Valladolid, México, Yucatán | La Vaquería, Jarana Dance, and Cenotes
Channel: latamliving
Date: 04/06/2020

Valladolid is a "Pueblo Mágico" or "Magical Town" in the state of Yucatán, Mexico. It’s located 42 kilometers (26 miles) from the world-famous ancient Mayan pyramid of Chichén Itzá, there is also an equally impressive, yet lesser-known Mayan ruin, called Ek Balam. Valladolid is 162 kilometers (100 miles) from Mérida, the capital city of the state of Yucatán and 157 kilometers (97 miles) from the world-famous resort city of Cancún, capital of the state of Quintana Roo. This places Valladolid almost exactly in the middle between the respective state capitals of Cancún and Mérida.

La Vaquería en el Parque Francisco Cantón

La Vaquería Yucateca is a popular festival that originated after the Spanish conquest (Spanish). It’s a celebration of the land and the amount of cattle the haciendas had. The festival included counting the number of cows. The women were called “vaqueras” or cowgirls because they wore the same hats as the “vaqueros” or cowboys. The party is called a “vaquería”. The celebration includes old Mayan sounds influenced by Spanish music. The vaquería celebrates the patron saint of their town’s community.

The “jarana” is the name of the dance performed during the vaquería. The jarana was originally a contest for couples to see which pair could last the longest. Toward the end when there were two couples hanging on, vying for first place, the crowd would get rowdy and divide into two camps each encouraging one of the two couples. The dance consists of toe tapping and the dancer’s postures are erect. They turn with their arms raised at a right angle and snap their fingers representing Spanish castanets. This upright position allows the performers to dance with liquid-filled bottles or even a tray with multiple bottles on top of their head during the dance while trying not to spill the contents or let the bottles fall.

Today the jarana has become the emblematic dance of the Yucatán and is performed in city and town squares throughout the Yucatán. If you're able to visit Valladolid, you're likely to catch a performance at the Parque Francisco Cantón which is the main square of the city.

The typical dress for Yucatecan women is known as a “terno” which is always white with the exception of the colorful embroidered flowers. It consists of three pieces: a “jubón”, a “hipil” and a “fustán”. The ladies’ footwear is also always white. They wear a closed shoe with a strap and straight heel, practical for dancing. The women may wear rosaries around their necks, gold necklaces with medallions, gold earrings and/or other precious stones. The women put their hair up and decorate it with a ribbon and a headdress of flowers.

The men wear a white long-sleeved cotton shirt called a guayabera which originated in Cuba and was later brought to Mexico. They wear white straight-cut pants with front and back pockets. A sombrero, called a “jipi” and a red scarf called a “paliacate” is worn in the waistband of the pants and hangs down to about the knee. The men's shoes are called “chillonas” and are a type of cowhide leather sandal. They have a thick high heel that emits a small squeal when dancing, thus receiving its name “chillona”.

Valladolid is surrounded by numerous cenotes, which are natural "swimming pools" created by the Chicxulub crater which is the result of an asteroid or comet 11 to 81 kilometers (6.8 to 50.3 miles) in diameter collided with the earth at an roughly 66 million years ago. It is 150 kilometers (93 miles) in diameter and 20 kilometers (12 miles) in depth. It's named after the Yucatecan town that lies near the precise center of the crater.

It's widely considered among experts to be the cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, a mass extinction in which 75% of plant and animal species on Earth became extinct, including all non-avian dinosaurs.

Cenotes are a natural pit, or sinkhole, with water resulting from the disintegration of the underlying limestone which exposes the groundwater. Grutas are basically caves like cenotes but are dry with no water.

A few of the cenotes in and around Valladolid are: Ik Kil (often overcrowded with tourists), Oxman (located in Hacienda San Lorenzo with a rope swing!), Suytun (famous for its amazing instragrammable photos on its man-made platform), Saamal (located in Hacienda Selva Maya where you can jump off a platform!), Samulá and X'keken (both at the same location, also known as "Dzitnup") and last but not least cenote Zací located in the very heart of Valladolid.

https://latamliving.com

Credits:
Artist: Anjulie
Music Title: "TheFatRat - Fly Away feat. Anjulie (VAVO Remix) [Trap]" 
Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: http://bit.ly/TheFatRat-VavoRemix
© License