Tulum

Another smooth transition from FCP to Tulum on ADO buses which took just over an hour. We walked from the bus station to the hotel called the Luna Maya and found a massive room, a huge comfy bed and a funky interior around a courtyard garden. When we went out to explore Tulum we noticed straight away that we had moved from Mexican Mexico to American Mexico. It was a tourist town and the main drag was choka block with swanky restaurants and gift shops which were cheek to jowl with each other. The feel of the place had changed from further south, it was geared towards the rich American market with vastly inflated hotel and eating place prices. We had some dinner at a Mexican local place where we were the only whitey's in there but Mexicans are not fazed by such encounters and take it all in their stride. No one even bats an eyelid in these parts. The food was cheap and filling but gave us bad farts all night so we had a giggle with 'drive by's' on the local plaza bench crowd.

"Say cheese"

  Next day was an early start to catch a collectivo which is a mini bus that acts as a short distance taxi come bus service to the Mayan ruins of Tulum .Here the crowds were out in force as we queued up to get our entry tickets to get into the site. Inside the ruins were not as spectacular as I had imagined in structure but the location on a cliff top over looking the deep blue Caribbean sea was indeed special. We also noted umpteen Iguanas here which seemed to be having a population explosion. They were everywhere and we even saw one being crushed to death by a snake.

Moving in for the kill.

Also there were Coati Mundis scavenging in the grounds which were a delight to watch when they appeared. There was a beach there as well where you could walk down to from the ruins via a walkway but it was so crowded with tourists that we gave it a miss. Also there seemed to be an issue with excessive sea grass build up which spoilt the ambiance of the beach. In fact it seemed that most of the north Yucatan is having a problem with it on their beaches and if it does not change soon than the beaches are going to be covered in the rotting away Sargasso seaweed which will affect tourism in a big way. The big crowds spoilt the nice feeling of Tulum as surprisingly it is a small site so you spent most of your time avoiding tour groups.

A Tulum bus shelter.

 Outside we messed about in the overpriced retail outlets, trying on Mexican hats for silly photos and Mucha Lucha masks which seem to be in all the shops. Not sure what you would do with it though back at home unless you liked being a gimp in your spare time.

Some of the Tulum souvenirs were very tongue in cheek

  Next day we wanted a beach day so jumped in a collectivo which we thought was heading to the beach 2km away but ended up speeding out of town on the freeway so we jumped out before we ended up in Playa Del Carmen. This was a big mistake as we were in the middle of nowhere so started walking in the direction of the beach where we came to a posh resort and tried to blag our way in but security were having none of it and told us to jog on. We did walk for about a 1km until we came to a cenote which looked cool and refreshing as we were having no luck  accessing the beach as it was all taken up with posh mansions with no way through. The owners of the cenote were asking a high entry fee and as there were no facilities inside, not even anywhere to sit, so we declined but opposite we found access to the beach.

A refreshing cenote to swim in.

 The sand was the usual sparkling white but again there was a sea grass problem. We found a clean bit and had a paddle about then laid on the beach in front of some empty beach side mansions surrounded by palm trees. We had the whole stretch of beach to ourselves. We tried to sneak back through the resort  again on the way back but security caught us and after trying to convince them to let us through they would not  budge so sent us back for the 2 km round trip to get to the road. We were not too happy about this so found a mansion that we suspected was unoccupied and hotailed in through their garden to the main road so we could catch a collectivo. Luckily they never had guard dogs so  we survived with all limbs intact but the mosquitoes had a good munch on us on the way through.

Robinson Crusoe's house modifications were going to plan.

 That night we again played menu roulette and ended up with a paradillo which also turned out nice but also had a pile of corn flour tortillas to accompany it. There is no escape from the tortillas.In Asia it was rice and noodles and here it was refried beans (which look like bad doggy turd) and those eponymous corn flour patties.
   An another early start next day which was easy considering the amount of noise in the hotel from 6am onwards. The only day we came to breakfast early and none of it was ready. We did our best to eat what we could find and headed down to the bus station to catch the early bus to Coba for some more Mayan ruins. Here it is different to Tulum as it is deep in the jungle and most of it is still overgrown giving it a real Indiana Jones feel. Here we saw trees growing out the sides of the ruins similar to what you see at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

The Coba pymarid.

Only some of the vast area has been excavated as the jungle is so dense it is difficult to get to. We hired a couple of bikes at the entrance to reduce the distance between the temples. The best one was a massive pyramid which you were allowed to climb. At the top, it jutted above the jungle tree line so afforded tremendous views of the landscape. It was really amusing watching people trying to get down the steep jagged stones by sliding down on their arses and lots of over weight Americans having a cardiac arrest half way up. We managed to see all the temples with the aid of the bikes in a couple of hours and loved the jungle pathways between the clearings. Back outside we were told a bus would be arriving at 12 to take us back to Tulum but after an hour and a half waiting in the heat with a no show from the bus we decided a taxi was in order for the 43km journey back  which we shared with another tourist to help with the wallet busting cost. Back at Tulum the heat had worn us out so we had a lazy afternoon, more tortillas for dinner (what a surprise!) later on and a subdued night as we had to pack for our next destination which was going to be Valladolid.

The view from the top a Coba pyramid.