Day 2 on the Riviera Maya - Tulúm

---

Hola Amigos,

FRIDAY: Today, we went to Tulum, a site of Mayan ruins about 60 miles or so from our resort. We signed up for the "express" tour, which meant that we'd leave at about 7am and get back "a little after 1pm." At least, that's what the travel company's sales rep told us the previous day. We envisioned ourselves in a van cruising straight to Tulum, where we'd meet up with a guide, get the low-down on the place, swim a bit (Tulum is on the sea), dry off and grab a bit to eat and then come straight back home in the van. It didn't go down exactly like that. Here's the story...

CC and I, and another couple jumped on a big tour bus at 650am. The bus drove south to another resort, where it picked up about 11 or 12 other people. Then it went further south to a point where it stopped. We all got off of our bus and boarded another, as did tourists from another bus. This bus was full, and the tour leader grabbed the mic and for the remaining 30 minutes of the nearly two-hour voyage, told us what the rest of the trip would be like. He said it all in Spanish (for the benefit of an Argentine couple... and for me), and then did it again in English (for everyone else on the bus). He wrapped up his narration with a monster sales pitch about some silver cartouches that we'd be able to purchase upon arrival.

The bus parked and he led us straight to the silver merchant, with whom he was no doubt allied in some way. Most likely, he gets a cut of all business he brings them. CC and I weren't suckered into this ploy. After a few minutes of waiting around, we all headed towards the welcome shack and picked up our tickets. CC and the Argentinian couple and I headed off with Manuel, our Spanish-only tour guide while the remainder of the group headed off under the guidance of our bus guide.

Tulum means 'wall' in the language of the ancient Maya, and predictably, the entire site is walled in. It's rectangular in shape, about 560 feet wide and maybe 1,300 feet long. There are five "gates" to Tulum on its three walled sides, with the fourth side being a cliff that leads down to the Caribbean Sea. Tulum dates back to the 6th century and was abandoned around the 17th century. The site was used for ceremonial purposes, but also was a port for the city of Cobá (located maybe 60 miles inland, the ruins of which are about 20%!e(MISSING)xcavated vs. 80%!c(MISSING)overed by jungle). It's a really cool site. The Maya developed an amazingly accurate calendar, followed the movements of the moon and sun and were one of the first civilizations to conceive of the concept of zero. Pretty heady stuff for the early centuries after the birth of Christ. In fact, they constructed one of the temples at Tulum with a small hole in it, so that on the summer and winter solstices, the sunlight would shine directly through it. I've also seen structures in other sites in Mexico that had the same orientation. Again, crazy that they could accomplish all of this without modern tools and instruments - and they built these temples and building without any mortar!

Once our guided tour was complete (didn't take more than 40 minutes), CC and I went off to get in the ocean. We had to battle through a group of Spanish teenagers to find a piece of beach, but the water was fantastic once we got in. Very warm and green, featuring four- and five-foot swells. It had been two years since I'd swum in salt water. My eyes had forgotten the sting, but adapted quickly. After about fifteen minutes in the drink, we got out, toweled off and headed back towards the shopping area/parking lot for a snack and some knick-nacks.

Now, we thought/figured/expected that the trip back to the resort would be about an hour, just like we thought the trip down to Tulum would take a similar amount of time. However, we started back north and stopped at that same rendezvous point as before. We were told to stay on the bus, while others who were going to certain resorts got off to board another bus. Our bus must have stopped at about eight resorts before finally depositing us at the Sensatori's doorstep. The entire return trip took two incredibly, agonizingly, pee-building-up-in-our-bladders-ingly, robbing-us-of-much-desired-time-by-the-pool-ingly looooong hours. Our "express" trip to Tulum had turned into a kind of a sadistic death-march, led by the effete tour bus guide. It definitely didn't help our cause that our resort was so far away from Tulum.

CC and I went up to the room and got ready for some pool time. We enjoyed some swim-up piña coladas and lounged for a bit, prior to CC hitting the workout room and me hitting the couch to continue reading. We went to dinner that night at the resort's Caribbean-themed place, Zavas. We had some seafood bisque, some bread, and an appetizer of tostones (fried up plantains) and duck medallions. Main course was a beef scallop for me (I always thought scallops were fish, but this was a little hockey puck of beef and it was good), served with asparagus and taters. CC had some pork tenderloin. The whole meal turned out to be better than we'd expected.

That night, there was another get-together for all the wedding guests. We arrived late, but in time to see a ghost crab scuttle about on the sand near the steps down to the beach. On our trip earlier today, we saw a bunch of iguanas, pelicans and gulls. Very Wild Kingdom! From the beach reception, we all went back up to Mojitos. Tonight, instead of the ribaldry of the previous evening, there was an actual music & dancing show, themed after Hollywood movies and their famous tunes. So we got to see some numbers from Chicago and from Grease. Ever seen three Mexican guys dance and lip-sync to "Greased Lightning"? Well, we all have. The "John Travolta guy" was really something, let me tell you. The show ended around 1130pm and we cashed out soon thereafter.

Next, the story of the wedding!
Gracias por leer,
Kevin

---