Sisbichén

Out in the far east of Yucatán, in Chemax municipality, Sisbichén stands on level, wooded ground that runs on toward the Quintana Roo border. Measured in a straight line, the municipal seat is about 19 km to the south and Valladolid about 32 km to the south-west; the village is around 29 m above sea level. Its 2,172 residents in 2020 put it among the municipality's biggest settlements, with only Chemax, X-Can, Xalaú and X-Catzín larger.

Census takers have spelled this Maya name in several ways: Sisbicchén in 1930, Siabicchén in 1950, Sisbicchén once more in 1990, and eventually today's Sisbichén. Numbers have risen without a break: 150 residents in 1921, roughly 200 through the 1940s and 1950s, a little over 1,000 by 1990 and 1,747 in 2010. Families here make a living as they do across Chemax, from milpa plots of maize and beans plus jícama, chili and tomatoes, and from keeping cattle and pigs.

What catches the eye is the church, tall and painted red, its facade topped by two narrow bell towers, set behind a low stone wall washed white with lime. Nothing here is aimed at tourists. Come to see an everyday Maya village of eastern Yucatán, ideally as part of a drive on the free road linking Valladolid and Cancún.