The main idea of coming to Tulum was to have a bit of a rest from touring life. We found last year without a break was quite tiring, so we factored in a break this time. The beach here is beautiful, almost as good as my favourite beach in the world at Caloundra. The view from our balcony looked resplendent this morning once we rose from a sleep in.
We didn’t have any set plans for the morning, so we went and sat at the beach for a while. I went for a bit of a walk to take some more photos. The wildlife is quite abundant here with Iguana Lizards, Pelicans, Sandpipers, Herons and some noisy little black birds. Unfortunately, with all the plastic bottle usage, there’s lots of junk on the beach, once you walk outside of the manicured zone.
In the afternoon we had a tour to the ruins of Coba, an ancient Mayan city. There are still quite a number of people descended from the original Mayan civilisation still living near Tulum. Coba peaked between 200 and 600 AD before it was overrun by the neighbouring Chichen tribes by 839 AD. The ruins themselves are interesting, the largest being Mohuch Mul (pictured below). It is 42m high and is quite steep and uneven. We climbed most of the way up, too a photo and came down again. There are other smaller pyramids in the area that you can go to on the way, which is by bicycle. Deb found that riding a bike is just like riding a bike… you don’t really forget.
After we rode our bikes back we the group split in to the adventurous young people who went zip lining (not in Mexico I say!) and the rest of us met a local Mayan family who live near the tourist park (coincidentally), so we did some played with some clay attempting pottery. I ended up with some clay sludge in no particular shape or form. I maintain that it represented “Man’s inhumanity to Man”. This was followed by some homemade Tortillas and they also produce honey from local stingless bees. It was mildly interesting, however we did finish the tour feeling ultimately disappointed considering what we had paid for it.
We finished the tour with a buffet dinner and a cultural show which was pretty interesting as they demonstrated a ball game that they used to play along with a whole bunch of ceremony that went with it. In hindsight, I did want to see some ruins, however we weren’t sure that we couldn’t have just caught a taxi there for a lot less money… but I’ll stop complaining now.
We have another day of relaxation here tomorrow, so may be a short blog tomorrow.
Until Tomorrow!
Rob's "Beats Working" Blog 