Mexico’s Magical Cities: Tekax
After the “boring” beaches of Bacalar, it was time for Ricky to get his small town fix. A deliciously long, slow local bus crawled us to the Mayan town of Tekax, supposedly one of Mexico’s “magical towns” that has been developed to showcase its unique beauty and culture for tourists. Beautiful and cultured it was indeed; developed for tourists not so much.
Arriving tired and hungry to our very basic AirBnB room, the small selection of restaurants were closed for Sunday. Ready to play the hero, I put on my adventure shoes and went for a long meandering walk through the cobbled streets, lined with old stone fences, and eventually found a small sign for homemade ceviche. Venturing up the driveway I was welcomed onto the porch by three women embroidering traditional “huipil” blouses, who entertained me for the 30 minutes it took their sister to whip up the fresh fish ceviche dish that reassured my hangry wife that all would be well in this world.
The highlight was, of course, something you’ll never find in a Lonely Planet. After hiking up to the historic hilltop church (which became my jogging destination the next mornings), we saw a handwritten sign for empanadas at an open doorway. Florita not only cooked me up the most delicious breakfast, but we sat on plastic stools talking with her for an hour. She grew up in this space (apartment?) owned by her family for generations, and now raises her own children there as well as running her small business. The feeling of permanence and contentment in such a basic but sufficient situation was in such contrast to the discontent and striving of so many of us in larger cities. I know this smacks of the “Noble Poor” stereotype, and she is not without her dreams and disgruntlement, but the Florita we befriended for an hour feels like she has a solid place in her world, and I found that reassuring.
About the only things the government has invested in for tourism in this “Magical City” are a fun mural wall (pictured below), a tourism office arranging tours to local caves and Mayan sites, and a big shiny “Tekax” sign outside the Cathedral. But the chance to wander through the calm chaos of a smaller Incan town was a true treasure.
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