[leilani]

Mayans aren't extinct. There are many Mayans still very much alive all over the Yucatan peninsula, the western highlands of Guatemala & beyond & even here in the United States.

Maya peoples living in the more remote areas of the Y. peninsula were spared the ravages of diseases like smallpox & typhus brought by the europeans (which did wipe out the Aztecs) because of their isolation.

I can report firsthand that some Maya, at least some of the ones with whom I acquainted in TX, do indeed still engage in sacrifices. But these days they're are more on the order of the 'saving their money and going without luxuries so their kids can go to college' kind. ;-)

[Dixie Yooper]

It's always been my understanding that the Mayans were extinct hundreds of years before the Spaniards set foot in the new world. Any natives that were found there were ones that migrated in after the Mayans were gone.