Xtabay legend:

This legend warns men, mainly young men, that when they travel alone in the jungle under the moonlight or the stars, the Xtabay who has previously spied on them, can come cross them at anytime. The Xtabay is a malign spirit that lives in the older ceiba trunks and appears to men in the form of an insinuating and beautiful woman with long black hair dressed in white. She calls them with her hand, locks her penetrating eyes in theirs and bewitches them with her smile. Whoever does not resist her charms and goes after her disappears into the jungle. His soul is imprisoned in the underworld, at the bottom of the earth, where the enchanted ceibas grip their roots.

There are actually two versions as to why men surrender to her fascination; only those men who have done wrong are misfortunate enough to be condemned to death by this spirit, or the Xtabay is only an illusion that surges from the very heart of men in search for the love of an idealized woman.

• Posada Dos Ceibas: 1996 - 2007 •
Km. 10 Carretera Tulum-Boca Paila;
Tulum, Quintana Roo, México.
Tel./Fax: 52 (984) 877-6024;
E-mail: info@dosceibas.com