Rio Bec:Carved into the architecture of the various sites here - Hormiguero, Chicanna, Xpujil, and Balamku, you will find what is probably evidence of what happened to the Classic Maya a bit further south. Here you will find what is definitely a more populist system of government with Jaguar Mouth temples attached to communal meeting houses "Houses of the Mat". The soaring hierarchical architecture of Tikal gives way to a system that ultimately finds its fruition further north at Uxmal and in the colonial Books of the Jaguar Prophet. The Jaguar Mouth facades are truly magnificent and not too hard to decipher in terms of their shamanistic content.
The dusty and modern town of Xpuhil serves as a good base to visit Calakmul also. This ancient city contains more Stelae than any other Mayan site although many are badly eroded. A walk around the site really gives the feeling of it being a locus - a Place of the Ancestors - for the entire area. Be prepared for howler monkeys at the entrance, much wildlife along the road early in the morning, and an authentic feeling for what it must have been like to first stumble across these astonishing cities a century ago.
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Jaguar Mouth Temple - Chicanna - Rio Bec.
These Jaguar Mouth Temples form a distinctive type funneling up to end at Uxmal.
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