All right, now this is more like it.

Here we are in Tulum. This is one of hundreds (if not thousands) of sites all over Southern Mexico where you can see how they really used to live.

Is this Aztec? Olmec? Toltec? Mayan? Well, I could spend a lot of time providing you with a pretty bad education about what I know, but you're probably better off finding a well-researched book. Here's what we know: These ruins (and the rest that you'll see) served various governmental, religious and astrological uses. They were the center of much larger cities, where the general population lived in small thatched huts, and the heavies hung out in their rock capitals. Everybody came here to shop at the mall, eat at restaurants - you know, just like it is today. Although there are obvious facets of these structures and cities that served defensive purposes, that is not primarily why the Indians built these cities.

Why did they build them? Well if the Spanish had bothered to stop and ask them before they plundered the entire civilization, we might know today. But alas, all we have are a lot of cryptic hieroglyphic and some guess work. Nice places though, huh?