Oh, The Places You'll Go...: Mexico Part 2

So I loved the Yucatan the first time and I had to go back, I still want to go back more and more. Molly and I decided to go down for our spring break. So after a long couple of months our spring break finally arrived and off we were! We are not normal human beings and got a little crazy on the plane...

I had just woken up from my nap

RAWR

We arrived in Cancun and then hopped on our bus to head down to Tulum, well technically inbetween Tulum and Akumal. It is about two hours south and the whole ride you just see jungle...it's gorgeous. We arrived at our hotel, which was beautiful (but ya'll know I wanted a hut on the beach) and checked out our room. We had a balcony and a view of the Caribbean.

I am looking over the turquoise water and beaming...I LOVE MEXICO

The first day we were exhausted from traveling so we called it a wash and headed to the beach with its white sands and turquoise water and just general amazingness.

Enjoying the view and the sun

The next day we went to the Tulum ruins and Tulum Pueblo. The ruins at Tulum are Mayan and the only ones directly on the water. It is a larger complex still walled in and with several reconstructed buildings. Iguanas are climbing all over the place...did I mention this place is heavenly?

Main view of complex

This is the main tower from the photo above, but showing you how close the water is.

Molly at the top of the tower with the beautiful water

The most amazing part of this experience? Getting to go swimming!!! I, of course, jumped in the water the first chance I could. It was so surreal to look up from catching a wave or something and see this amazing ancient structure in front of me. Things like that do not exist in real life, it is too picturesque, too beautiful.

See, see!! Isn't it beautiful??

Post swimming, still amazed.

So after the ruins we decided to walk around Tulum Pueblo. Oh, and word of advice for people going to this area TAKE COLLECTIVOS. Collectivos are vans that are like smaller versions of buses. You stand on the side of the highway and they will flash their lights and you put your hand out and they stop. They are way cheaper than a cab. They tend to overcharge tourists, but it is 2.50 for collectivos vs 20 bucks for a cab.

Okay now onto Tulum. It is a very touristy city, but still nice to wander around in. Molly and I got some local food...I had fresh fish tacos...so good! I later had ceviche as well, although I think the one my bowie themed cooking group in Mo'orea made was better, it was still delicious. That was our day out in Tulum! The next day we decided to go the other direction to Akumal. Akumal is a much smaller town. It has some very small local restaurants and stores. It is close to the water and a nice place to visit so I recommend it to anyone who goes to the area.

Next, we went on a tour like thing that took us to a couple stops. The first we visited a Mayan village. I definitely felt like an ugly American at first, but then actually talked to the woman and the people and felt a lot better. They have a ton of fruits and veggies and they had noni which reminded me of Mo'orea. Then we got to make corn tortillas. They soak corn kernels in lime juice and then mash them or grind them. You take the dough and then turn it around using one hand to shape it and the other one to thin it out. Then you put it on their stove. They leave the stoves running all the time. This puts a film on the roof and it helps insulate the thatch and keep bugs away.

Molly making a tortilla

Next stop was a Cenote. Cenotes are underground (most of the time) caves. The yucatan is all limestone, which means when it rains the water mixes with the limestone and forms carbonic acid. After enough time the water erodes the limestone and has created an amazing underwater river/lake system, which provides the drinking water for Quintana Roo. This is part of the reason that we cannot drink the water. There is an intense amount of calcium in the water and that mineral content is hard for our systems. The water isn't "bad" though. So a lot of these cenotes are caves, with awesome stalactites and stalagmites, but we went to one where the cave had collapsed so it was exposed.

Beautiful!

We also got to try some natural chewing gum. It is crazy, no taste but the texture of gum, except the texture stays the same the whole time. They extract it by climbing up the tree and making spirals with a machete that causes the sap, the soon to be gum, flow down the tree. They smoke the sap and wahla! gum! It is pretty cool to watch.

After the cenote and the gum we were onto the main attraction, COBA. The ruins at coba are 48 sq miles. The pyramid there is the largest pyramid in all the Yucatan. Due to the limestone-ness the yucatan is entirely flat, so when we climbed to the top I am pretty sure we could practically see toBelize!