Found 50 kilometers inland from Campeche, the Maya site of Edzná is best known for its five-level pyramid-palace structure. Without our own transportation, Edzná was difficult to reach, but the opportunity to see its compact and beautiful ruins made the effort worthwhile.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the construction of Campeche's fortifications rescued the city from the devastation of unrelenting pirate attacks. Three hundred years later, the surviving walls and fortresses have shifted their focus to tourism, and are presently home to the city's best museums.
The Gran Museo del Mundo Maya, found on the nothern outskirts of Mérida, is one of the Yucatán's largest and most popular new museums. From the glories of the past right up into the modern day, the museum takes visitors on a comprehensive journey through the history of the Yucatán's original inhabitants.
Mayapan was the final major capital of the Maya civilization, with a period of preeminence that lasted from 1200 to 1400, postdating the fall of Chichén Itzá. Thanks to its relatively recent age, many of the ruins have survived in good condition, making it easier to imagine how the city must have looked during its prime.
An expansive city with soaring buildings that have somehow retained much of their detail, Uxmal is among the most important Maya archaeological sites. It's about an hour south of Mérida in the Puuc Valley, and we showed up early in the morning after spending the night in nearby Santa Elena.
Kabah was the fourth archaeological site we visited on a very long day dedicated to the Maya ruins of the Ruta Puuc. Our energy might have been low upon arriving, but it's hard to feel listless in the presence of a building like the Codz Poop.
The third ancient city which we visited on our trip along the Yucatán's Ruta Puuc was Sayil. Long since abandoned to the jungle, this extraordinary site is still paying silent testimony to the magnificence of the Maya civilization.
We weren't sure what to expect from the Eco-Museum of Cacao, found between the archaeological sites of Labná and Xlapak. Apart from a flier we'd picked up in a tourism office, we hadn't read a thing about it, and that's usually a bad sign. But the museum turned out to be excellent, with nicely-presented information, a chocolate-making demonstration, animals and even a re-creation of an ancient Maya rain ritual.
Down the road from the Grutas de Lóltun is the archaeological zone of Labná, the first of five ancient Maya sites we'd be visiting on our trip through the Puuc Valley. Nearby we'd find Xlapak, a much smaller site whose name means "Old Walls".
The lack of awe-inspiring temples on Cozumel belies its true importance to the Maya civilization. Home to the goddess Ix'Chel, the island was a sacred place of pilgrimage and a major center of commerce. We took a tour of Cozumel's main cluster of ruins at San Gervasio, in the center of the island, and learned more about the beliefs of this fascinating people.
