Travel Guide El Cedral

El Cedral is a small rural village, located 5 km inland from a bypass at km 15 of the Carretera Costera Sur (at Playa San Francisco). The village is renowned for its festival, one of the oldest in Mexico, where religious ceremonies mingle with pagan revelry. This annual feria pays tribute to a page in the island's history. It was created by a survivor of one of the many massacres perpetrated during the War of the Castes. A man by the name of Casemiro Cardenás considered himself miraculously saved from an attack on his farm on the mainland in 1847, and so initiated this May 3 festival to thank Santa Cruz for saving him. He was one of the twenty or so migrant families who went into exile on the island. Since then, his descendants have continued to celebrate this blessed day with a series of Catholic ceremonies. But the village's history began much earlier: the square was occupied as early as the 8th century, as attested by this small Mayan temple adjoining the no less small church in the village center. But the real attraction lies just a few kilometers from the village, where you'll find a beautiful cenote.