Hacienda Tenexac - a hidden treasure in Tlaxcala

Ruta Taurina? Historical Monument? Culinary treasures? Weekend excursion?..........many characters apply to Hacienda Tenexac. I had recently decided to spend a weekend outside Mexico City - with the dream of enjoying total tranquility and space for reflexion - also some comfort and warm personal feeling of being welcomed. As I knew Hacienda Tenexac from 2 years ago, when I could get a glance of its long history and absolutely beautiful position in a hollow of a creek, during an afternoon excursion to the outer limits of the state of Tlaxcala bordering Puebla, I always wanted to come back to spend a romantic overnight and some rich housemade dishes.


The drive from Mexico City to Tenexac took hardly 2h30min by car. Heading the end of the drive, you might think already to have reached "the end of the world", but it was even always another turn to get there. The last part leads over an unpaved path right through the fields, until finally you see Tenexac a little below in a hollow. You have to open (and close!) the wooden gate to get in, as the grassland around the hacienda is the breeding ground for cattle. Lucano, Tenexac's, let's call him "house-bull" will observe your arrival curiously - his numerous "wifes" around the hacienda building for sure will prefer to keep quite a distance. Yes, Tenexac is still a working hacienda, alive with its tradition in animal breeding.

In the 2 years I had not been to Tenexac, the owners have restored some of the cabins which formerly where inhabited by the workers on the hacienda. Mrs. Paz Virginia, the landlady, incorporated her good taste in the historical aesthetics of the spaces - I accomodated myself in the former home of Román de Calixtro, a wonderful cabin with a great view over the hollow with ponds, woods, the animals and the mountains in the background. At night, millions of stars in the sky and the white shadow-line of the milkyway crossing right over me, accompanied my way back from dinner at the hacienda building to my cabin. In the morning, I woke up at 08:30am, and the hollow was still covered with fog - the peaceful animal scenes under the trees next to my cabin were like a transport back in 200 years. But the sun is strong in the highlands, and hardly 1 hour later, everything cleared up, and the sunbeams gave wonderful and warm morning greetings.


Mrs. Paz Virginia invited me to have the breakfast at her kitchen - a place fully immerged in the morning sun. The potatoe bread, her wonderful homemade plum marmelade, and the most impressing omelette with spinach and cheese ever, finally got myself feeling like in heaven.




There are places in the world where you do not want to leave from back home - because you feel totally home! Next time I go there, it will be definitely to take part in a cooking class of Mrs. Paz Virginia in her historical kitchen - in the meantime, I have already taken her recipe book with me home.......to keep on living a small part of paradise.........www.haciendatenexac.com