The Majestic Hacienda!     Our maiden voyage to Mexico!  As we were getting ready for our trip, everyone I spoke to had already been to Mexico?  Ah, but mostly to the well recognized beaches and resorts.  We flew into Mexico City and had a driver waiting who was taking us on a 2 hour drive to a very remote area in the central southern part of the country.  We had the best of all worlds, our groom and family are Mexican and our bride is an American who went to such great lengths to bring the authentic experience to her guests.

When we first arrived at our hacienda, I could not get over it!  I was totally overwhelmed by the …. beautiful flowers and vegetation, …the ancient stone, ….the unbelievable ceramic tile and the massive walls of distressed stucco. The ceilings in our room alone were at least 30 feet high. I have never seen anything so spectacular. It took me a couple of days to get used to it and process the abundance.

Each hacienda is unique and authentic, a step back in time.

As the story goes…it was Cortez who arrived in Mexico in the early 1500s.   He harnessed the locals into building massive estates with mansions in the State of Morelos surrounding the capital Ceurnavaca.

Ceurnavaca is known as the “City of Eternal Spring” because of its average annual daily temperature of 70 degrees and it’s lush vegetation.

These haciendas became the world’s largest sugar plantations during the 15 and 1600s.

The wedding that we attended was at a Hacienda San Gabriel de las Palmas, originally built as a Franciscan monastery in 1529 and was later converted to a sugar mill.

The property was so large that I wandered several times taking pictures without ever reaching the boundaries.