Cancun

Until then the island was probably not an important Mayan site, but there is a small ruin there.

Chichen Itza - the impressive Maya site on the Yucatán peninsula is a short plane ride from Playa del Carmen. The pyramid offers a challenging climb and a breathtaking view.

The earliest known reference to Cancún called it Cancuen. There's also a site in Guatemala called Cancuen. Cancuen refers to a snake totem, usually identified with Kukulcan or Quetzalcoatl (the Plumed Serpent).

In the 1970s, the government of Mexico decided to develop a tourist resort on Cancún.

Cancun is  divided into three areas: Ciudad de Cancun, with a population of 300,000; the ecological reserve, with its  beautiful lakes, forests and mangrove marshland, and the Zona Hotelera, an island where most of the hotels and shopping malls are to be found.