Hacienda Series Part I - Hacienda Uayamon in Campeche, Mexico ~ I'm off to Mexico

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