In 1543 Francisco de Montejo arrived, wiped out an old Mayan town and founded Valladolid in its place.
The new town was laid out in a typical conquistador manner, the Park, the church and Francisco’s own house in the middle, grid of straight streets with colourful colonial buildings, portico’s and archways leading to interior courtyards.
Image by Jesica Torres from Pixabay
A few centuries later, the Mayans took it back.
After Mérida, Valladolid is now the second city in importance in the Yucatan, a charming place to visit definitely worth a stop.
The first things you will notice are the bright stucco colours shining in the southern sun and the small town slow pace weighing heavily in the hot air. People watching stands for live entertainment, music is humming in the background, tequila ice-cream is a tasty treat.
Buildings are cheerful like colourful dresses dancing and winding on the side of the streets and bright white conversation pews are scattered around the park.
The windows and doors of houses have pointy ornamentations either above or below the opening, a decorative motif shared through the town.
I stumbled upon this unexpectedly, with not enough time to absorb and yet, it was the wind of passing thru that aroused the interest in my mind to research this further. Sometimes we only need to catch a glimpse in order to make a connection with a place.
2 Comments Add yours