Tierra Maya is a sanctuary where Mayan traditions are practiced, not performed. You arrive after dark, receive your own candle, and carry it through four hands-on stations. You grind ceremonial cacao on a volcanic stone metate and hear how the feathered serpent gave cacao to humankind. By lantern light you meet endangered stingless Melipona bees — they cannot sting — and taste honey from the hive, with the story of Ah Muzen Cab, the diving bee god. Around the fire you try a regional sugar cane drink made only in Yucatán, and hear about the alux, the jungle guardian who must be offered a drink before anyone builds or plants. The night ends with your hands in the food: crush guacamole and Sikil P'aak in a stone molcajete, press your own tortilla on a clay comal over open flame, and fold it into a quesadilla you eat hot — while you hear the Popol Vuh story of the gods who made human beings out of corn. Children receive hot cacao and honey instead.