The highlight of our vacation to Cancun in 2004 (besides smuggling back some Cuban cigars and rum) was our all-too brief visit to the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. (Maria wouldn’t climb with me to the top of the temple, but I didn’t go 2000 miles into a verdant world of prehistory NOT to explore as much as I could.) Any description of mine would be inadequate to describe the majesty of this lost city in the jungle, so I urge you to play on Google today and explore for yourself the forested realms of the Maya.

El Mirador is the most exciting site of Mayan antiquity in recent times, not only for its huge size, but for its history, as its pre-Christian carvings and architecture have survived since 300 b.c. Here’s a nice article on El Mirador, and of course you can get some basic info from Wikipedia.