In the early 1840s the explorer John
L. Stephens used Santa Elena, then known as Nohcacab, as a base from which he
and his companions explored the Puuc region. In his book, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Stephens recorded accounts of the
people of Nohcacab and their culture, and his associate Frederick Catherwood
made drawings of the village and the region.
In
1840 John L. Stephens said of Nohcacab’s
location:
“The
whole of this region is retired and comparatively unknown. The village is without the line of all the present main roads; it
does not lie on the way to any place of general resort, and is not worth
stopping at on its own account.”
Stephens
visit to Nohcacab was before the age of steam power, the prolonged Caste War,
the Mexican Revolutionary War, and the two World Wars. Yucatan was like an
island, isolated and only accessible by sail from the outside world.
An
excerpt from Incidents in
Travel in Yucatan by John L. Stephens:
I was an hour crossing the sierra,
[from Uxmal] and on the other side my first view of the great plain took in the
church of Nohcacab, standing like a colossus in the wilderness, the only token
to indicate the presence of man…"
View
of the Santa Elena church, 2013
At the front of the church, a long
flight of stairs leads to the entrance, a stairway no doubt used since ancient
times when the Maya worshiped their own gods at a temple that stood here.
Santa Elena has kept this small corner
of town virtually unchanged over all these years. Stephens and Catherwood
resided in the building on the east side of the church during their visit.
Their apartment is now a museum that is worth a visit. The museum contains some mummified human
remains, which some people speculate may be children of German colonists who
settled here.
Returning from Uxmal to Santa Elena on our bicycles, a view
of the distant church
of Santa Elena perched
above the central plaza came into view just as John L. Stephens described in Incidents of Travel in Yucatan John L.
Stephens described his first view of the church of Nocacab:
“
I was an hour crossing the sierra, and on the other side my first view of the
great plain took in the church of Nohcacab (Santa Elena), standing like a colossus in the wilderness,
the only token to indicate the presence of man. Descending the plain, I saw
nothing but trees, until, when close upon the village, the great church again
rose before me, towering above the houses, and the only object visible.
We found Stephen’s description of this
place amazingly accurate, and the only noticeable change since 1840 when it was
written was the fact that now there is a new paved and smooth road from Uxmal
directly to Santa Elena.”
1840
engraving by Frederick Catherwood of the north side of the church.
This is
the apartment where the Stephens’ group
took up residence.
Stephens
wrote about the church and apartment:
“The casa
real is the public building in every village… to contain apartments for travelers. In the village of Nohcacab, however, the arrival of
strangers was so rare an occurrence that no apartment was assigned…given to us
was the principal room of the, [church] building, used for the great occasions
of the village...
The
walls were whitewashed, and at one end was an eagle holding in his beak a
coiled serpent, tearing it also with his claws. Under this were some
indescribable figures, and a sword, gun, and cannon, altogether warlike emblems
for the peaceful village which had never heard the sound of hostile trumpet.
On
the wall hung …a "notice to the public" in Spanish and the Maya
language, that his Excellency the Governor of the State had allowed to this
village the establishment of a school that, being endowed by the public funds,
it should not cost a medio real to
any one.
It
was addressed to vecinos, or white
people, indigenos, or Indians, and
other classes, meaning Mestizoes.”
This
is a present day view of the Santa Elena – Nohcacab - church and the apartment
of John L. Stephens’s exploration group in 1840.
It now contains a unique
museum of mummified past residents, and
other historical curiosities.
Stephens
gave this description of the apartment where he stayed:
“Death
was all around us. Anciently this country was so healthy that Torquemada says,
"Men die of pure old age, for there are none of those infirmities that
exist in other lands; and if there are slight infirmities, the heat destroys
them, and so there is no need of a physician there;" but the times are
much better for physicians now, and Doctor Cabot, if he had been able to attend
to it, might have entered into an extensive gratuitous practice. Adjoining the
front of the church, and connecting with the convent, was a great
charnel-house, along the wall of which was a row of skulls. At the top of a
pillar forming the abutment of the wall of the staircase was a large vase piled
full, and the cross was surmounted with them. Within the enclosure was a
promiscuous assemblage of skulls and bones several feet deep. Along the wall,
hanging by cords, were the bones and skulls of individuals in boxes and
baskets, or tied up in cloths, with names written upon them, and, as at Ticul,
there were the fragments of dresses, while some of the skulls had still
adhering to them the long black hair of women.”
Today Nohcacab, Santa Elena, is still
off the main roads although it now has frequent bus and colectivo taxi service.
It is a perfect place to headquarter for excursions into the Puuc region with
the Mayan ruins of Uxmal, one of the most beautiful of all Mayan archaeological
sites, close at hand.
To
find out why we love this interesting place away from tour buses and trinket
shops read the book:
Today
Santa Elena has good accommodations and a diversity of eating establishments.
Yucatan is blessed with abundant quiet paved roads connecting the area’s Mayan
temples, stately haciendas, and colonial villages…what are you waiting for?
