Hammocks of Tixkokob

Yucatecans will tell you, correctly, that theirs are the best hammocks in the world - and that the best of those come from Tixkokob. The hamaca is the peninsula's true bed: houses old and new carry hammock hooks in every room, and the fine-woven Yucatecan net - sprang-woven rather than knotted, so it opens like a second skin - outsleeps any mattress in the tropical heat. In Tixkokob the craft is the town industry: in front rooms and back patios, weavers stand at simple vertical frames, shuttling kilometre-lengths of cotton or nylon thread into diamonds of webbing, a fine matrimonial size taking weeks of hours. Visitors are welcomed into workshops to watch, learn the quality signals - thread count, weave density, the triple-loop arms - and buy at source in every size from single to the family-swallowing matrimonial especial, in colors from natural crudo to full rainbow. The town also feeds well: its butchers' longaniza and Sunday markets give the excursion a second act.

Highlights

• The loom frames - weavers shuttling thread into diamond mesh.
• The stretch test - fine weave opening wide without gaps.
• The color walls - hammocks by the hundred in every palette.
• Town Yucatan - plaza, market and famous sausage besides.

When to go

Any weekday morning finds looms working; Sundays add the market but rest some workshops. The craft ignores seasons.

Things to know

Quality varies with thread and time - a good matrimonial costs real money and is worth every peso over bus-station imitations. Cash rules. Spanish, or pointing and smiling, conducts the transaction.

Nearby

The Ake ruins - where henequen machinery shares a site with Maya columns - lie minutes away; Izamal's yellow streets are half an hour on.