Church at the Xcambo Mayan Ruins

This Old Church

During our 2016 Cruise to Mexico, one of our excursions included a visit to the Mayan ruins of Xcambo. These ruins, by the way, are also sometimes known as Xtambo, depending on who is translating from the original Mayan language.

We enjoyed seeing all of the ruins of buildings built over 1500 years ago, from back when Xcambo was an important center for selling salt and other goods. But right in the middle of it all was this interesting church building. As you might imagine, finding a church building complete with crosses, signifying that it is indeed a Christian church building, was somewhat surprising. We had not expected that.

However, the church building at Xcambo is a Catholic place of worship, built sometime around 50 years ago and not 1500 years ago. That was back before the area had been designated a park and a historical site. It is easy to imagine the people of the surrounding areas simply making use of what was already a good, firm foundation, along with lots of available stones, for their new church building.

These days, the church building is included in the archeological zone, and we enjoyed seeing it and being able to walk through it. It was definitely interesting seeing two different cultures, Mayan and Christian, occupying the same space. It was almost as if it showed one small scene of the march of history through Mexico, as the Europeans came and taught the indigenous people about their religion, converting them to Christianity. Very interesting.

You can read much more about our visit in the 2016 Cruise to Mexico pages here at the Burnsland website.

Where’s Laura

Those of you eagle-eyed regular visitors here have probably already spotted Laura in this photo, as she is standing in the grassy area to the right of the church building. She had gone on ahead of me to get some photos of her own.

We had a limited amount of time at Xcambo because our tour was next heading on to the beach. So we wanted to make the most of our time and see all that we could see while we were there. We did spend lots of time together at Xcambo, but we also would venture off on our own for a bit to try to take it all in.

Even though we were only there for just under an hour, we made some memories that will last quite a while.

Interesting Thought

I wonder what archaeologists will think about our buildings in 1500 years when they dig them up?

Bible Verse

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. - Ephesians 5:25

About the Photo

I particularly liked the clouds in this photo. They were very interesting in how they streaked across the sky, giving some breaks to the usual blue. I masked in a separate darker exposure from the original Raw file to both accentuate the blue of the sky and the detail in the clouds. I also brought out the yellow tones quite a bit to convey how the sun was shining down on us while we were there. That added a quality that I liked to all of the colors in the photo.

Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens
Date: July 19, 2016
Location: Xcambo, Yucatan, Mexico