Inland from Yucatán’s white beaches, the long-distance Camino del Mayab hiking trail is set to revive ailing Maya communities with jungle treks weaving past overgrown haciendas and secret cenotes.
It’s an indescribable feeling, plunging into cool, clear water after walking for hours through the Yucatán jungle. I’m surrounded by the tall overhanging cliff walls of a cenote — a type of freshwater sinkhole believed by the ancient Maya to be portals to the underworld, and often used as sacrificial sites. The water is a mix of emerald green and turquoise, with large lily pads floating on the surface and thick alamo tree roots plunging to its depths from the cliffs like giant eels.
The hacienda in San Antonio Tzacalá is one of hundreds in Yucatán, built during the 19th century when the henequen trade took off. Henequen, also known as sisal, is a type of fibrous agave native to the Yucatán Peninsula, used by the ancient Maya for thousands of years to make ropes, baskets and fishing lines. But in the mid-19th century, the Spanish began exporting Yucatán’s ‘green gold’ to the US and Europe.
Continuing to Pebá, a two-hour walk from San Antonio Tzacalá, we spot a flash of electric blue and pale orange among a sea of endless green. It’s a Yucatán jay, a bird endemic to the peninsula. Further on, perching on the branches of an 80-year-old ceiba tree, is a turquoise-browed motmot, a cenote-dwelling bird the ancient Maya used to find fresh water.
Environmental activists have also blamed the new Tren Maya — a controversial 966-mile train line launched in December 2023 that crosses the Yucatán jungle — for endangering the peninsula’s biodiversity.Photograph by Andrew Reiner
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