Mayan myths say that their ancestors came from the ocean. Like the Nahuatl people to their north they describe more than one foundation. The mythical civilizer Itzamna, carrying the letters of what would become the Mayan language, arrived from the east, to found one age. Itzamna came across a sea with twelve paths through it (in celestial sea the zodiac has twelve paths).
Later, in a different age, another migration came from the west, led by Kukulcan, the Maylan equivalent of Quetzalcoatl. Like the peoples of Mexico who described several incarnations of Quetzalcoatl and like Hindus who described many appearances of their lord-god Krishna, the Maya myths had Kukulcan arriving several times. One appearance was in the form of Tonaca, a migrating seafarer. In Peru the Quechua say Tonapa, a seafaring incarnation of Viracocha, left into the Pacific to found civilizations in Oceana.
From Atlantis in America – Navigators of the Ancient World by Ivar Zapp and George Ericson
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