Table Of ContentTHE ROUGH GUIDE to
Cancún
Yucatán
& the
Includes the Maya sites of Tabasco & Chiapas
CANCÚN & THE YUCATÁN Isla Holbox Isla Contoy
MuIsjelares
0 150 km
San Felipe Río Lagartos
6 5 CozIsulamel PC1h1iquPuuilnáeta rSaCtmoa Jnucáúrnez
Celestún MMexcéanúridMuanaTicuTlicOMxuaknuitlzcabIzamIazlPaistémVaallladoTluiCdlheumamxAku2malPunta BPeoutreeerPCltoosMalaSIrasny mMlaigaue e ldnel
7 Cozumel
GOUFLF CampecLehrmae HecelchaBkoáelon RnecjhoénndHopelchén El 3Playón Punta Allen
MEXICO Champotón Dzibalchén Iturbide 4 FelipPeu eCratCBorharinilnlcocohorro
IsalramdeelnC Sabancuy 8
delCCairumdaedn FsracánrccisecgoaE XpuhCilhetumBCacaaaldlaelrritas
Frontera
Candelaria
Villahermosa CARIBBEAN
SEA
Palenque
9 GUATEMALA
San Cristóbal BELIZE
de las Casas
1 Cancún, Isla Mujeres & Isla Holbox 5 Valladolid & Chichén Itzá
2 Playa del Carmen, Cozumel & 6 Mérida & around
the Caribbean coast 7 Uxmal & the Ruta Puuc
3 Tulum & around 8 Campeche
4 The Costa Maya & the Río Bec 9 Tabasco & Chiapas
About this book
Rough Guides are designed to be good to read and easy to use. The book is
divided into the following sections and you should be able to find whatever
you need in one of them.
The introductory colour section is designed to give you a feel for Cancún and
the Yucatán, suggesting when to go and what not to miss, and includes a full
list of contents. Then comes basics, for pre-departure information and other
practicalities.
The guide chapters cover Cancún and the Yucatán in depth, each starting
with a highlights panel, introduction and a map to help you plan your route.
The contexts section fills you in on history and books, while individual
colour inserts introduce the Yucatán’s food and culture and language gives
you an extensive menu reader and enough Spanish to get by.
The book concludes with all the small print, including details of how to send
in updates and corrections, and a comprehensive index.
This third edition published September 2011.
For rolling/regular updates to this guide, please visit co-author Zora O’Neill’s
website: www.roughguideyucatan.com
The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all
the information in The Rough Guide to Cancún and the Yucatán, however, they can accept no
responsibility for any loss, injury, or inconvenience sustained by any traveller as a result of
information or advice contained in the guide.
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ZZoorraa OO’’NNeeiillll aanndd JJoohhnn FFiisshheerr
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Contents
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C
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Colour section 1 6 Mérida and around ............171 |
7 Uxmal and the Ruta Puuc ...195
8 Campeche ........................213
Introduction ...............................4
9 Tabasco and Chiapas ........235
Where to go ...............................5
When to go ................................9
Contexts 269
Things not to miss ...................11
History ...................................271
Basics 17
Environment and wildlife ........283
The Maya belief system .........287
Getting there ............................19
Books ....................................290
Getting around .........................23
Accommodation.......................27
Language 297
Eating and drinking ..................29
The media ................................33
Mexican Spanish ...................299
Festivals...................................33
Rules of pronunciation ...........299
Sport and outdoor activities .....36
Useful words and phrases .....299
Culture and etiquette ...............38
Food and drink terms .............302
Shopping .................................39
Glossary.................................307
Travelling with children.............40
Travel essentials ......................41
Small print & Index 309
Guide 49
1 Cancún, Isla Mujeres Yucatán food colour
section following p.112
and Isla Holbox ...................49
2 Playa del Carmen, Cozumel
and the Caribbean coast .....77
3 Tulum and around .............105 Maya culture colour
4 The Costa Maya and the section following p.208
Río Bec .............................125
5 Valladolid and Chichén Itzá ...149
3
(cid:2)(cid:2) Cut-paper decorations outside a church (cid:2) Outside the Convento de San Antonio de Padua, Izamal
Introduction to
| Cancún and
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O the Yucatán
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O The eastern tip of the curving horn of Mexico, facing the
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W Caribbean Sea to the east and the Gulf of Mexico to the west
H
EN and north, is known for major tourist attractions like the
T
O beaches of Cancún and the astonishing pyramid at Chichén
G
O Itzá. But the Yucatán Peninsula, as this area is known,
is also still very much the frontier, a swathe of untamed
greenery that forms a place apart from the rest of Mexico.
Until the 1960s, this was literally the case, as no road connected
the Yucatán with central Mexico. As a result, residents were left
to develop their own world-view, one that looked to Europe
and Cuba for cultural cues while taking pride in the indig-
enous Maya culture. Today, it’s not uncommon for people
born in this region to identify themselves first and foremost as
orgullosamente yucateco (proudly Yucatecan) and as mexicano a distant second.
More than anywhere else in Mexico, the Yucatán and the northeastern part
of Chiapas reflect native American culture at every level of society: Maya
tradition is palpable in remote, timeless villages of thatch-roof homes (palapas),
but also in shopping malls, political campaigns and TV advertisements. Although
the Maya as a people are by no means free of the poverty borne disproportion-
ately by indigenous cultures throughout the country, many Maya have prospered,
and their culture is widely influential. All yucatecos use Maya vocabulary, eat Maya
cuisine and generally take pride in living in “the land of the pheasant and the
deer”, as the Maya have for centuries called their richly forested region.
Travel in the Yucatán and the Maya parts of Chiapas can be blazingly easy,
along smooth toll highways in ultra-cushy buses. But the more remote you are,
the more likely you are to be aboard something like a rattletrap minivan packed
with machete-carrying farmers. But even if that minivan gets mired in a rainy
4 season pothole, you may be the only passenger upset. The Yucatán is known
for its tranquilo outlook – a laidback sense that minor annoyances really are
(cid:3)
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minor, and that there’s always something else to do in the meantime. This G
O
attitude can be frustrating – but also wonderfully relaxing, if you give in to it.
The tranquillity extends to the cities, even the largest of which have the
pace of overgrown villages – and certainly none of Mexico City’s smog and
slums. Modesty and near-formal politeness are the norm; violent crime is
almost nonexistent. Women travellers in particular will appreciate the overall
lack of machismo culture that’s so common in central Mexico.
From the powdery white Caribbean beaches to the wild, dense rainforest
that covers the inland peninsula and the muggy river valleys of Chiapas and
Tabasco, you’ll find a huge variety of attractions. Some, such as the ancient
Maya cities or the mega-clubs of Cancún, are man-made, while others are
natural – UNESCO has established five biosphere reserves in this area, the
largest being the 1.7-million-acre Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. Travellers
who prefer urban life will enjoy both the sprawling energy of Villahermosa
and the gracious tranquillity of Mérida.
Where to go
C
ancún, the largest tourist destination in the Yucatán, has a reputa-
tion as a spring-breaker’s bacchanal, but it offers much more: as a
built-from-scratch city carved out of the jungle in the 1970s, it’s an
interesting urban experiment that also happens to have beautiful
beaches and world-class hotels and restaurants. Surrounding resorts such as 5
Playa del Carmen are highly developed these days, but continuing down the
UNITED STATES 0 500 km
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I
N
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R GULF
O Monterrey Miami
D OF RÍA CELESTÚN
U MEXICO BIOSPHERE
C RESERVE
TI Tropic of Cancer CUBA
O Celestún
N Cancún
| W Mexico City Mérida Isla Cozumel
H Veracruz Chetumal CARIBBEAN
ERE MEXICO BELIZE SEA GULF
T HONDURAS OF
O GUATEMALA MEXICO
GO EL SALVADOR NICARAGUA
| Campeche
W Lerma
H
E Seybaplaya
N Metres
T
O 2500
Champotón
G
O 2000
1500 RíoChampotón
1000 Isla 261
500 del 180
Ciudad delCarmen
200 Carmen Francisco
Laguna de Escárcega
0 Términos Laguna
Frontera aria Silvituc
Paraíso PANTANOS ndel
Comalcalco DE CENTLA a
TABASCO BRIOESSPEHREVREE 186 C oíR 1C5andelaria El Tigre
180 Villahermosa
Cardenas
Río
187 PalenquePalenque Tenosique orPde Sna
VERACRUZ
195 Misol-Há Welib-Ja
Agua
A Azul
AC CCCHHHIIIAAAPPPAAASSS 199
AX SSaann CCrriissttóóbbaall Ocosingo Lacanjá Yaxchilán
O ddee llaass CCaassaass Toniná Chansayab Frontera Corozal
Tuxtla MONTES AZULES Bonampak
Gutiérrez BIOSPHERE
RESERVE
Caribbean coast you’ll find less frenetic towns, such as San Miguel, on the
reef-ringed island of Cozumel, Tulum and eventually the isolation of the
Costa Maya, near Mexico’s border with Belize.
