas, this was the entrance to the underworld.
• There are ten thousand cenotes in the Peninsula.

At the Very Least

Enjoy Cenote Zací’s water and always verdant surroundings.

Don’t Miss

1. Become an expert in regional cuisine in La Casona.
2. Sleep beneath a cloud of gauzy mosquito netting in Hotel Zentik.
3. Get a massage in Coqui Coqui, an old perfumery.