Xunantunich - Xunantunich - TravBuddy

Xunantunich (pronounced: shoo-nan-too-nitch) is an ancient Mayan ruin of a 10,000 person settlement, used around 600-800 AD. It means "Stone Woman" or "Maiden of the Stone" as Mayan folklore of the area spoke of an enigmatic, mysterious figure that wandered around the top layers of the major temple at night. Convenient location - especially if you are staying in Cayo region. Impressive site and good information centres, but a guide will give a better idea of how the site worked. A little, hand-powered car ferry is used to cross a river to get to the road that leads to the site. But don't get too pumped up for adventure: the river is only 2 car lengths long and there is a man who operates it for you. $5 USD/ $10 BZ to enter the park. Arranging transport/ a guide will cost extra. You can do the entire site in about an hour so it's good as a pit stop. Be warned: it will take way longer if there are lots of cars waiting to cross the river, as the ferry can only take one car at a time. My advice: go early and avoid the tourist traffic.

If you've done Tikal, and have reached your ruin-viewing saturation point, you could skip this. If you don't have the time to go across the border to Tikal, then I'd recommend going here to get an idea of what you'd see, in a condensed, miniaturized audit.