El Rey Ruins

Forty-seven small stone structures line a short causeway and two little plazas at kilometre 18 of the hotel zone. The tallest, Building 2, is a stepped platform with a temple on top; excavators found the grave of a high-ranking person inside it, buried with a copper axe and shell ornaments. The site takes its name from a carved head of a ruler found here.

Most of what stands went up between about 1300 and 1550, when this was a trading port for fishermen and salt makers. There is a small site museum. Bring mosquito repellent.