Getting My Hair Wet

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Another early morning, yey! I woke up dreaming of hockey and realized I hadn't booked a distillery tour for this upcoming weekend so I sent Alex to the bathroom whi!e I did that. Then I headed in to get ready. 2 seconds later Alex was telling through the door that we were running late and needed to leave ASAP. So a quick rush through my routine and off we went. I snagged our bag of pastries from the kitchen on the way out.

It was chilly! The rain from the day before ble away the humidity and left a breeze. I was wishing for my jacket by the time we made it to the hotel for pick up. Once we got there, I pulled out a pastry while waiting for the Go Mexico bus ( we managed to get a hotel pickup this time, learning!) but somehow the bugs found our treats over the night and got into them. I threw away the whole bag! Ugh! Thank goodness for granola bars. Luckily Alex emptied the remaining boxes of them into his backpack this morning.

Bus pickup went without a hitch. Transferred us to the Plaza Las Fiesta just in time to buy some waters for the day (we were not doing plus this time so are on our own for drinks) and walk onto the next bus. We bad a 2 ish hour drive down the coast to Tulum so Alex, yup you guessed it, slept while I listened to the schedule and details for the day. We made it to our first stop of the tour, Tulum Archeological Site.

We combined with one other bus and had a massive group for our tour. With our basic package we had a pleasant 1 km walk to the entrance (the Plus people shuttled over but we still beat them there). Split into language groups our English speaking guide took us around the ruins to explain some more of the Mayan culture and purpose of the buildings we could see. Being right on the water, Tulum was a trade city with about 500 Noble / middle class in the walls and 8000+ lower outside along the coast. One of the main gods worshipped in Tulum was Venus. He was the god of fertility and there was a special Temple just for him along side the Sun gods big Temple. They had a great view of the ocean too. We had free time after the tour to explore before heading back to the bus.

Next the bus took us to Coba, about an hour away. Even I napped this trip. We stopped for a traditional Mayan food buffet lunch. The food is fairly bland, so it wasn't bad but not spectacular either. It did well to fill us up through. By this point the weather was perfect, a nice warm sun with a little breeze and lower humidity. A five minute bus ride took us to the next ruins site in Coba. This one I am excited about because it is the only one on the Yucatan Peninsula you can still climb. Our guide had 15 minutes of architectural information to share with us but with what he made out to be limited time we skipped it and headed straight to the temple. The Plus folks got bikes and peddle taxis were carrying people to the temple. We walked to it in 15 minutes... Easy walk and flat. Up 122 stairs and we were at the top of once was one of the most prosperous areas of Mayan civilization. What a sight! With such flat land you got a great view of the expansive jungle. We bounced our way back down wth Alex getting stuck behind some height sensitive people. I cruised down the stairs. At the bottom we still had plenty of time so we mossied through the rest of the ruins taking pictures. I even sacrificed Alex on one of the alters and put him on the smaller temple's stairs. Hope the gods like him as much as I do. Finishing the rounds we grabbed a soda and Oreo ice cream cone before getting on the bus.

A short 20 minute ride took us to a nearby Cenote. This one, unlike the one near Chichen Itza, was underground and not open. We changed into swimsuits, took a shower, and descended a set of stairs to a cave fun of crystal clear water. You could see all the way to the bottom of the 30 foot deep pool. The water felt chilly upon first entry, but you adjusted to it quickly. It was very refreshing and a nice swim. Luckily we had the GoPro with us so hopefully we got some good video we can pull pictures from at home. The 40 minutes we got there went quickly and before we knew it we were changing, climbing on the bus, and heading back. Hours later we made it to the Hotel Zone and got to be the last stop at 9pm. Just as we exited the bus to Adhara Hacienda, it started to pour. We ran back but where soaked through. Pity since we were starving, but instead we waited out the rain and made it out for food just before 10pm.

We walked to one of the closest places - McDonald's. I always enjoy going to that restaurant (if you can call it that) in other countries. They do such a good job of staying standard while still adopting to the country. I liked that here the menu was pick you sandwich, pick your drink (more options than just soda), and your side (including new things like chili cheese balls and potatoes wedges). I picked the best named sandwich, McNifico which is just a hamburger with everything on it. I couldn't stray from fries due to my craving but boy was I tempted to try the cheese balls. Alex had an interesting time trying to figure out how to not get mustard on his burger. We eventually got there. I was so hungry I inhailed my sandwich and Alex actually had to stop me from doing the same to my fries so that wouldn't get sick. We shared an Oreo McFlurry, which really was more of an Oreo Hot Fudge sundae since they didn't mix it. Great end to the day.

When we got back to our room we were too tired to do anything despite the need to pack since we were moving to the Resort the next day. Oh well no time commitment tomorrow, so off to bed.

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