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.

Média and Chichén Itzá

From the jungles of Palenque I took a night bus to the city of Média. Média is a starting point for the many Mayan ruins in the Yucatán Peninsula. Média itself isn't really all that exciting. Like most towns in Mexico it has its own Zócalo, old buildings, cobblestone streets, and colonia heritage. Média is unique in that it is my first stopping point in the famous Yucatán Peninsula.

Without much fanfare I arrived in Média very early in the morning. The night bus was extremely cold so I didn't get to much sleep. Imediatly after getting off the bus I was met by a guy trying to sell his hostel. He offered a good rate (50 pesos), and a free ride there. Since it was about 5 in the morning I took him up on the offer. Myself and a few other travelers from the bus piled into his beatup 1980s Crysler car and headed off to the hostel.

Once everything was settled at the hostel, three of us decided to take an adventure out to the ruins of Chichén Itza. My companions were an English guy named Dave and a Brazilan girl named Telma. After wondering around the city for about an hour we found a bus to Chichén Itza.

After about 3 hours on the bus we finally arrived at Chichén Itza. The stupid guidebook was wrong again (thanks Lonely Planet) and instead of 1.5 hours it was 3. I never knew it could take so long to go about 60 km.

Chichén Itza is a very famous ruin of the ancient Mayan people. You've probably seen pictures of its famous time temple pyramid on the cover of some magazine or book. The buildings here were in very good shape and awesome in size and standing. The only problem were the thousands of tourists that flocked the area. We commonly joked about the fat american tourists not being able to climb up and down the pyramid. I guess thats what to many McDonalds burgers does to you.

The next day we (Dave, Telma, and I) were going to catch a bus to Uxmal. However, ourselves being lazy slept in to late and we just ended up laying around the city most of the day. We did go for a walk around the city visiting sights such as the Paseo de Montejo with its famous old buildings on each side of a grand boulvard.

Média's Zócalo

Around the Paseo de Montejo

That night we joined forces with some other travelers in our hostel (two New Zealanders and two Italians) and went on an attemped pub crawl. We walked around the city for an hour until we finally stopped at some noname bar. The noname bar was ok though. They were playing salsa and merenge music to my delight. After a few drinks I got some of the girls in our group to dance salsa and merenge. The better highlight of the night was the constant stream of mexican guys trying to hit on the girls in our group. One guy got kicked out the the bar. Apparently he said something rather bad about someones mom who worked at the bar. These same guys were alright though. They liked to pound pitchers of beer and try to talk to us in broken english.