Discovering Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula

Travel Guidebook of the Month

The Rough Guide to the Yucatan, by Zora O'Neill and John Fisher

Tantalizingly accessible from the United States, Mexico's Yucatan region is primarily famous for its beach resorts (Cancun) and its Mayan ruins (Chichen Itza) — but the vast peninsula is also home to a sprawling jungle and a unique regional character that has plenty to offer the independent traveler.  Because the Yucatan has become accessible from central Mexico only in recent decades, it retains its own cultural and geophysical identity and at times feels like a nation unto itself. 

With the debut edition of The Rough Guide to the Yucatan, now in bookstores, I asked co-author Zora O'Neill for a few insights into the region.

The Yucatan has long attracted a wide variety of visitors, from Cancun resort-goers to Mayan ruin-seekers. What first brought you to the region?

Zora O'Neill: Several years back, I was reading about Mexican history, and about how separate the Yucatan had been from central Mexico.  There wasn't even a road connecting the two until the 1960s, and Yucatecan culture was more influenced by Cuba and Europe, as well as the indigenous Maya population. Around the same time, my editor at Rough Guides asked if I'd be interested in updating the Mexico guide, so I immediately asked if I could work on the Yucatan chapter. I collected a bunch of recommendations from friends who'd been studying there, and I wasn't disappointed — the Yucatan is a fascinating mix of cultures, and very different from the northern parts of the country I was previously familiar with.

Cancun has a worldwide reputation as a beach resort, but it also attracts hordes of tourists. What might you recommend as a quieter, more organic beach destination along the coast of the Yucatan?

ZO: It all depends on how far you want to travel. The town of Puerto Morelos is fantastic, especially considering it's just 20 minutes south of the Cancun airport. It's one of those typical, mellow Mexican fishing towns where people just hang out in the town square at night.  You won't feel like you've discovered the place, but there are no giant resorts, the beach is wide and clean, you can snorkel offshore, and the selection of restaurants is great.

Two hours south of the airport, Tulum, which was once a backpackers' paradise of super-cheap sand-floor cabanas, is increasingly on the mainstream tourist radar, and prices have gone up dramatically, but it doesn't feel overdeveloped yet. If you can afford it, it's still a great place to chill out for a few days or a week — think of it as Cancun for the yoga set.

For the true castaway experience, you can still head all the way down to the village of Mahahual, about four hours' drive from the airport.  Mahahual only just got regular electricity a couple of years ago, and the main activity here is lounging in a hammock and eating fish tacos.  But brace yourself: About three days a week, the place suddenly springs to life when cruise ships come in to a port a few kilometers to the north.  It's not utter tourist mayhem, but compared to the absolute quiet the day before, it's a little weird to see. But you can easily avoid it all by just going down the bumpy dirt road south of town to one of a handful of cool camping and bungalow spots.

Uxmal and Chichen Itza and Palenque are marquee Mayan sites in that part of Mexico, but I also find it rewarding to seek out more isolated archaeological sites. What might be a lesser-known Mayan remnant that would reward the effort it takes for a traveler to get there?

ZO: Again, you've got some choices depending on how far you want to go. Not nearly so many people make it to Coba, about an hour northeast of Tulum, but it's a great way for people on a beach vacation to get a little taste of the jungle. The buildings aren't so restored as at Chichen Itza, and the site is huge, so you can get away from the other visitors really quickly — especially if you rent a bike at the entrance, which for me is the best part of visiting.

People with more time, and either a car or a little money to spend on taxis, should definitely head to Calakmul and the Rio Bec sites in the south, near the border with Belize and Guatemala.  The Rio Bec ruins are a bunch of small sites, most tucked away in the jungle, with ornate carving in very good condition.  All the buildings have these gaping monster mouths — big teeth, rolling eyes — so after seeing a few ruins, all by yourself in the forest, you can start to get a little spooked.  Calakmul is deep in a biosphere reserve, but really worth the trip — the city is massive, and from the top of the main pyramid, the view is nothing but jungle in every direction, and in the mornings you can hear howler monkeys everywhere.

Recreation and ruins are invariably associated with a Yucatan sojourn, but the region also has some great nature destinations. What nature areas might you recommend for the first-time visitor?

ZO: The Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, just south of Tulum, is great because it encompasses several different ecosystems — you get the beaches and the coral reef, the marshes and mangrove trees along the water, and the scrub jungle a little inland.  And the ancient Maya dug canals all through the marshes — they make a great place to kayak now.  You really need to go with an organized tour, though, because the place is huge — Sian Ka'an Info Tours is particularly good, and they run a small ecolodge just inside the reserve as well.

A place that very few tourists visit, even though it's not difficult to get to, is Laguna Bacalar, in the southern part of Quintana Roo state. This lake is so clear, you think you're looking at the Caribbean, with layers of color from turquoise to purple. The place is a holiday destination for Mexicans, but at other times of the year, it's really quiet and a big destination for birdwatchers, and there are a few lodges along the bank, so you can get up early and head out in a kayak with your binoculars.

Yucatan is a long way from the border-region tastes typically associated with Mexican food. What kind of cuisine might a traveler seek out in the Yucatan that is unique to (or particularly tasty in) this region?

ZO: Definitely don't expect fajitas and big burritos! The food in the Yucatan is based on both Mayan and European traditions, and it varies across the peninsula. The universal snack, though, is the panucho — crispy open-face tortilla topped with shredded turkey, avocado, and sometimes a salty-sweet tomato salsa. For sit-down meals, which are almost always served at lunch, cochinita pibil, or pit-cooked pork, is a standard Mayan dish of shredded, tender pork that's usually bright orange from the addition of achiote, and a little tangy from bitter orange being squeezed over it, with bright-pink pickled onions on the side. It's tasty and fantastic looking. And different regions have specialties: In the city of Campeche, the seafood dishes are sophisticated and tasty — shrimp fried in a shredded-coconut batter, tortillas layered with shredded shark meat.  Valladolid has its own cuisine that's heavy on vinegar and spices like clove and allspice — a style of cooking from the Arabs via Spain. And when you're driving around in the jungle areas in the interior, you might even come across a Maya kid selling some smoked wild game by the side of the road.  Yucatecan food is never very hot on its own, but you'll always be offered a raw, rough-cut habanero salsa on the side — it's called xnipek, or "dog's nose," because it makes you all sweaty just like one.

More information on The Rough Guide to Yucatan ($17.99) can be found at RoughGuides.com.

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