After 4 days in Playa Del Carmen it was time to escape. Destination – Tulum.
Only an hour south of Playa we were fairly laid back about getting a bus there. Maybe we shouldn’t have been – getting a second class bus and sitting in the aisle on the floor is no where near as comfortable as an actual seat.
(We are trying to smile through it. Lesson learnt!)
Technically Tulum is on the coast, but the town is around 3-4kms inland, with a highway through the middle. Kinda like a giant truck stop. But it did have groovy cafes and bars with 2 for 1 drink specials, clearly used to the backpacker trade.
(Authentic! Corona delivery in Mexico!)
The ruins is what people come to see. A walled city built around AD 1200 on the stunning cliffs overlooking the water. Different to other pyramid ruins I had seen, back in the day this was a whole city. A large open area scattered with palm trees and archeologists trying their best to preserve the site. At the bottom of the cliff you can swim in a beautiful little cove/beach which was packed with tourists trying to cool off. And the place was crawling with iguanas…pun intended!
We also visited some cenotes, or sink holes, formed from the limestone surroundings. Some of them are literally holes in the ground that you jump into, others were bigger and had decking around them. The whole area has a maze of underground tunnels and caves that you can dive through. You can pretty much dive through any of them, though I wasn’t keen be underground and squeezed through a tunnel that only fits one human and their dive gear. I snorkeled instead.
(View from above)
(Swimming in the cenote)
(See – Dead Man’s Passage! Crazy!)
(Sunset with a storm blowing in)
