BAH Visits the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Cozumel -- Playa del Carmen -- Tulum -- Cancun -- Chichen Itza

While staying in Playa del Carmen, we took a day trip down to Tulum.  First thing when we got there, I heard a flute being played, looked up, and holy mackeral, there were the voladores, Mexico's legendary flying men.  I wouldn't have known what they were, except years ago I started a story in which they appear.  (I never finished the story, but at one time passed it on to Judi Rohrig, who added to it, and one day we'll actually get around to finishing it together.)  How amazing to actually get to see the voladores!  Had we arrived five minutes later, we would have missed their ceremony.  Life is full of such coincidences, I suppose.  I don't know how often they perform each day, but if they hadn't been on the pole, we would have missed them, as we passed through the area, toured the ruins, and then spent the rest of our time on the beach or snorkeling the reefs that day.

Here they are milling around what I presumed was their dressing room.  And if you think the bamboo and palm frond hut was for show, you're be wrong.  Everywhere we went, people lived in these sorts of hovels.  I was amazed when our guide in Chichen Itza told me that the roofs of these structures will actually last up to 25 years -- and this is in a climate where it rains 300 days out of the year!

Everyone knows I'm a critter lover, so I need to throw in a critter picture or two.  There were iguanas everywhere we looked in Tulum.  This one was sneaking up behind Betty when I shot his picture.

Now for the Mayan ruins at Tulum.  I don't know a lot about Tulum's history and we didn't pay for a guide here, so there's not a lot I can tell you about the structures in these shots.  It was an absolutely beautiful location, though.  I would love to have seen what it originally looked like, perched there on the cliffs over that beautiful Caribbean sea.

Betty and me.  This was the hottest damn day of the whole trip.  Bryan and Donna collapsed under some palm trees and told us to have fun.  Betty would have tuckered out, too, but I just dragged her along behind me.  I'd come thousands of miles, and  I wasn't about to sit in the shade.  That's how I am anyway; I'll go until I pass out, with little concern for health or safety.  Fortunately, I had Betty to slop sun block on me and make me drink plenty of water.

Ruins at Tulum.

More.

The primary temple.  Amazing that some 5 or 6 hundred years later that arch is still standing over the doorway to the courtyard.

The palm frond roof is a reconstruction to show you what the finished buildings might have looked like.

Tulum.  That's the main temple in the background.

Beautiful structure.  Typical of the Mayan.

Just south down the beach from the ruins, there are a couple bars, restaurants, and dive shops (lots of nice snorkeling and diving here!).  These are beach huts that you can rent for about $5 a night.  You have to bring your own hammock, 'cause there's nothing inside.  I would have really liked to have spent a few days here, soaking up the sun and exploring the reefs.  There's a near-in reef just offshore, there where the water gets darker, but the nice reef is out about a half a mile, there were you see the white of the breakers.  I actually tried to swim out that far, but the current was running too strong.

Underwater pictures are coming ... I have to get the film developed and then will have to scan the pictures in.  (I really need a digital camera that's waterproof!)  It turned so cloudy by the time we got our gear and got into the water, though, that I'm not sure how well the photos will turn out.  Stay tuned...