Community-Based Tourism: A Maya Cooking Class and Visit to the Cenote Yokdzonot in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula

This is the third post in a series on my trip with RISE Travel Institute. This past February, I joined students and alumni of the RISE Flagship Program for the RISE Experiential Journey (EJ) trip to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Partnering with Etnica Travel, RISE’s annual Experiential Journey (EJ) was an opportunity to explore what it means to travel in a way that is Responsible, Impactful, Sustainable, and Ethical.

During the week-long trip, RISE Travel Institute participants visited four community-led tourism initiatives showcasing the rich traditions, culture, history, and vibrancy of local and Indigenous communities. We also learned about the important and beautiful biodiversity of the region.

RISE travelers got to see the benefits firsthand of sustainable, community-based tourism (CBT). If done correctly, CBT can provide sustainable tourism income, conservation, and preservation of precious ecosystems and cultures to communities that are often left off the typical tourism map while affording travelers with some of the richest, most memorable experiences of a trip.

Yokdzonot, the Yucatán Peninsula

After a morning tour by a local guide at Chichén Itzá, we spent the afternoon visiting Yokdzonot, a cenote and ecotourism project managed by a local women’s cooperative where we enjoyed a Yucatecan cooking class and a refreshing swim in crystal clear waters of this stunning cenote.

The Yokdzonot Cenote, which means “over the cenote” in the Mayan language, is a cenote of 40 meters in diameter and 45 meters deep which is located within a local Maya community of the same name.  The town is less than 20 km from the popular, well-visited archaeological site of Chichén Itzá, which gives the community a constant flow of visitors allowing the cooperative, called Zaaz Koolen Haa, to develop sustainable, community-based tourism initiatives.

The town was established in 1932 by a group of workers who constructed the first railroad in the region and used the cenote as a natural water source. Once piped water arrived in the town, the cenote was abandoned and tragically became a garbage dump that remained for decades.

In 2005, a group of 50 residents came together to help clean up and build the foundation of the tourism center with the vision of bringing in sustainable community-based tourism to lift the community from poverty and an alliance on farming.  It was a lot of hard work and sadly the cooperative dwindled as many people gave up. They felt they were putting in so much effort yet not getting many results. No one came and economically they struggled.  Yet a small group of women persevered and continued to promote and manage their tourism project which now has roughly 16 members in the cooperative, Zaaz Koolen Haa. The cooperative receives support and marketing promotion via The Peninsular Alliance for Community Tourism (APTC). This organization’s mission is “to strengthen tourism in rural communities through the collaborative work of more than 24 social enterprises, made up of a total of 270 members from indigenous and rural communities in the Yucatán Peninsula” (check out their website to learn more of the amazing community-based tours they support and offer).  

Thanks to its location near Chichén Itzá,  and the successful mostly women-led management, the cenote receives many visitors per year, and the profits generated are distributed equally among the 16 members and their families. In addition, 10% of the profits are donated to the Ejido (a piece of land farmed communally under a system supported by the state) to carry out public works in the community. When done correctly, which means community-inspired and led, community-based tourism initiatives like this help to conserve the environment, offer cross-cultural understanding and connection, and provide much-needed income to rural communities.  It is a win-win situation and oftentimes some of the most memorable experiences of an entire trip.

After leaving the crowds of Chichén Itzá, and learning how little the local people there benefit from tourism, it was a refreshing change of pace. Despite the beauty of the ruins, few local guides are employed as the cruise ships and tours bring in their own company-sponsored guides on the buses from the resort towns. Furthermore, during their rather fast tour of the ruins, they are together in one large group giving them hardly any time to stop and shop at the local vendor stalls that line the pathway to the ruins. It is an example of how tourism is at its worst: Hardly giving the local community anything back and extracting much. unfortunately, this is a tourism model that is employed worldwide, giving big tour companies, cruise ships, and others the benefit of tourism and taking most of the income generated from tourism out of the local community (a phenomenon known as “tourism leakage“).

We arrived and were greeted in the kitchen by the warm hospitality of the local women who would be giving us our Maya cooking class. Yucatán cuisine is world-renowned and some of the most delicious food in all of Mexico. Over the past week eating my way through the Yucatán Peninsula my stomach agreed. It was some of the best food I’ve ever enjoyed.

For the next hour, the local women showed our group how to make three regional specialties:  Pancuchos., empanadas and sopes.  Probably the hardest thing for us was making the corn tortillas by hand. But it was a super fun experience and best of all, we got to eat our creations once we were done.

After eating our creations, we took a dip in the stunning cenote reminiscing on what an incredible week we shared together. We had truly seen a completely different side of Mexico, far from the all-inclusive resorts. Instead, we were a part of something truly magical and memorable. A journey we would never forget.

If you go:

Zaaz Koolen Haa (the women’s cooperative that runs the project) is part of a larger regional cooperative (APTC) that offers all sorts of amazing community-based tourism experiences.

The Peninsular Alliance for Community Tourism (APTC). This organization’s mission is “to strengthen tourism in rural communities through the collaborative work of more than 24 social enterprises, made up of a total of 270 members from indigenous and rural communities in the Yucatán Peninsula” (check out their website to learn more of the amazing community-based tours they support and offer).  

Zaaz Koolen Haas tourism project offers a restaurant, cooking classes and of course the cenote which features a ziplane and jumping platform.