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Published: March 18th 2011
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While in Playa del Carmen, we also took a daytrip to
Tulum. Tulum is just about an hour bus ride from Playa del Carmen, so it was an easy trip... or at least it should have been. 😊
We ended up going into the city of Tulum after missing the bus stop for the Tulum ruins. This was good and bad. The good was that we were able to walk around and see the city. The bad was we ended up walking about five miles (at least) to the ruins. You may ask "Why didn't you take a taxi?". Well, my handy-dandy Tulum map was not drawn to scale and, so, the distance from the city to the coast was three or four miles but appeared a short walk away on the map. By the time we figured that out, we thought we might as well walk the rest of the way.
Still, it was a good walk and we had a laugh over it. Also, if we hadn't have done that, we would have missed the awesome beach restaurant south of the Tulum ruins.
It took awhile to get to the coast even after we were right
next to it since a lot of resorts were blocking access. These weren't the Cancun type resorts where a building blocks access... this was fencing enclosing in large park-like resorts. They looked like they would be wonderful for a relaxing vacation (where Cancun is more... upbeat).
Once on the beach, we were both amazed at its beauty and how clear the water was. It was the calm and uncrowded tropical paradise I had been yearning and dreaming to see for years. Granted, I've been to a lot of beaches, but none that quite hit the "tropical paradise" ideal. Either it was too crowded, cold, the water too murky or choppy, etc. This was perfect.
Yet, it wasn't over. As we walked along the beach we were both thirsty and hungry. We came across an open air beach restaurant, which was part of a resort, that was *on* the beach... the floor was sand. Yet, it was spacious and had a full menu. We picked a table right next to the door and had a great view of the water. We got something to drink and ate a pizza and then continued our trek to the Tulum ruins.
We could see the ruins from the coast as we walked along at water's edge... however, their was a fence blocking access from the beach, so we headed back to the road and walked around to the entrance.
The park itself was calm and walkways were well placed and pleasant. The park landscape was also well designed, cared for, and beautiful. We walked some forested area before entering the park. The ruins were, well, ruins. You can see from the photos. We read some of the signs to learn more about it and how it was a key trading port for the Mayans... and what a beautiful trading port!
We then walked up to the top which overlooked the ocean and the coast below. We could see quite a ways in both directions.
From there we walked around some more before exiting the park. Along the way, I saw probably the largest mosquito I've ever seen land on my mom's bag. It was about as wide as a nickel and I could see easily see its proboscis (it's syringe-like tube for piercing and drawing blood from hosts). I cringed just at the thought of being bitten by
one of them. I killed it, but still we were being swarmed quite a bit.
To get back to Tulum, we went to catch a taxi. However, they wanted too much and it annoyed me... they wouldn't back down off of their price so we walked to the other entrance to try to catch the bus. However, we came across a colectivo (a van that transports people between towns/resorts/parks/etc. in the
Riviera Maya. It was about the same cost as the bus and yet got us there a lot faster. It is also more of an adventure to ride a colectivo than a bus.
Overall, the trip out was far and away worth it. Tulum is a place I would love to go for a relaxing vacation to just "be" and rest. Granted, there are other places similar in the Riviera Maya... but the main thing for me is that a beach is clean, beautiful, and uncrowded. Tulum has that and yet still has plenty of public access. The ruins were also cool see and walk around and it was a fun adventure for us.
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