Tabs wrote:Just noted in the Wiki article: "Spanish conquest of the Maya"--which contradicts what was said earlier (Maya ghosts). I'm guessing the Maya who the Spanish encountered were descendants of the pyramid builders?
While the Mayan civilization did collapse before the Spanish came, the Mayan people did still live there when the Spanish came and conquered them. The villiagers that you just encountered still consider themselves as Maya.
In fact Cortez returned to the New World and lead some military expedtions into the Yucatan.