Santa Elena, Yucatan - John L. Stephens

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:

Yucatán’s Magic: Mérida Side Trips: Treasures of Mayab, available in paperback and digital editions worldwide.

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?