or Valladolid's mercado, you can be sure of a warm welcome from everyone.

The ethnic and cultural make-up of the people who call the Yucatan home is relatively straightforward. A large percentage of the population is Maya, descendants of the original glorious civilization that stretched from the peninsula into the Mexican state of Chiapas, Guatemala, Belize and parts of El Salvador and Honduras. Generally small of stature, with facial structures that resemble the American Indian, most Maya speak their own native tongue as well as Spanish, now required in school.

It's the way the Yucatecan people got to where they are today - culturally - that makes the story of the Yucatan so fascinating. Tragedy, peace, bloodlust, sacrifice, gore, romance, glory, pain, triumph, love, ignorance, enlightenment, lost opportunities, treachery, greed, friendship and intrigue fill the history of the Maya, the Spanish and Mexico. And that's just the beginning.