On to Tulum!

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Well the heatwave in Mexico was showing no signs of easing, but we kinda hoped that we would get some more of a sea breeze in Tulum. Rented a 'Dodge' car in Playa for 4 days, worked out at 10 dollars each a day so was fairly cheap. Terry decided he would be the designated driver-we'll talk more about that later...anyway the car had air conditioning so that was all that mattered. In fact for the next few days all we wanted to do was to sit in the car with the a/c on full blast!

Headed south of Playa to Tulum..the town is about 4km from the ruins and the beach so there are lots of 'cabañas' or wooden huts along the beach where you can stay, the beach near the ruins is really beautiful so it's no surprise that everyone wants to stay here and not in the town which is fairly ugly. We didn't expect the cabañas to be so expensive after the low-cost luxury we were used to in Playa so we drove around quite a bit to find somewhere to stay. Hopping in and out of the car we were savaged by mosquitos and then Terry accidentally reversed the car into a gatepost and it got a bit of a dent and lost a bit of paint..oops! We eventually went back to the canañas closest to the ruins (where we stayed in 2004-Din, Gar, Cecil you guys know all about it!). Had a few (too many) cocktails at the bar (Lecheee!) and then ended up at a beach/boat party followed by a cards match with some Belgian dudes in their cabaña. Basically the next day we were fairly hungover, full of mosquito bites, our stuff covered in sand and had very little sleep because of the serious heat and we only had a small fan in the room for the few hours of electricity during the night. So the plan to stay there another night was scrapped and we found a lovely place back in town so everyone was a bit happier.

We headed out in the car to the ruins at Coba..an ancient Maya city whose ruins are now scattered across a huge area in the jungle. It was seven years since myself and Terry were here so it was really nice to see the city again and climb the big temple - 'El Castillo'. The best thing that happened though was a lovely shower of rain which was so nice after the savage heat!

After wandering around the ruins we drove a couple of miles from Coba to a couple of 'cenotes' which are pools which are usually underground and are often inside caves, found all over this part of Mexico. These two cenotes were really amazing and as there were only a couple of people around we almost had the place to ourselves. The first one was very humid though, and we could only stay there for 15 mins...Kev gave us a fright by almost fainting on the stairs out of the cave. The second place was deep underground, with a wooden spiral staircase down to a huge pool and a couple of (high) platforms for diving off..of course Terry couldn't leave without diving off the highest one (I tried to attach a video-hope it works but don't show Frances!!).

Well we had our last Mexican meal in an Argentinian restaurant (hopefully we'll experience the real thing in a few months)....The next day Kev flew back home and Terry returned the car to Playa - thankfully we got away with the scratch, we thought we would be stung for that. We then headed for the border and on to Belize... Adios Mexico y Bienvenidos Belize!!!

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Photos

There's always one Paddy at every party!
Random guy from somewhere in Dublin on the beach in Tulum-don't remember his name..oops!

Belgian Dudes
Proof that the cardgame 'Shithead' exists outside of Ratoath...we had a challenge match after a long night on the beach. (I am the international 'Shithead' loser)

Ciara at Tulum
The beautiful beach st the Mayan ruins in Tulum

Me and Ciara after climbing 'El Castillo'
Very sweaty.

Comments

[Ger]

Well
Alright lads, Photos look fantastic, am well jealous sitting here in rainy éire. Fair play Terry, best bombdive yet - you could get an bombdiving allstar at the end of the year if you keep that up. Right, back to the work, Ger