I am officially off to Merida and Campeche, Mexico this Saturday for an
entire week. A much needed vacation. I'm Very excited about the tropical
weather that I'm going to be experiencing. In the meantime, I wanted to
share a special Hacienda from the area around Campeche, Mexico with
you. Many of you may not realize that the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico
was home to the most number of millionaires in the world at one time.
Amazingly, they had made their money from what they termed "Green
Gold."
What is "green gold?" Green gold actually refers to henequen which is the
plant material used to make sisal. Before synthetic material was created to
make rope, henequen was solely used to make rope, rugs and many other
products. With the onset of synthetic materials to make rope, it pretty
much made henequen (sisal) obsolete.
During the hey day, all of these wealthy merchants built huge estates and
haciendas littered the Yucatan. After henequen was no longer used for
rope, their fortunes disappeared and all of these once beautiful haciendas
were abondoned. In the last 10-15 years, people have been slowly buying
these neglected haciendas up and fixing them up as luxury resorts. The
funny thing is that the world sisal is not the material itself but the port city
on the Yucatan that was used to export the henequen. It's the same sisal
you see in rugs today.
This is Hacienda Uayamon in the province of Campeche, Mexico.
What I think is so striking about this particular Hacienda is that instead of
trying to repair or take down the old ruins, the architect chose to preserve
some of the ruined architecture and build around it - including this
fantastic pool.
Very tastefully appointed rooms.
I love the traditional wooden doors.
Doesn't this look romantic? Notice the stone work on the walls. Today,
the builders literally use the same building techniques they did 300 years
ago.
I love the little dipping pools - sometimes you just want to sit and
dangle your legs to cool down a little without having to go swimming.
Isn't the setting just fantastic? There aren't many luxury places where you
can still sit among original ruins. It really is a novel idea to incorporate it
into the existing landscape.
Simply Wonderful. Can you imagine a wedding here?
Isn't the ambience just fantastic? Very unique.
I'm on my way to the cities of Campeche and Merida on the Yucatan this
next week so no post next week. Will definitely take photos and share.
Photos from Hacienda Uayamon and the Kiwi Collection
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