Itenerary to ease nervous spouse into Mexico travel

By "castle war" I think you mean the Cristero War (Christian War) which happened in the 1920s soon after the Mexican Revolution when the president of Mexico enacted provisions of the new Mexican Constitution which took away a lot of power and property from the Catholic Church and gave lands to indigenous people. The large land owners closely aligned with the Catholic Church fought back and the struggle was particularly bloody in parts of the Yucatan and southern Mexico. Many Mayan people especially in the smaller Mayan towns still have resentments about this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristero_War

You could also read "Black Flower" by Young-ha Kim (2012) about the immigration of Koreans to the Yucatan at the turn of the last century and their life on the haciendas there.

I actually got a cheap copy on Amazon because of your previous recommendation. An interesting detail of history, as background to a trip to the Yucatan, (esp. as I work with lots of Koreans, none of whom had any knowledge of this history), but not so much to do with anything of today's Yucatan IMO.
Very similar to the story of the Japanese immigration to Brazil told in the film Gaijin (in Japanese and Portuguese). http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B02E1DF153BF934A25755C0A967948260

Thanks for the book tip. Will buy it and after reading will pass on to my Korean friend. We visited Yucatan together one trip and I am sure she will enjoy this book. i know I will.

cascadebob--Back in post #27 Jilltate21 mentioned the the "Castes Wars" of 1847-1901, not the "Cristero War" that originated in the 1920s in Jalisco and Michoacan, far from the Yucatan Peninsula.

Interesting as your link about the Cristero War is, this wikipedia story about the Yucatan Peninsula's Caste Wars may be more pertinent to the Yucatan region:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_War_of_Yucat%C3%A1n

Valladolid has a restored ecclesiastical building (a former convent if I remember correctly) that is now a historical museum with photographs about local topics, including the Caste War. And, south of Tulum the town formerly known as Chan Santa Cruz (now Felipe Carrillo Puerto) served for decades as the captial of the rebels' independent Mayan mini-state. Travelers passing through Valladolid who are interested in Caste Wars and/or Mayan religion may find the "Talking Cross Shrine" there worth visiting. And, the entrance to Felipe Carrillo Puerto's Cultural Center, located on the town's Plaza, has a large modern mural about both the Mayan past and contemporary resistance to globalizing "neoliberalism".

Thanks for the info on the Spanish speaking level in Valladolid. That should be enough to make him feel better.

I would also suggest the full 2 weeks, you can NOT run out of things to do in Mexico. If your devious plan is to get your husband comfortable with travel outside the US so you can plan more trips, well it's a good one, not that that's your intention..............
that definetly is NOT my intention....OK, maybe it is.

Bacalar looks amazing but a ways south. Merida and everything on that East side and central area looks wonderful. I think I will include that area.

This is the route I took on a bicycle (three hours), could also be done in a rental car, but slowly. Valladolid; Ebtun; Cuncunul; Tekom; Chichimila; Xocen; Valladolid. You pass several cenotes along this route

Thanks for the route. Looks wonderful.

You could also read "Black Flower" by Young-ha Kim (2012) about the immigration of Koreans to the Yucatan at the turn of the last century and their life on the haciendas there.

I will check this out. I love reading historical fiction about an area before I go.

By "castle war" I think you mean the Cristero War (Christian War) which happened in the 1920s soon after the Mexican Revolution when the president of Mexico enacted provisions of the new Mexican Constitution which took away a lot of power and property from the Catholic Church and gave lands to indigenous people. The large land owners closely aligned with the Catholic Church fought back.

I hadn't gotten that far in my reading yet. I was referring to the caste war from the 1840's when the indigenous Mayans revolted from their slavery. Some of the early leaders were executed on the square in Valladolid.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_War_of_Yucatán

I will have to read more to get caught up to the war you are talking about.

Sorry, I posted a similar link about the caste wars before I read this post. Now I will have to read up on the talking cross AND the Christero war!

If you can get ahold of it (it is out of print but sometimes used copies show up on Amazon), for historical nonfiction try "The Lost World of Quintana Roo" about a man, Michael Peissel I think is the name, who walked all the way from near what is now Cancun to close to the end of the Peninsula, camping along the way.