The Convent’s route “PART III”
CHRONICLE THROUGH THE FRANCISCAN LEGACY IN YUCATAN
After a delicious meal, with a full stomach and recharged energy, we decided to get going and finish our tour.
OXKUTZCAB
25 minutes from Mani, is the internationally famous city of Oxkutzcab “Land of Ramon, tobacco and honey”; the market here is one of the country’s primary exporters of citrus, so much that it is dubbed “The Garden of the State”, and is famous primarily for their harvest of sweet orange, which is boasted as the best of all the Yucatecan lands.
Here we had the chance of stretching our legs and eating the delicious cuisine of Mani. We walked thru the park enjoying our colorful surroundings. We visited the beautiful temple of Saint Francis, whose construction began on 1581 and ended in 1699. The high altar is presided over by a baroque altarpiece with sculpted Salomonic columns.
After an hour, we hastened to complete our journey.
TICUL
We stayed there since night had fallen and it’s not recommended to go around these roads at night: the roads are narrow and visibility is poor.
SANTA ELENA
The next day, not too early, we headed towards our next destination, only 20 minutes from Ticul: Santa Elena. Here we went to the Church of San Mateo, resting on the top of a hill, and we enjoyed a stroll through a little museum exhibiting precolumbian and colonial artifacts, as well as the “mummies of Santa Elena” found around these parts. The latter was quite unexpected.
We killed time until they opened the marvelous and internationally known archeological site of Uxmal. Here we enjoyed at our leisure the beautiful Pyramid of the Magician, The Governor’s Palace and a host of other buildings of which we took excellent photos.
We strolled around Uxmal for close to three hours, then drove about 13 minutes, 17 kilometers north, to arrive at Muna: “Soft Water”, a town that hosts the temple and ex-nunnery of “Asuncion,” built in the 17th century, and their artisan center in the main plaza.
UMAN
Past noon, we drove approximately 49 minutes, admiring the scenery of these beautiful southern highways, and talked about our trip, reminiscing about our impressions and going over our photos. Finally we arrived at Uman “Noisy Road”, where we went to another Franciscan church, which used to be a Spanish nunnery in the 16th century. This one was of majestic proportions, with a stone facade and three arches. They told us to take an “ecological taxi” in the main plaza so we could finish our journey through the villa. Afterwards we boarded our own vehicle and drove home.
