Gerhardt's Trip to Mexico

The Riviera Maya is a tourism district located on the eastern portion of the Yucatan Peninsula in southeastern Mexico. It is adjacent to another popular tourist destination, Cancun.  The Riviera Maya is famous for its large scale all-inclusive beach resorts.  The region takes its name from the Maya, the Native American tribe that inhabited the area starting around 2000 BC and lasting until the Spanish conquest of the 1500s AD.  Many residents of the area today are the living vestiges of the ancient Mayan culture.  The nearby Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza are a reminder of once great civilization that controlled the area that would one day become part of the country of Mexico.  Today, the Riviera Maya, much like the rest of Mexico, is a mixture of tradition and modernization.