A Lost Underground Maya City The 5 Unlucky Days, or Days Without Names, were the time period that completed the Mayan and Aztec calendars, and were considered an inauspicious and dangerous time. When Victor O'Brien, a collegiate athlete and graduate student in Mesoamerican studies at UT-Austin, tries to leave his problems at home behind, he becomes trapped in the labyrinth of caves and underground rivers that lie below the Yucatan Peninsula - the place of sacrifice and rebirth that the Maya called Xibalba. Victor is only dimly aware that the cenotes that dot Yucatan serve as portals between the above and underground worlds, and his only means of escape. But Victor's journey informs him also of the vibrant world of not only the ancient civilizations, but of the large, dynamic Maya population that lives today - above ground -- in the shadows of the so-called "Mayan Riviera." "5 Unlucky Days" is a fast-paced adventure story that spans the range of Mesoamerican history, including the Olmec inventors of the ballgame and the earliest known Mesoamerican society; the central place the ballgame played in classic Maya city-states; the epic 16th century encounter between Europe and the Americas; the "rediscovery" of the ancient kingdoms by 19th and 20th century explorers, such as John Lloyd Stephens; the Mayan writing system and the "cracking" of the mysterious Mayan code; and the place as it is today, a wildly popular destination for global travelers, and still the same home to the people who built the monumental architecture of the Maya world.