The Mundo Maya - the Mayan World
The Mundo Maya or Mayan World includes the states on the Yucatan Peninsula: Yucatan and Quintana Roo. This is the land of the Maya Indian and is very different from the rest of Mexico. It is sometimes even thought of as a country within itself. The giant land mass jutting out from between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea is actually a limestone shelf honeycombed with underground rivers, caverns and sinkholes. It is topped with expanses of green jungles, archeological ruins, undisturbed beaches with bleached white sands and aqua waters, and peppered with modern resorts and fishing villages.
Mérida, capital of the state of Yucatan, sits on same land as a Mayan city did 450 years ago. A classic colonial city, it has the unique ability to showcase a rare combination of European style and Mayan tradition. Mérida is the perfect starting place to explore the area’s fantastic archeological sites. Chichén-Itzá is 80 miles east of the city and is the most recognizable of Mexico’s ruins. Said to have been built as early as 600 AD, the six-square-mile site has prominent and well preserved structures including a 272-foot long ball court. Uxmal, with its beautifully carved facades, majestic columns and broad plazas, is only 58 miles south of the city.
Quintana Roo became a state in 1975 and suddenly the Caribbean coast of Mexico was on its way to notoriety. Not only does it boast the red hot resorts of Cancun and Cozumel, but it is also home of between 2,000 and 2,500 Mayan ruins. The state capital, Chetumal is located on the border of Belize and has a strong tourist following in its own right, but it’s the cities to the north that get most of the glory.
It was only 30 years ago that Cancun was simply a sand bar on a gorgeous piece of Caribbean coastline. Today, Cancun hosts over 2 million visitors a year. Cancun’s may be the world’s first totally planned vacation resort, all the way from its basic infrastructure to its superstructures hotels, shopping centers and golf courses. Complete in every sense of the word, and resting solidly on its reputation, Cancun is the number one tourist destination in the country.
Cozumel, an island 30 miles long and 10 miles wide is the original Mexican Caribbean playground. During World War II, the U.S. built an air base on Cozumel for planes hunting U-boats in the mid-Atlantic. The frogmen who trained at the base returned home with stories of crystal water and magnificent underwater vistas. In 1962, oceanographer Jacques Cousteau visited the island and proclaimed it to be one of the finest diving sites in the world. The rest, as they say, is history.
South of these mega resorts is the area now referred to as the Riviera Maya. Here you’ll find plenty of new hotels and countless ecotourism based parks, along with some of the Mayan’s world most fascinating ruins. Tulum is the only walled city the Maya built and the only one on the Caribbean. Cobá, equally impressive yet largely unexcavated, is the largest Mayan city yet discovered containing hundreds of structures and encompassing an area of 10-square miles.