Tag Archives: ruins

Mexico

Lots of ruins

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A lizard on the road at Akumal. (no ruins)

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Here’s a bunch from Tulum, on that semi-rainy day.

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Chichen Itza!

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The cenote Ik Kil.

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Ek Balam. We’re a little sad that we didn’t have more time here. We wanted to get home before it got dark so we weren’t driving in Mexico…in the dark. Cool place.

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Both Miranda and I were taking auto-bracketed photos, and we have some HDR software…so here’s some funky modifications on a couple of the photos from above!

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I have a few more photos on my underwater camera, but we’re so close to being done!

Mexico

A little Tuesday morning drive

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Tuesday morning we woke up at 5 am to take the 3 hour drive to Chichen Itza. Our plan was to rent a car and leave super early, both to avoid any heavy traffic and crowds at the ruins.

We rented a car from America Car Rental, and the irony is not lost on us. We drove our car home and parked it outside over night for the early morning.

Turns out that McDonald’s is not open at 530. 🙁

The Mexican highways are well built, but the speed limits are fucked. You’ll get sent down to 40 km/hr for no reason, a limited changed from 60 to 80 and back to 60 within the same sight line and…40 on the highway…So…fucked. And we’ve been warned to follow the limits exactly, lest we get pulled over by a cop for speeding.

Once we got past Tulum and onto the highway north speed limit sorted itself out and stayed a decent 90.

Valladolid is a city in the middle of the state it’s filled with narrow roads one way streets. There is a toll road that avoids it, but we decided to go through. Awkward, but we made it.

We arrived at Chichen Itza around 930, and walked around until about 1115. Photos to come. Lunch in the restaurant there was alright. My pibil tacos were a little dry, but tasty enough. Miranda had a pizza that was good.

We left and drove the short distance to Ik Kil, a nearby cenote. It was 70 pesos to enter and you could really spend all afternoon here if you were inclined. The cenote was largely cemented up, with a tunnel and stone stairs leading to the bottom. A little more manicured than Dos Ojos, a lot less than the “eco parks” here (which I’ll write about at some point). We stayed for a half hour and left – we just wanted see place take some photos.

Next we drove to Ek Balam, the site of another ruin. This place doesn’t get much advertising, and is much cheaper. EB was about 120 pesos versus 288 each at CI earlier. There are fewer ruins here, but you can climb on them, which is worth a lot in my books. The largest one is smaller than at CI, but still tall enough to see all of the nearby jungle.

We left there unfortunately early as we wanted to get back to Playa before dark sets in. We took the toll road back through Cancun and down to Playa and man was that a different experience! Two lanes, well marked and a consistent 110 km/hr the whole way to Cancun. Downside is a 258 peso toll, which is around $23…That’s an expensive road!

When we finally got back into Playa drop the car off, one of the monkeys at the car rental place almost tried to claim that we’d stolen or lost one of the car mats. Thankfully, the boss appeared out of nowhere from across the street and made the problem go away!

Leftover pasta for dinner and relaxing after a long day! Again, no photos until i get home, I think. Later!

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Mexico

A case of the Mondays

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We woke up early Monday, hoping to get to Tulum before any crowds. Made a quick breakfast of eggs and toast and dashed out the door to catch another colectivo down the coast.

This time we took it all the way from it’s start to finish, in the center of Tulum. The ruins are about a 2 minute bike ride from the center of town, as we discovered.

But first…rain. When we woke up it was sunny and bright in Playa. As we drove, clouds appeared. Then they got dark. Then they started spitting on us. Then they just opened up into an amazing downpour. Once in Tulum we found a cafe and sat and used the Wi-Fi while eating a baked good and drinking our caffeinated drinks until the rain stopped.

When you look up Tulum, biking is a thing. There are a ton of bike shops in town and it’s super easy to get a few bikes for the day. Just be sure to bring id to leave for the rental.

At this point, it was ridiculous out. Hot (Canada style) 28C weather, plus a ton of rain equals humidity of horror. Still not as bad as Cin’s wedding (where there was no wind), but pretty bad.

We cycled to Tulum ruinas, where we learned that “cycle Tulum” actually just means cycle TO the ruins. Once inside you had to walk. Which was ok by me, as I wanted to take a bunch of photos and cycling isn’t really good for stopping and being slow.

As we bought our tickets, we decided to get a tour guide. I remember in Guatemala that the tour guide was amazing and totally worth the price, and hoped we’d have a similar experience. We got a friendly Mexican lady who’s English was very good, but clearly was entirely related to her job – I had to help her with a few words as we talked and walked. That’s fine – communication is a two way street no matter the language.

This place is gorgeous! Clearly taken good care of, the ruins are roped off, with manicured dirt paths lined with wood, and freshly cut grass. The sky was blue, the grass was green, the ocean was turquoise and the ruins were a motley of greys. Just a really picturesque place.

After taking us though most of the place, our guide left us once we reached the top of the ruins – rather abruptly, but we were glad to have the time to wander and take more careful photos.

The rest is fairly boring. We had lunch at the “Coffee Bar+Restaurant”, which was edible but not delicious. After we ordered, our waitress brought me two Corona’s, saying it was a promotion. Well, alright. 🙂 I didn’t finish both, but made a good effort.

We wandered, booked Miranda’s birthday event and then cycled back to Tulum. I’m writing this on my phone on the bus back – strangely it seems that the bus is exactly as expensive as the colectivo…40 pesos each. We have lots of space between us and ac.

I think I’m going to post photos separately, when I get back, so i can do some processing on them. Sorry!

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