6 Away from the Caribbean, you can choose to visit some of the scores of
captivating ancient Maya sites (see the Maya culture colour section) or a number
PARSQAUNE F NELAITPUER AL San Felipe Río Lagartos Isla Holbox Isla Contoy
TPeulcehrtaoc dDe zBilraamvo 295 RÍA LAGARTOS Chiquilá Isla | IN
Progreso BIOSPHERE RESERVE Punta Sam Mujeres T
Sisal 261 Dzibilchaltún 176 Puerto Juárez RO
Motul YUCATÁN Tizimín Cancún D
U
Mérida Izamal Ek-BalamX-Can 307 CT
180 Puerto IO
Maxcanú 180261 Mayapán CPhiiscthéén BalanVkaallnacdhoélid180D C1h80emax PCPlaauyrnmat aed neBlete Morelos N | W
Muna Itzá San Miguel H
BecalSanUtax mElaelnaTicul OMxkauntízcab Cobá AkumalXel-Há CoIzsulamel ERE
Kabáh Loltún Tihosuco ChunyaxcThuélum TO
Hecelchakán Sayil Labná G
Bolonchén O
180 Tohcdoek Rejón S Xatnatma pRaoksa 307 Punta Allen | W
ElE Td2az6bn1DaáHzsoibqcauhleocñbhoénHopelcIhtuéDrnbziidbeilnocac QUINTA1N84A 2R93FOelOipe CPaurerirlt3loo07 SKBREIAIEAOlS' NPASElN PaRHyVóEEnREHPeurnretaromericanBarirfereRe HEN TO GO
CAMPECHE Chacchoben Mesoa
Laguna de
186 Balamkú BCRIAOELSSBAPEeKHcRMáEVnURELE Xpujil KDizniibcahnncáhé BaCBcaaalcldaaerlraitras Bahía de Chetumal Mahahual BANCO CHINCHORRO
Chicanná Chetumal BIOSPHERE RESERVE
Kohunlich
Hormiguero Río Hondo Xcalak
Calakmul
RíoAzul
CARIBBEAN SEA
Belize
City
GUATEMALA
BELIZE
0 50 km
of thriving cities, the largest of which is Mérida, the capital of Yucatán State
and a beautiful mix of Spanish colonial and French- and Italian-inspired
architecture. On the Gulf coast of the peninsula, the city of Campeche, with
its historic core of pastel-painted buildings, is a tiny gem. South and west 7
of Campeche lies the state of Tabasco, where the Olmecs – considered the
Beach needs
| I The crystalline white sands and turquoise water of the Yucatán’s
N
T Caribbean coast are so transfixing that many visitors never go further
R
O than their sun chairs. The coast between Cancún and Tulum, known
D
U as the Riviera Maya (see p.77), has seen intense development, and
C
T isolated beaches are a rarity. Farther south, the Costa Maya (see
I
O p.149) around Mahahual and Xcalak offers isolation, but the beaches
N
| are a shade less picturesque. Another less crowded alternative is the
W Gulf coast (see p.213 & p.235), along the north and west sides of the
H
E peninsula, where the water is not as clear but the sands are empty. In
R
E any case, all of the beaches in Mexico are technically public, so you
TO may lay down your towel anywhere you like. If none of that satisfies,
G head for Laguna Bacalar (see p.133), an enormous, clear lake that
O
eerily resembles the Caribbean.
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W
H
E
N originators of all Mesoamerican cultures – flourished more than a millennium
T
O before the first Maya cities were built. You can see the gigantic stone heads
G
O they carved, along with other relics, in the city of Villahermosa. Chiapas,
directly south of Tabasco, was the centre of the Zapatista uprising in the 1990s.
The strength of indigenous traditions here, together with the opening-up of
a number of lesser-known Maya ruins near the majestic city of Palenque,
continues to lure travellers.
If it’s wildlife you’re after, a number of nature reserves are sanctuaries for
countless colourful birds and mammals. The Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve,
on the Caribbean coast, comprises a particularly diverse range of eco-systems,
while Ría Celestún and Ría Lagartos (on the west and north Gulf coasts,
respectively) are bird-filled estuaries. The Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, in
(cid:4)
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