San Gervasio

San Gervasio is the largest Maya site on Cozumel, in the forest in the middle of the island. For centuries the island was a place of pilgrimage: people crossed from the mainland by canoe to pray to Ixchel, goddess of the moon, fertility, childbirth, medicine and weaving, and San Gervasio was the heart of her cult.

The site was founded around 300 AD, but most of what you see dates from the centuries after about 1200, when Cozumel was also a trading stop on the sea routes around the peninsula. The buildings are small compared with the great pyramids of the mainland, and spread out in groups connected by sacbeob, the white Maya roads. Look for Ka'na Nah, the tallest temple, associated with Ixchel; Las Manitas, with red handprints on its walls; and the small arch that marks one of the old roads.

The pilgrimage has not been forgotten. Every spring, the Sacred Maya Journey re-creates the ancient crossing, with paddlers in traditional canoes leaving the mainland coast at dawn to bring offerings to Ixchel on Cozumel. The rest of the year San Gervasio is a calm, shady walk, with iguanas on the stones and birds in the trees, and a real change from the busy waterfront in San Miguel.