Strip club rules at the ruins - no touching. #FromWhatIUnderstand
My quick thoughts on exploring ruins. I'm enchanted by them. Ruins are like hot tub time machines; gateways to another world. One marvels at how people were able to be so technologically savvy in a time when technology equaled a big rock. Yet while the first impression is always impressive, I've noticed because of my lack of sophistication, the final impression is not as strong. Once you start climbing around a few ruins, you're like "all right, cool. Now what?" That's what happens when you have a communication degree from UC-Santa Barbara and the memory of Guy Pierce in "Memento." Ruin fatigue. You've seen a few, you've seen them all. While that's obviously not the truth, it's a consistent state of mind for me. That said, I still love to explore them, with the onus that I get to climb them. There is no climbing in Chichen Itza and in Tulum, well, we'll get into that.
CHICHEN ITZA
So I almost didn't make it here. I was going to take the ADO bus from Playa del Carmen to Chichen Itza. It's around a 4-hour drive, $26US each way. I decided to go on my own, but there are myriad tours you can get from PDC that are just a few dollars more. The bus departs at 8a sharp, so I set my alarm at 7. It didn't go off, but my buddy just happened to be getting home from the evening's festivities that same time and woke me up. I got to the station around 7:40a to purchase tickets, but they don't accept credit cards and if I bought the ticket then I wouldn't have any cash left. That would be a bad idea, so I hopped in a taxi to take me back to the condo. Cab driver said that would be easy, but then when we already started driving, he mentioned there was a marathon so there would be several streets blocked. Cabbie ended up driving me further from my condo! 50 pesos down the drain, someone ain't getting postcards! I sprint to my pad, grab my ATM card and any money I have left, and "run" (apparently all that cardio at the gym has been worthless) back to the station to beat the bus. I get back at 7:58, buy my ticket with a real cushy 4-minutes to spare (the bus was 2 minutes late). That said, the run has left me sweating like I just played a double overtime game in the NBA playoffs. I apologize to the kind French man and his two pre-pubescent daughters for whatever stench may have been emanating. On the bright side, this bus ride was amazeballs! For the first time all trip, I could sleep! Four hour bus ride? Hell, make it 5! I fell asleep immediately, didn't wake up until basically looking at this bad boy, El Castillo, aka the Temple of Kukulcan. It was built around 800 AD by the Mayans. Unfortunately, you can no longer climb this, as there were too many tourist accidents (read: deaths).
El Caracol, the observatory. I don't know anything about this other than it was probably used for observing stuff. Honestly, I motored thru the ruins pretty quickly because I wanted to save time to hit up a cenote - sinkholes where you can go diving and swimming. Plus, not being able to climb anything was a letdown.
Plaza de las mil columnas. There was once a roof here. But the weather destroyed it a long time ago.
This is either cenote Sagrado or cenote Xtaloc. These are not the cenotes to go swimming in. Unless you want tapeworms.
What is this? Your guess is as good as mine.
There's a ton of merchants trying to sell you stuff while walking around. Maybe more than tourists.
Snake. You ever play Snake on a calculator? TI-82? I'm dating myself here, but that was a great time waster during physics class. On an unrelated note, I suck at science.
The Mayans used to throw some sort of ball thru this loop. Don't know what the game was, but did Naismith draw inspiration here??!
Cenote Ik-Kil. I asked a cabbie to take me to the closest cenote to Chichen Itza, because I couldn't risk missing my return bus. This place is about 5 minutes away. Fun little jump off point. Not very high, maybe 15-feet at the highest to jump off. The water was a comfortable temperature. There's a bunch of tiny shark looking fish. Or maybe they looked like tiny catfish. Whatever, there's a bunch of those swimming around.
Another look. Unfortunately they won't let you jump from this height. That would be more core.
Vines.
From above.
Ceviche back at Chichen Itza before taking off. And once again, that bus ride was heavenly! #NothingButSleep
TULUM
So we got up around noon the day we went to Tulum, which is around 45-60 minutes south of Playa del Carmen. After a couple pit stops, we set up base at Playa Paraiso around 2p. I ordered some ceviche (good everywhere in this area), then decided to walk to the ruins along the beach, which looked like it was about a 1-hr walk away.
This spot is nice if you like enticingly warm water, soft sand, models getting photographed, and topless sunbathing. If you don't like that stuff, it's still nice.
As I walked towards the ruins, I discovered the beach ended. I met a woman who said even though there wasn't a real path, I could still walk over the rocks and reach the ruins. She said it was totally worth it, about half-a-mile away, and she did it yesterday. So I listened. Climbed through some rocks, saw a decent view - and then encountered a fence.
