Mexico/Yucatan: Churches of Yucatán
Yucatán was one of the first places where the Spanish arrived in the 1500s, and they rapidly went on with the construction of Catholic churches. The area between Merida and Valladolid and up and down from them is just peppered with these often small and very old but very beautiful and simple churches. These are no elaborate cathedrals decked out with rich interior, but rather similarly-structures churches with a frontal bell-tower and often surrounded by stone walls and fortifications. Many of these churches were built using the stonework from Mayan temples and pyramids. No tours take you to these churches and many are not known and just grace the centers of tiny little towns and villages all over the Yucatán countryside. The churches we saw were in Temozon, Tunkas, Tekoh, Xanaba, Tekit, Teabo, Mani (a spectacular fortress-like church), and others.
