Hacienda Ochil

Hacienda San Pedro Ochil, usually just called Hacienda Ochil, sits right beside Highway 261, the road from Mérida to Uxmal, at about km 27 south of Umán in the municipality of Abalá, a few kilometers south of the Hacienda Temozón turnoff. It is also the landmark where drivers heading to Abalá and the Mucuyché cenotes turn off the highway. Like the haciendas around it, Ochil grew rich on henequen, the agave whose fiber was Yucatán's main export in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and then fell into neglect when the industry collapsed.

Early in the 2000s it was restored together with Temozón, San José Cholul, Uayamón and Santa Rosa, under architect Salvador Reyes Ríos, who aimed to keep the old look rather than polish it. Unlike its neighbors, Ochil was not turned into a hotel but opened to day visitors. It is a compact group of buildings: the old machine house and its brick chimney, which show how henequen was grown and processed; the main house with an open-air restaurant serving Yucatecan dishes; a gift shop; and a small museum of photographs and objects from the hacienda's working years and its restoration. A short stretch of the narrow-gauge track that once carried henequen still runs through the grounds.

Along a path from the parking area are block workshops, backed by the Banamex cultural foundation, where master craftspeople teach young people from the area to work stone, henequen fiber, wood, leather, metal and bone; when they are working you can watch, and pieces such as henequen hammocks are sold in the shop. The old noria, a deep water cistern beside the main house, was turned into a pool, and behind the restaurant a small cenote lies in a cave; when the water is low you can walk along one edge and see ancient Maya paintings on the rock. Opening has been irregular since the pandemic, so check before making a special trip.