Travels Around The World

Tulum

From the city of Média I took a bus to the famous city of Tulum on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. Tulum is about 2.5 hours from my final destination of Cancún. Unlike its glitzy neighbor Cancún, Tulum isn't as built up.

The first thing that greeted me in Tulum was a huge rainstorm. This was no ordinary rainstorm, this storm was one that would stop just about anything in its path (except our bus of course). Fortunately the bus station was covered so I was able to sort things out before I got completely drenched. With things sorted out I headed out to the Rancho Tranquilo, a hostel about 500m away.

While only 500 meters away, I was completely soaked when I arrived. At the hostel I managed to get the very last dorm bed. It seemed as if every backpacker decided to come to Tulum. After checking in and getting everything set I ventured back outside for some food. By now the storm had gone its way and the rest of the evening was quite peaceful.

My first stop was for some cheap tacos back near the bus station. After fulfilling my desire for some corn and meat, I wondered around the town. As it turned out the city was having some sort of free public concert. Being a bit thirsty I walked over to the nearest minimart, bought a beer, and then took a seat at the concert. After trying to decipher the Spanish for a while I came to the realization that I was attending some sort of latin christian rock concert. Oh man, quite a place to be drinking a beer.

After quickly finishing my beer I walked over to the Weary Traveler, a hip hostel that has a bar. While the bartender was no where to be found there, I decided to join a group of Europeans and talk the talk. Shortly after the bar closed and all of us decided to find another bar in town. We ended up at some reggae-like bar full of travelers. There were no Mexicans to be found at this place. This seemed to be the norm in the tourist infested Yucatan. After what seemed like too long and nearly falling asleep multiple times I walked back to my hostel for some much deserved rest.

The next day the sun was shining and all evidence of yesterday's storm was gone. With good weather I got some breakfast and jumped on a bus to the Mayan ruins of Cobá. The ruins of Cobá were totally unlike the other ruins I had seen previously. These ruins were deep in the jungle and had hardly been restored. They probably look about the same as they did 50 years ago. This and the fact that they are surrounded by jungle are the highlights. The structures themselves aren't all that spectacular.

Ruins at Cobá

The ruins of Cobá do have a few cool structures. The highlight of the structures is a large pyramid like structure that is the tallest structure in the northern Yucatan. The climb to the top was steep and challenging as all the steps were uneven and slippery. However the view from the top was quite amazing as you could look out into the jungle for miles and miles.

Tallest structure at Cobá

The climb up

The view from the top

The next day I continued my tour of the ancient Mayan ruins. This time I went to the ruins of Tulum out on the beach. These ruins were from one of the last Mayan cities held in the region. They were inhabited up until the mid 1500s and were the base of one of the last Mayan strongholds in the region.

Tulum Ruins

The ruins themselves weren't all that spectacular. However, what makes the ruins of Tulum so unique is their setting. The ruins are right on the beach and the combination of ruins, white sand beaches, and turquoise waters were quite amazing. Unlike many of the other ruins, these were being overrun by all the American tourists that come to Cancún to relax for a week or two. It was odd to hear so many Americans ass they were so uncommon throughout the other regions.

The ruins and the beach below

Don't you wish you were here

The next day I set out for Cancún to catch my plane. The bus ride ended up going quite smoothly. The only strange event was while I was eating lunch near the Cancún bus station. I was eating lunch at a place that was probably not frequented by foreigners very often. While I was eating, some old guy came up to me and started talking in broken English. Being a bit stubborn I would answer him back in Spanish. He kept trying to tell me he could protect me and that he was good at fighting. After a while I got quite sick of him and told him to go away. He wouldn't leave so I grabbed my pack, paid, and made for the bus station. On my way out everyone looked at me strongly. I was thinking....what are you looking at, it was the other guy who was crazy.

Posted by todd at December 5, 2005 05:06 PM