Yalcón

Yalcón is a small village in the municipality of Valladolid, in eastern Yucatán, about 5 km east of the centre of Valladolid in a straight line. The 2020 census counted 249 people, which makes it one of the smaller communities on the city's outskirts.

Its landmark is a modest colonial church; the photographer who documented it dates it to between 1670 and 1710. It is a weathered stone church with a tall bell gable of three openings, a wooden door framed by a carved stone arch with traces of old paint, and green lawns in front.

There are no tourist facilities. Yalcón is a short detour for anyone interested in the rural churches of eastern Yucatán, and it is close enough to combine with the cenotes south and east of Valladolid in the same morning.

To get there you leave Valladolid east on federal Highway 180 and take the side road to Yalcón, a little over 6 km in all. The village has its own municipal comisaría and an ejido office, a sign that the farmland around it is still worked by the ejido, and a primary school. New housing developments have been filling the gap between Yalcón and the city, so the countryside and the edge of Valladolid now almost meet.