Ix Chel | Island of Women | Martiniana Gomez Pantoja | Vista Alegre

To the Mayans, this island was sacred to their moon goddess, Ix Chel, who watched over the fertile women of society. The Mayans created statues of pregnant women throughout the island and built a temple to Ix Chel on its southern tip (where ruins still stand today). When the Spanish first arrived in the sixteenth century and noticed all the goddess images, they named the patch of land Isla Mujeres, or "the Island of Women."

Roger, who is half Mayan, tells me the name also came about because visiting Spaniards saw only women and children living on the island. The men were frequently off fishing or doing business, so it seemed like the residents were exclusively women. There's still another story that it got its name because pirates would stop by and stash their women on the island to retrieve later - which, of course, only adds to the folklore.

After moving to the island, Mundaca wasted no time in throwing his money around, building a lavish hacienda named Vista Alegre and stocking the grounds with birds, livestock, and exotic gardens. Sometime after arriving, a beautiful young local girl caught his eye. Her name was Martiniana Gomez Pantoja. Her dark hair prompted him to call her La Trigueña, "the Brunette."

I realize that you can't really blame him - the Mayan culture is filled with beauty. They were the first people in the Western Hemisphere to keep written historical records. Their art, architecture, mathematics, agriculture, and astronomy developments were highly advanced. The Mayan sport of hip-ball, in which players moved a rubber ball down a court using only their hips, predates many modern sports like soccer, rugby, and hockey (an excellent re-creation can be seen nightly at the Xcaret ­ecocultural theme park in Playa del Carmen, south of Cancun).