TULUM

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Thursday 26th August

Well, we missed the bus. shock horror. still a bit slow from last night. No worries, it cost us 5 pounds each to get to our next destination. 2 hour bus journey.
Tulum is situated on the carribean coast of Mexico and boasts some of the most beautiful beaches in this area. We hailed a taxi and arrived at the Playa Azul hotel which is situated in the si'an kaan biosphere reserve. Most of this area is protected and they are big on eco friendly pratices such as preservation of local species and plants. Most buildings are called cabanas which are traditional wooden shacks with limestone walls and are built using non contaminants, plastics or concrete. This place is absaloutly beautiful. It has that carribean feel to it and our cabana has a sea view with hammock outside on our porch. within ten minutes of getting the keys im on the hammock chilling out listening to the waves crashing on the shore less than 50 metres away.

We went for chicken fajitas and beef tortillas at the restaurant here and it was fantastic. Jill had a bottle of Leon which is a local black beer!!! nice name, tastes minging!! The restaurant has ocean view on a 180 degree view from the window and the cool breeze off the sea was very welcoming!!

Definatey an early night after last nights fiasco! The heat is unbearable in bed as we now have mosquito nets and the air con doesnt make it through the net!!! its the price you pay for not being bitten i suppose. Touch wood, i dont get bitten often. we sprayed our deet spray over ourselves for added protection and tried to sleep. jill nodded off ok but felt like i was sitting in a sauna and couldnt get to sleep. On with the laptop to watch a movie. That soon put me to sleep.

Friday 27th August

wow. again we are pinching ourselves at the beauty of this place when we woke up. The bugs had a feel day munching into jill and she is bitten in about 5 places. me? not a thing. Maybe im too smelly!! We've just had some granola and yogurt for breakfast and are now off to the beach to chill out and read our books. Jill fell asleep so i sneaked a couple of mojitos in and then i also zonked out. Its fine to have a chilling day without anything planned. When we finally got showered and changed we hauled off for a meal onn the seaaside restaurant which was great. I had shrimps and linguini, jill had chicken and cactus tortilla's. all very nice with a little kick as we have come to expect from mexicaan food. We spent the rest of the evening snuggled up on the hammock watching a couple of movies on the laptop, occasionally swatting off the bugs!! Its roasting in the hammock tent that is our bed!!! ive managed to manipulate the movable aircon machine onto a chair and elevate it so its blowing into our bed now. result!!

Saturday 28th August

We had a taxi ordered to take us to the tulum ruins which are about 5 miles away. On arrival we are greeted by a mexican lady who was well chuffed we were from scottish as her great grandad was from argyle...We haad a quick chat about her time in scotland and then she told us about our schedule for the day, which involved catching a tractor pulled carriage to the ruins and also to meet our english speakin guide there who was called juan. We had breakfast and jumped on the carriage which took about ten minutes to take us to the outer walls of Tulum.

We walked to the gates and now we started to see large iguana's sitting around the trees and shaded areas. Tulum has architecture typical of Maya sites on the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. On the southwest and northwest corners there are small structures which are like watch towers, showing again how well defended the city would have been. There are five narrow gateways in the wall with two each on the north and south sides and one on the west. Near the northern side of the wall a small cenote would have provided the city with fresh water. This impressive wall makes Tulum one the most well known fortified sites of the Maya, as we walked along about 200 metres of it until we actually entered the site and its impressive so far. Have mentioned its blooming hot yet!! we are melting!! Juan our guid has a brolly with him!! shade needed in the open areas!!
Juan explains a little bit about the rectangle wall that protects this site and also the significance of the cross in the middle of that rectangle that signifies the center of a person or the bellybutton. Also he tells us a little of the choice of location of this site as its protected by the sea and its winds on one side and its high enough away from the marshland on the other. interesting stuff!

We cut into the site through the large 3 metre thick wall into the site and ....wow!! as promised, well preserved with immaculate gardens and paths. We stop first at a priests temple which had a burial chamber in its center and it had a patio outside it. The reason the priest's temple was here was because like chichen itza, only the noble and royals lived within the walls and the common people lived outside it. The priest wouldve been a go between as his house was right at the gate through the wall to either side.
In the central precinct is the Castillo. (the castle) This shrine marks a break in the barrier reef that is opposite the site out to sea, so it must have acted as a lighthouse at one point. We passed the waterhole, various structures and foundations and its easy to imagine now how these buildings looked like now after being in chichen itza 3 days ago. In the very center we arrived at the bellybutton! This temple is where the shamen lived and was considered powerful and almighty. Its here that we could easily see the murals on the wall that when deciphered to us alot about this site. Unlike the mayans from itza they did not kill no sacrafice there own but they were more into their stars,religion and trading of goods.
Recent discoveries such as jade, gold, salt and obsidian in this area proves that this was a major trading post throughout the whole of mexico. Juan told us more stuff about the methods of building aswell as the rituals they had and by now now we were burning in the bakin heat!! Time out!! Juan left us to our own devices and we went to explore the seafront areas.

Here there is a cove and landing beach in a break in the sea cliffs that would have been perfect for trading canoes coming in, it outstanding scenery. postcard stuff!! turquoise colour sea and pure white sands. We wandered out the site under the tree canopies trying to stick to the shade whilst avoiding the ambushing iguana's who just wanted a bit of shade too!!

So that was that, back on the tractor pulled carriage and away home on a taxi. Cold showers all round and a wee siesta on the hammock. 3pm and we toddled off down to the beach for a couple of margaritas and sat and talked about the relation and differences between the two mayan sites we had seen this week.

Saturday 28th August

Horrendous sleep last night. It was so hot and humid that a storm broke out above us and it rained for about two hours. When it finally stopped at 4am the temperature dropped and we managed to get a wee bit of sleep. Saturday was spent on the beach drinking marguaritas, reading and swimming in the sea until dusk. We got showered and changed and headed out to a local mexican restaurant that was recommended. I had a tex mex burger...yikes!! would you like some beefburger with your chilli's?! it was afa fine though. Jill had Chicken fajitas which were fine too. Off home for early night as we are checking out tomorrow and we dont want a repeat performance of ealrier in the week! ! We've had a change of plan from the itinery. We are missing out bacalar lagoon and chetumal and we're just going to head straight for Caye Caulker in Belize. 2 days more there sounds more appealing. nite.x

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Photos

tulum ruin site
rectangle layout of the whole site represents heaven and earth with a center point. the belly button of a human being the center.

priests temple
burial chamber in center of ruin. He lived here by the gates as he was the go between the royals who lived inside the walls and the common people who lived outwith it.

us in tulum
el castillo in background

el castillo
Tulum was occupied during the late Postclassic period around AD 1200

Comments

[des]

fron the city of envy
Well you guys seem to be having a ball, here in ABZ and the big red well what can I say .......................not a feckin lot,,, really enjoy your blog adventure, take care