We reached the Hacienda around 10:30am... Nice fountain in the courtyard at the entrance...
We then sipped on our welcome drink while listening to our guide telling us about the brief history of the place... The welcome drink was rather nice, think it was a Jamaica flavoured drink...
Next we went on to see how the ropes were handmade from henequen fibers... Such ropes were for internal use as the Haciendas only producted the henequen fibers for sale. First, the fibers had to be combed to make them softer. The video is a demonstration by the worker...
Then, I got to try combing the fibers... =p
Next, the worker will twist the fibers into a rope with the help of a machine. Thicker ropes can be made by twisting more strands together...
Then we visited the scrapper machine, where the fibers are extracted from the leaves of the henequen plant... This is the house where the machine is located...
The leaves are loaded onto a conveyor lift and transported to the upper level where the workers and machine are located...
Our guide showing us a leaf from the henequen plant and telling us about how the fibers are extracted before we proceeded upstairs to see the machine in action...
The scrapper machine with many many years of history... It was manually operated in the past and now it is powered by electricity... It basically scraps the fibers from the leaf. The fibers only make up a small percentage of the leaf, and thus lots of leaves are needed to produce a bale of henequen fibers...
The scrapper machine at work...
The end product (the henequen fibers) are collected...
The fibers are then hung out to dry in the sun for a few hours...
The by-product after the fibers are extracted from the leaves... They are currently used as animal feed for the goat, but our guide said that there is currently researching on the possibility of using it as a bio-fuel...
After the fibers are dried, they are compressed to form huge bales... The fibers are placed inside and then the machine is turned on where the fibers are "pressed" into a huge bale...
The bale is then tied with henequen rope and the whole process is completed. Each bale weighs around 200kg...
And there's me sitting on top of the bale of henequen fibers... =p
Then we went to the "factory" to see what the henequen fibers can be transformed into. These machines were the actual machines that were in use in the Merida factory in the past. They are now located in the hacienda to let us have a look at the process in the past. The processing was done in Merida as haciendas only produced the fibers... The guy giving the demonstration used to work on these machines in the Merida factory, and thus has lots of experience... Firstly, the fibers are combed to make them softer and finer. The right shows the resulting softer strands... This process is same as the manual process we saw earlier, just that it is done by a machine...
The machine in action...
The next step is to spin and twist the combed fibers into yarn... The right photo is the end product...
The machine in action...
The yarns can then be fed to a loom where it is woven into a coarse cloth for many purposes...
The machine in action...
This machine spins and twists many strands of yarn together to form thick ropes...
The machine in action...
Next we were to take a ride on a mule pulled "truck" to visit the home of a Mayan...
Us on the "truck"... =)
Along the way we passed rows and rows of henequen plants... They needed to have lots of these plants as many leaves were needed to product a bale of henequen fibers, plus they could only cut a few leaves per plant at a time...
Posing for photos in front of the henequen plantation...
Then we walked to the house and the guy that stays there, Antonio, is a very cute and funny guy! He speaks the Mayan language and our guide translated it for us... He used to work in the henequen fields...
Antonio showing us the tool used to harvest the henequen leaves and how the young henequen plant is planted... These plants grow easily and do not need extra watering, just rain water is sufficient...
A hammock in the house...
The kitchen area and me having a try at grinding the corn used to make tortillas...
Finally a photo with Antonio before we left his house... =)
After that we hop on the "truck" again and went to visit the cenote where we could swim in it if we wanted to... Life jackets, masks and towels were provided for those who wanted to swim. The cenote was really beautiful but we chose not to swim in it even though we brought our bathing suits...
The cenote was the last stop of the tour and then we rode the "truck" to the restaurant... We did sign up for the lunch package so we went in for our lunch...
Inside the restaurant...
Complimentary starters, quite standard for all the restaurants... =p
The lunch included a soup - Soupe de Lima (Lime soup).
Then we could choose an entree from 2 choices so we each ordered a different one... The one on the left is Salpico de Res (Shredded beef with radishes and coriander served at room temperature with hand-made tortillas and black beans puree). The one on the right is Cochinita Pibil...
The tortillas served in this cute container...
We also ordered a drink, Sisal margarita, to try. It is a margarita made using the henequen plant... We think that it tasted a little like sugarcane drink... =p
The dessert was Flan Napolitain...
After lunch we visited the Main House which was really nice...
Balconies...
Various rooms inside the house...
Lastly we visited the souvenir shop too and saw many products made from the henequen fibers...
Then it was time to leave the Hacienda and we got on the mini bus for our ride back to the hotel. However, we decided to get down in the Centro area as we wanted to visit the Museo de la Ciudad (City Museum)...
Some of the exhibits in the museum... It started to rain really heavy while we were in the museum. Hence, we had to stay there for quite a while waiting for the rain to get smaller... =(
When we finally left the museum it was still raining but not as heavy and we were greeted by flooded streets... It was really quite bad and we had no choice but to walk in the water at some parts of the street... =(
Then we took a bus to Restaurant Kantun for dinner... We had to walk a little after getting down from the bus and we were drenched when we reached the restaurant as the rain got a little bigger...
Glad to reach the restaurant at last to escape from the rain...
They seem to serve only beer and liquor so we ordered a Mexico beer each to try... YH drank Dos Equis while I chose Sol...
Complimentary starters...
YH had Filete Normanda (Fish fillet stuffed with oysters)... YH loved it!! =)
I had Filete Especial Kantun (Breaded fish stuffed with crab, prawn and lobster meat). I loved it!! Hehe... We were deprived of seafood back at Lafayette and had to have seafood here. The price was reasonable too!! =)
It stopped raining after dinner so we took a bus back to Centro area for a walk... This is the cathedral at night...
Christmas decorations at the main plaza...
We went for homemade sherbet again... This time trying the flavours that our guide at Chichen Itza recommended... YH had Elote sherbet (Corn sherbet) and I had Mamey sherbet (tropical fruit with a sweet and aromatic red pulp). Both were nice!! We really like the sherbet!! =)
We also ordered some pastries to try...
Then we walked around the Centro area a while... This is the Merida Theater...
We did not stay very long at Centro as we needed to wake up rather early the next day for the bus ride to Uxmal... Here's some Christmas decorations in the hotel...
Before returning to the hotel, we went to Walmart again and bought some pastries from the bakery to try and also for our breakfast the next day... We were not sure what they were as the labels were all in Spanish, we just chose them based on their looks... =p We concluded that the one on the top right tasted the nicest!
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