Adventures with Yaxi III: The Beach Portion
I think this will be my last time on the internet before I depart Mexico, so this is the last installment.
Chichen Itza was impressive and not too crowded, even though we ignored the tour books and spent the morning exploring Izamal instead of getting there first thing. When we got to the cenote it was already late afternoon. We descended down a narrow stone passageway before emerging into a huge cavern half-full of water. There was a tiny hole through which the sunlight drifted down to us. Tree roots fell in lines from the roof to the surface of the water, and stalactites reached down through the water toward the bottom of the cavern, below us as we swam. It was chilly, but beautiful, in its own intriguing way.
We spent the final night of Canranval in Valladolid, which wasn´t that impressive to me- the tour books cite it as an example of a Colonial city, but we´d already stayed in two of those. We had dinner at the best place in town- an old colonial mansion converted to a hotel and restaurant. The tables surrounded an open coutyard garden, complete with fountain. Then we emerged into the fiesta, danced in the street, and collapsed into a very early sleep.
Yesterday we woke up in Valladolid, toured a small but exhausting museum about Valladolid ´s role in starting the 1857-1900 Caste War, and the Mexican Revolution. I say exhausting because all the sgns were in Spanish, so we had to translate for ourselves!
Coba was definitely the best archaeological site we´d seen so far! It was only partially restored, which complemented the fact that it was very spread out along jungle pathways- at the less-spectacular parts of the ruins Scott and I were the only ones around. We did the smart thing and rented rackety old bikes near the entrance- people who didn´t regretted it and ended up paying high prices to take bike-taxis back down the over-a-mile-long path. The biggest part of Coba was El Castillo (it seems the biggest pyramid at every ruin is required to be named El Castillo)- it was twelve stories tall, and we climbed all twelve of them up a steep, uneven stone stairway. The top had an amazing view- the jungle treetops, the top of Coba´s second-largest ruin peeking through the foliage, and the two big lakes nearby.
We arrived in Tulum just before sunset, the stopped into the first place from our research of cheap (ish) cabanas, Papaya Playa. When they gave us the key to look at the cabin, I was literally skipping down the trail- there was the Caribbean! Right there! It was so blue, and looked so nice in the almost-setting sun! Scott laughed at my glee, and needless to say, we´re staying there through tomorrow. The cabanas are simple- palapa roofs, walls of narrow tree trunks aligned veritcally, sand floors, one chair, one small table, and a bed with mosquito netting- but it´s so close to the beach (it´s in the second row back- we couldn´t afford beachside). We went for a sunset swim, and Scott said ¨This begins the beach part of the vacation.¨ We definitely deserve it afte rthe exhausting schedule we´ve been keeping up- I´ve loved everything we´ve done, but we certainly pack alot into each day!
We woke up very early- you would not believe how early I´m weaking up this vacation! Today it was 6:45. Scott and I brought the fruit we´d bought the night before down to the beach for an early morning breakfast, then headed to the Tulum ruins just as they opened. They were definitely much beachier than the othe rruins we´ve been to- lots of windswept palm trees between (and growing out of) the eroding stone structures. The Mayans also used it as a fort in the Caste War, after the free capital fell to the Spanish. There´s a beach right there, and we took a late morning swim.
This afternoon was our Dia de los Cenotes. We rented snorkeling gear for $7 (we tried to bargain it down since it was already afternoon, but they were´n´t having it) and headed south for two open-air cenotes. I´ve never snorkeled before, and it was fun! It would have been even more fun to scuba dive- I could see caves off the edges of the open-air cenotes, but they were completely submerged, so I couldn´t go down into them. BUT, our last cenote, Grand Cenote, had caves that had some air at the top, so we could snorkel in them! It was so neat to snorkel through stalactites, and get into the deepest part, turn around, and have a view back through the stalactites toward the sunny, turqoise water! The first two cenotes had more fish, but in the last one, we saw several turtles! I am definitely looking forward to snorkeling on the reef tomorrow!
Tomorrow we will wake up early again, tour the smaller, more jungle-surrounded ruins of Muyil, then take a slow drive up the coast, with lots of stops, toward Cancun. I´m not sure where we´ll snorkel yet, but it will be toward the south, because you can´t wear sunscreen until after you´ve snorkeled- it hurts the fish and the coral! We´ll make several stops to explore beaches at whatever point we feel like swimming or sunning, tour the city of Playa del Carmen, and hopefully arrive in Cancun by dinnertime so we down´t have to pay for a seventh day of car rental. We´ll spend tomorrow morning in Cancun- probably sneak onto a beachg at an all-inclusive, or tour the El Rey ruins, then (say it ain´t so!) catch our 3pm flight back to DC and reality.
