Among Mayan rituals, green roads and a shared table at Casa Maya, my stay in the Yucatán Chablé Complex, was a return to the simple: nature, culture and gratitude. From the deep of my being I want to confess that I went to this trip without any expectation. And I think that was the best: arriving with an open mind, without expecting anything, to let me surprise, in the end, when one is allowed to return to the basics and in contact with nature, it is easier to embrace what appears with gratitude.
The trip was marked by a storm on the road; I arrived tired and overwhelmed. However, what I found did not imagine it: roads illuminated at night, stones and wet pavers shining in the rain, glowing trees in the middle of the historic center of a hacienda that kept stories in every corner. They moved me in a golf cart to the house where I would stay. And when I entered I was surprised: a wide space, full of careful details, a vintage closet with sweets from the region, water in glass bottles of its own plant – because there are no plastics here -, environmental music, an iPad to control the lights and the sound, an immense bed. And the best: a private water pool. Although as is known in Mérida it always is hot, on that rainy night it was like a hug after the trip stress. I felt that the jungle itself was welcoming me.
It is no accident that the same spirit has placed Chablé Yucatán in the elite of world hospitality: in 2024 he was recognized as The Best Hotel in North America by The World’s 50 Best Hotels, in addition to appearing on the lists of the best resorts on the planet.
At dawn, I went to exercise and I was waiting for a special activity: plant seeds to the ancestors. It was a ceremony guided by a shaman. They cleaned me with herbs, the snail sounded and we toured a labyrinth of stones around a CEIBA, the sacred tree of the Maya. In my room they had left me seeds to sow intentions. Know that these seeds will grow there and that other guests have also left their traces in the form of living trees, it moved me. It was an act of continuity, to remain on earth beyond the moment.
This continuity philosophy is also reflected in the operation: Chablé is a reference in responsible luxury tourism, with programs that have reduced more than 84 thousand plastic bottles and more than one thousand tons of CO₂ by solar energy. A vision that connects with the global trend of travelers looking for transformative and sustainable experiences.
Then came the green path by bicycle, which returned me to my childhood in Uruguay. I had not rode a bicycle for years and that route was a reconnection with my roots: the aromas of the environment, the sound of the trees, the freedom of the pedaling. I even found a fruit that in my country we called “Elephant Ear”, something I didn’t see for a long time. Everything acquired a symbolic sense; When one is completely immersed in the experience, the signals appear.
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Know Chablé, a modern shelter in Yucatan where Mayan memory is still alive
Within the route, which I prefer to leave in part reserved so that each person can discover it by himself when he visits this wonderful place, I found many surprises. In a special sector was the Mayan man’s garden, called W’winik. There were sculptures of little men sitting or lying under the trees, and in his body they had inscribed words in Maya. For example: Wìnik – Yaah (love).
Another could show wnik – oolal toj (happiness). It was like a symbolic walk between trees and emotions, where each figure transmitted a universal value from the Mayan look.
That balance between ancestral culture and contemporary design was precisely what led the resort to win the Prix Versilles in 2017, considered the “World Architecture Award”, consolidating Cablé as a success case in the recovery of historical haciendas.
There were also sectors with herbal plantations and medicinal plants, organized in plots called Canché. The Maya cultivated them high from the ground to protect them from pests and even today spices and plants that are used both in the kitchen and in their rituals.
Among all this tour I understood that the real experience is to give a pause space in the middle of the noise, to appreciate the miracle of nature. Chablé offers numerous ways of living it: from its beautiful farm, sighting of free animals, the well -being of the spa to activities that touch body, mind and soul.
As a closing of my stay, they invited me to share a meal in a Mayan house. It was a space adapted to traditional shots, such as many that are still preserved. There a Mayan woman received me, accompanied by another young knowledgeable of her culture.
They prepared for me the typical dishes: pig, panuchos, lime soup cooked in firewood. That way of cooking reminded me of my country, roasts to the fire. And yes, I repeat it again: that way of preparing the food deeply reminded me of my roots, as if the different one approached the familiar again.
I left with the certainty of having lived more than a stay: it was an encounter with the Mayan culture, with his vision of life and with the force of nature. And at the same time, a reminder of why Chablé has become one of the most coveted destinations in America: because it achieves what few resorts in the world reach, connect luxury with the sacred.
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