Yobaín

Yobaín is a village of about 1,900 people (1,876 in the 2020 census) and the seat of the small municipality of the same name, which runs from the henequen country up to the Gulf of Mexico. It lies about 60 km northeast of Mérida in a straight line and about 35 km northeast of Motul, between Sinanché (about 7 km west) and Dzidzantún. The name is read in Maya as "on top of the crocodile", from yokol (on top) and ain (crocodile); the municipality's only other settlement of any size is Chabihau, its fishing port on the coast, about 13 km to the north.

Before the conquest the area belonged to the Maya chiefdom of Ah Kin Chel. The Spanish founded the pueblo as an encomienda between 1545 and 1555. Through the 19th century Yobaín fell under the jurisdiction of Temax, and in 1918 it became the seat of its own municipality. In 1913 the estate of Sahcatzin and its annexes were transferred from Yobaín to Cansahcab. The village church of San Lorenzo is a colonial building from the 17th century that had fallen into poor condition and was rebuilt in 1914.

The village is best known in Yucatán for something unusual: for more than 50 years a local bonesetter, Enrique Sierra Erosa, treated patients here, drawing people from far beyond the state; he died in 2006 and his descendants carried on the practice. For a visitor today, Yobaín is a calm stop on the way to the coast, with a pale yellow church set back from the square behind a wide stairway, a green municipal palace with a clock and a small park. The year's big day is 10 August, the fiesta of San Lorenzo, the patron saint. On the coast side of the municipality the vegetation turns to coconut palms, mangrove and chit palms.