As sad as it is that it´s almost over, I´ve certainly enjoyed our adventure so far, and plan to make the most of the time we have left!
Chichen Itza was impressive and not too crowded, even though we ignored the tour books and spent the morning exploring Izamal instead of getting there first thing. When we got to the cenote it was already late afternoon. We descended down a narrow stone passageway before emerging into a huge cavern half-full of water. There was a tiny hole through which the sunlight drifted down to us. Tree roots fell in lines from the roof to the surface of the water, and stalactites reached down through the water toward the bottom of the cavern, below us as we swam. It was chilly, but beautiful, in its own intriguing way.
We spent the final night of Canranval in Valladolid, which wasn´t that impressive to me- the tour books cite it as an example of a Colonial city, but we´d already stayed in two of those. We had dinner at the best place in town- an old colonial mansion converted to a hotel and restaurant. The tables surrounded an open coutyard garden, complete with fountain. Then we emerged into the fiesta, danced in the street, and collapsed into a very early sleep.
Yesterday we woke up in Valladolid, toured a small but exhausting museum about Valladolid ´s role in starting the 1857-1900 Caste War, and the Mexican Revolution. I say exhausting because all the sgns were in Spanish, so we had to translate for ourselves!
Coba was definitely the best archaeological site we´d seen so far! It was only partially restored, which complemented the fact that it was very spread out along jungle pathways- at the less-spectacular parts of the ruins Scott and I were the only ones around. We did the smart thing and rented rackety old bikes near the entrance- people who didn´t regretted it and ended up paying high prices to take bike-taxis back down the over-a-mile-long path. The biggest part of Coba was El Castillo (it seems the biggest pyramid at every ruin is required to be named El Castillo)- it was twelve stories tall, and we climbed all twelve of them up a steep, uneven stone stairway. The top had an amazing view- the jungle treetops, the top of Coba´s second-largest ruin peeking through the foliage, and the two big lakes nearby.
We arrived in Tulum just before sunset, the stopped into the first place from our research of cheap (ish) cabanas, Papaya Playa. When they gave us the key to look at the cabin, I was literally skipping down the trail- there was the Caribbean! Right there! It was so blue, and looked so nice in the almost-setting sun! Scott laughed at my glee, and needless to say, we´re staying there through tomorrow. The cabanas are simple- palapa roofs, walls of narrow tree trunks aligned veritcally, sand floors, one chair, one small table, and a bed with mosquito netting- but it´s so close to the beach (it´s in the second row back- we couldn´t afford beachside). We went for a sunset swim, and Scott said ¨This begins the beach part of the vacation.¨ We definitely deserve it afte rthe exhausting schedule we´ve been keeping up- I´ve loved everything we´ve done, but we certainly pack alot into each day!
We woke up very early- you would not believe how early I´m weaking up this vacation! Today it was 6:45. Scott and I brought the fruit we´d bought the night before down to the beach for an early morning breakfast, then headed to the Tulum ruins just as they opened. They were definitely much beachier than the othe rruins we´ve been to- lots of windswept palm trees between (and growing out of) the eroding stone structures. The Mayans also used it as a fort in the Caste War, after the free capital fell to the Spanish. There´s a beach right there, and we took a late morning swim.
This afternoon was our Dia de los Cenotes. We rented snorkeling gear for $7 (we tried to bargain it down since it was already afternoon, but they were´n´t having it) and headed south for two open-air cenotes. I´ve never snorkeled before, and it was fun! It would have been even more fun to scuba dive- I could see caves off the edges of the open-air cenotes, but they were completely submerged, so I couldn´t go down into them. BUT, our last cenote, Grand Cenote, had caves that had some air at the top, so we could snorkel in them! It was so neat to snorkel through stalactites, and get into the deepest part, turn around, and have a view back through the stalactites toward the sunny, turqoise water! The first two cenotes had more fish, but in the last one, we saw several turtles! I am definitely looking forward to snorkeling on the reef tomorrow!
Tomorrow we will wake up early again, tour the smaller, more jungle-surrounded ruins of Muyil, then take a slow drive up the coast, with lots of stops, toward Cancun. I´m not sure where we´ll snorkel yet, but it will be toward the south, because you can´t wear sunscreen until after you´ve snorkeled- it hurts the fish and the coral! We´ll make several stops to explore beaches at whatever point we feel like swimming or sunning, tour the city of Playa del Carmen, and hopefully arrive in Cancun by dinnertime so we down´t have to pay for a seventh day of car rental. We´ll spend tomorrow morning in Cancun- probably sneak onto a beachg at an all-inclusive, or tour the El Rey ruins, then (say it ain´t so!) catch our 3pm flight back to DC and reality.
As sad as it is that it´s almost over, I´ve certainly enjoyed our adventure so far, and plan to make the most of the time we have left!