mexico: the mayan riviera
West Coast: ° Cabo San Lucas
° Puerto Vallarta ° Sea of Cortez
East Coast: ° Playa del Carmen
° Cancun and the Mayan Riviera
° UNESCO World Heritage Sites
The Mayan Riviera
While we flew into Cancun, we spent only a few hours there. It is a city of highrises, bars, nightclubs and shopping malls, none of which are why we travel. Our accommodations were at the elegant Grand Mayan Palace midway between Cancun and Playa del Carmen, so we headed for our resort immediately and booked day trips through their travel services.
The largest group of modern Maya can be found on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. They commonly identify themselves simply as "Maya" with no further ethnic subdivision (unlike in the Highlands of Western Guatemala), and speak the language which anthropologists term "Yucatec Maya", but is identified by speakers and Yucatecos simply as "Maya". Among Maya speakers, Spanish is commonly spoken as a second or first language. Several of our day tours took us to various historical sites, including Chichen Itza, Xel-Ha and Xcaret.
Xcaret turned out to be a highlight of the trip. It is extremely well run and is one of the most sophisticated sites we have seen during any of our travels. This organized view into Mayan life is extremely well done and interactive. We swam through warm turquoise waters of an underground spring, which were the lifelines of the Mayans. We saw endangered sea turtles being cared for in large pools. After their eggs hatched, the young turtles are kept in pools for about one year, then are released into the ocean.
Diving off of Xcaret is excellent with day-trips go out to the reef, which is the second largest coral reef in the world (the first being Australia's Great Barrier Reef). Sea life is superb; we swam through schools of vividly colored fish. For those who cannot or do not want to snorkel or dive, many of the fish are in tanks so it is possible to view the richness of the Caribbean's underwater world.
Xcaret has a wide range of eco-attractions included in the entrance ticket: aquarium, aviary, bird breeding area, mushroom farm, orchid garden, inlet lagoon, many natural beaches and warm crystal clear pools, sea turtles, butterfly pavilion, botanical garden, Mayan Village, museum, archaeological sites, Mayan river, underground river (you can swim down in a life jacket provided by the park) and a spectacular night show to top off your visit.
Another of Xcaret's features is an evening show that takes the audience through the early Mayan history, to the coming of the Spaniards and Christianity through to the Mexico of today. The path enroute to the huge, comfortable, outdoor theater (which holds around 2,000 visitors) was lined with people is Mayan costume. The most striking is shown to the left . . . the photographs are difficult to "read" in this size, and because lighting was low, they are not the best quality, however, they are worth including.
The Mayan owl was motionless as people approached. Because the owl blended so well with the background, it was nearly impossible to see the creature. Then the "owl" unfolded to the man below (image below the owl above left), causing quite a few people to start.
About a dozen montages lined the path, all of them dramatically different from each other and all mysteriously beautiful.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Mexico
- Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimilco (1987)
- Historic Centre of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Albán (1987)
- Historic Centre of Puebla (1987) Pre-Hispanic City and National Park of Palenque (1987)
- Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan (1987)
- Sian Ka'an (1987) (near Cancun)
- Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent Mines (1988)
- Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen Itza (1988)
- Historic Centre of Morelia (1991)
- El Tajin, Pre-Hispanic City (1992)
- Historic Centre of Zacatecas (1993)
- Rock Paintings of the Sierra de San Francisco (1993)
- Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino (1993)
- Earliest 16th-Century Monasteries on the Slopes of Popocatepetl (1994)
- Historic Monuments Zone of Querétaro (1996)
- Pre-Hispanic Town of Uxmal (1996)
- Hospicio Cabañas, Guadalajara (1997)
- Archeological Zone of Paquimé, Casas Grandes (1998)
- Historic Monuments Zone of Tlacotalpan (1998) Archaeological Monuments Zone of Xochicalco (1999)
- Historic Fortified Town of Campeche (1999)
- Ancient Maya City of Calakmul, Campeche (2002)
- Franciscan Missions in the Sierra Gorda of Querétaro (2003)
- Luis Barragán House and Studio (2004) Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California (2005, 2007)
- Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila (2006)
- Central University City Campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (2007)
- Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (2008)
- Protective town of San Miguel and the Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco (2008)
Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude