Xcunyá, Yucatán — Mérida Mayor Mauricio Vila Dosal has inaugurated three new ecotourism routes at this tiny village comisaría.
The Caminos del Mayab will be run by a local cooperative after being given a head-start by the Mérida City Council and tourism officials.
Accompanied by the director of social development, Cecilia Patrón Laviada; director of tourism promotion, Carolina Cárdenas Sosa and Xcunyá Commissioner Federico Dzul Fuente, Vila Dosal officially handed off the official documents to the cooperative’s president, Griselda Couoh Mena.
Tiny Xcunyá, a satellite of Mérida, is 15 kilometers north of the city center, east of the Mérida-Progreso highway. With under 900 inhabitants, Xcunyá has a beautiful old hacienda that includes a gothic church named for San Juan Bautista.
The mayor said that this commitment will be replicated in other villages.
Highlighting both nature and culture, ecotourism walks in Xcunyá include 3 routes:
- The ecological route encounters honeybee production, natural herb gardens and a backyard orchard before heading to Áak Park, which all takes about 35 minutes.
- The adventure route runs through backyard gardens and the honeybee hives, and then explores the old cemetery, also about 35 minutes in duration.
- The “fantasma” route encounters the beekeepers, and then leads to a “ghost town,” Xcunyá’s Hacienda Misnébalam, and takes about of 45 minutes. Legend has it an angry spirit drove away Misnébalam’s inhabitants.
All three routes pass by the Gothic-style church and the old, supposedly haunted hacienda.
The director of social development, Cecilia Patrón Laviada, said 26 local families participated in creating the routes, including those working in honey-producing meliponarios, orchards, mills, shops and bakeries.
To make the program possible, Mérida’s City Council invested 200,000 pesos for equipment and training.
Tours are on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visitors can hoof it, or rent a bike and helmet for 50 pesos. For further information visit www.merida.gob.mx/turismo.