San Gervasio Ruins

Seven kilometres inland from San Miguel, off the cross-island road, San Gervasio was the largest town on Cozumel when the Spanish arrived. It grew over the island's biggest supply of fresh groundwater, and most of what stands went up after 1200. The site is spread out: separate groups of buildings joined by sacbés, the raised white roads of the Maya, so the visit is a walk from one cluster to the next.

Look for Las Manitas, a two-room house of the ruling family with red handprints still pressed into its walls, and Nohoch Nah, a small temple that has kept its roof. El Arco, the arch over the main road, is a 1980s rebuild. The site is usually presented as the shrine of Ix Chel, the goddess of childbirth whom Maya women crossed to Cozumel to honour, but INAH's archaeologists have found no evidence tying any building here to her; the oracle the chroniclers described stood where San Miguel is now. Taxis from the hotels do the round trip, and there are snacks and toilets at the gate.