Recipes, ingredients, and cooking techniques that have been used for thousands of years throughout the Yucatan Peninsula, are now popping up in restaurants throughout the Mayan Riviera.

A Mayan woman is preparing a traditional meal of tortillas and gorditas de chaya. She uses centuries-old recipes, handed down through several generations.

Dozens of small Mayan communities have maintained their traditions for thousands of years.

They hunt, raise livestock and harvest everything from corn to tropical fruits, providing for their entire community just like their ancestors did during the height of the Mayan civilization more than a thousand years ago.

Today, Mayan Riviera restaurants like Yaxche are introducing the flavors to tourists.

Yaxche is bringing the fast-growing Playa del Carmen back to its Mayan roots by using fresh and local ingredients like the achiote - which Mayans used as body paint and food coloring for their cocoa drink.

Ramon Lizaola Hernandez, co-owner of Yaxche, explains that the Mayan community's recipes haven't changed over the centuries.

Ramon Lizaola Hernandez said, "Mayan cuisine itself still exists today. It lives on inside all these indigenous communities. You can go there and with them, you will be able to eat a dish the same way they have eaten it for generations passed on from mother to daughter- and that's how it has arrived to present day."

Tourists are won over by the authentic dining experience.

A few blocks away from Yaxche is Ajua Maya, another restaurant that is infusing their Yucatecan menu with Mayan elements. Their Chicken Pibil is one of their most popular dishes.

While many of the larger hotels along the Mayan Riviera offer international menus, small and medium-sized boutique hotels offer a more Mexican culinary experience.

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