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She a lie! This was the end of the road. Gorgeous and all, but that's a cliff right there with a large drop-off. I'd have to turn around. Needless to say, I was not pleased with this woman.
All along the beach, there are several dudes running boat rides over to the ruins to give people a better look at them from the water. Problem is, they won't drop you off at the beach there. In fact, the ruins actually close at 430p. Seeing as how this was as close to the ruins as I'd get, I hopped on a boat for about $13 US.
The beautiful beach right below the ruins. I can only imagine how nice the view is from there! But I bet they wish they got a boat ride!
Not gonna complain too much. This is still pretty sweet. Back lit photo but whatever.
As is customary of my blogs, by the time I write my last entry of a certain vacation, fatigue sets in (surely for the reader, as well!). Therefore, what has now also become customary, my recollection of exploring Mayan ruins in Tikal National Park in Guatemala, and cave tubing in Belize - will be reviewed via photos! Yay!
That's a boarding pass at the San Pedro airport. For a 7am flight, we got to the airport at 6:40-ish. Costs around $35US to fly one-way to Belize City.
Not that a 7a flight was easy. #ReasonsUndisclosed
This plane did not have any issues with 5-oz liquids.
Or cameras being right up in the cockpit.
Hasta, San Pedro.
Part of the Belize-Guatemala border. Yeah. Not too exciting.
Guatemalan cow welcoming us.
So according to Fodors, seeing Tikal is along the same must-see human structures like Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat. With that type of hype, I figured I had to go see it, as the likelihood of being down in this area again seemed slim. There are several tours out of San Pedro, either day tours or overnight tours. We did an overnight with Belizejungletrek.com, who I'd highly recommend. The owner, Jovan, is very accommodating and tries to tailor each trip to the customer's needs.
There are around 4000 total structures at Tikal, according to our guide. The Mayans originally settled there around 900 BC, but most of the huge temples seen were built between the 600-900 AD.
From a bird's eye view, you can't really see to much. This was for protective purposes. I'd liken it to how the Merry Men lived in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves." Wait - they lived in trees. Maybe that doesn't work. This is the view from the tallest temple in Tikal.
Temple IV.
Steps.
A sign leading to Jeff Goldblum's house.
Shadows.
Grassy noll? Not quite, there's actually a huge temple underneath all this foliage. Only 10% of Tikal has been fully excavated. So when you see what appear to be grassy hills, you're actually looking at temples that haven't been dug out. As our guide mentioned, the archaeologists down there like to go nice and slow for job protection! Why do something today if you can do it tomorrow? Hmmm….
The previous picture could look like this under all the grass!
The city plaza area. This is where they had bonfires and listened to Mumford and Sons records.
That temple has a Gisele-effect on photos - just makes them look better.
Tikal. The Ruins.
Word.
This is a rough model of what's been excavated at Tikal thus far. It helps you realize what you're looking at, because otherwise you can't see the ruins for the trees.
The view from our hotel in San Ignacio. Great view. Awful hotel. Don't stay at the Cahal Pech Village Resort. The pics look rad, the website's solid. Mosquitos flying around, towels and bed sheets were debatably clean, shower curtain broken, no soap holder in shower, and the most annoying of all - the bathroom faucet spout doesn't extend far enough into the sink, so your hands have to touch the sink. Ugh. The lodging was included in our tour deal.
As were some bomb breakfast burritos from this hole-in-the-wall. Eggs, ham, bacon, cheese, and beans for $1.50US. What a deal! Oddly, Mickey's Snack Shop doesn't have a website. #ActuallyIDidntCheckAndAmOnlyAssuming
They're big "Wire" fans here. Only saw one "Marlo" sign.
So cave rafting in Belize is a fun, seemingly unique Belizean attraction. We went to Nohoch Che'en, about an hour outside of San Ignacio, which features a series of large, dark caves that you can float through.
Our cave entrance point.
There's a slight difference between cave tubing and cave rafting. Rafting is currently only available thru my man, Jovan, at Belize Jungle Trek. Instead of a small inner tube, which is attached to other tubes so people don't get separated from their groups, rafting gives you more of an inflatable raft and paddle, offering far more independence on the tour.
Most of the cave pics are too dark to see anything. It's a relaxing float. It's very much like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, without the large drunk lady chasing random pirates. If you could bring an inner tube with a cooler, it might be even that much better. Just saying…
From the outside looking in. Altogether you float about 3/4-mile.
Selfie because I wanted to show off that amazing playoff beard. #HairyBeast
After a relaxing float, this guy was cutting up fresh coconuts. The coconut water was delicious, then he offered to add free local rum, so of course I said sure. That was a mistake. Dude poured like 5 shots into this thing. It's 10:30am!!! I'm not looking to turn up right now!!
