“The Maya of popular history and legend didn’t disappear; they just stopped making big buildings,” says Martin Prechtel in his book Secrets of the Talking Jaguar about his fifteen years living in a Mayan village. I can actually see the imprint of prehistoric sea flora and fauna in the towering Mayan pyramids on the mainland and in the limestone walls we pass on our morning walks on Isla Mujeres.At Luum Ayni (see previous entry) we saw Mayan men breaking boulders they had wrenched from the farmland. Owner Lisa Hernandez told us she marvels as these short workers tote rocks most men (including her husband, as Cesar himself agreed) couldn’t budge. The knack for handling limestone is deep in the culture memory, and these modern Maya know just where to land the sledgehammer to shatter the rock into the correct size for the Luum Ayni guest rooms they are building.
The skills of their ancestors are on display at Chichen Itzá, the most impressive Mayan ruins in the Yucatan Peninsula. The immense El Castillo Pyramid towers over the site, each piece of limestone in the four sets of wide stairways cemented into its proper spot. There are 364 steps plus the crowning platform, one for each day of the calendar year. At spring and fall equinoxes, thousands of people gather to witness the shadow of Kukulkán, the beautiful, powerful Mayan snake god, slither down these steps to bless the fertile earth.
Nearby is a temple with huge jaguars and eagles carved into the rock. Upon closer examination, we see the eagles poised to devour human hearts. 
At other sites around the Yucatan, the ancient temples were disassembled by the Maya under the lash of the Spanish conquistadors and then re-assembled into Christian churches, sometimes right on top of the sacred ruins.
Now instead of temples or churches, Yucatan limestone is used in hotel and bank facades, in walls and houses. Here on Isla we see walls built in the old Mayan way, stones fitted into place with mortar, sometimes with shells or small stones or even paint as decoration.
At other sites around the Yucatan, the ancient temples were disassembled by the Maya under the lash of the Spanish conquistadors and then re-assembled into Christian churches, sometimes right on top of the sacred ruins.Now instead of temples or churches, Yucatan limestone is used in hotel and bank facades, in walls and houses. Here on Isla we see walls built in the old Mayan way, stones fitted into place with mortar, sometimes with shells or small stones or even paint as decoration.
On the eastern seaboard, a huge wall of rocks has been laid in place to cushion the huge waves that slam into the island during storms.
All of these walls are extremely labor-intensive in their creation, something that has not changed for ages.
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