Back from Mexico (though not for long).
Hey everyone! I know I have a ridiculous amount of entries and comments to catch up on, but I'm afraid that probably won't happen soon.
Turns out I'm leaving for my other trip, to Greece, this Thursday!
I had no idea the trips were that close.
:( So between resting (because the trips and flights did wear me out, I didn't have a lot of downtime) and packing and appointments and stuff, I don't have a lot of time between. I had thought I had at least a week between! Oh well.
But, I did take a ton of pictures in Mexico (Cancun on the Yucatan Peninsula specifically, was where we were), especially of the Mayan ruins, because I'm a history geek like that and love them and find these things fascinating. I'll be posting them later (no garuntees if that means before or after I get back from Greece) for all of you. ;)
It ended up being mostly me and my dad visiting them, as even though we all went to Tulum, my brother and sister and Mom all got completely worn out just walking there and thus with half of the tour group, left before really looking at any of them. It was really really hot, so I don't blame them, but me and my dad were too excited and interested to be deterred by that. Although my dad visited Tulum with my mom for their honeymoon (21 years ago), and was dissapointed with how they are now because there are strings and stuff blocking you from getting too close to the ruins now (think like a museum, you can look but can't touch or anything). Even though it's to preserve them, my dad was really upset because just staring at them didn't give you anywhere near the amazement of being able to climb up on them (which he and my mom had been able to do--which my dad loved, and my mom was scared to death while doing XD) and look out over everything. I still thought they were pretty amazing, I guess since the only other ruins I'd seen in real life were the ones in Ireland, which I still love but these ones were very different and much more intact than the Irish ones. Plus, they were all right by the Carribean Sea, so they had a nice breeze now and then (it was ridiculously hot there, I was sweating so bad). Plus, the beach right nearby just added to how beautful everything loked.
Packaged with the trip and tour to Tulum was also a trip to this place called Xelha (which we went to first I believe), which is supposedly also a ruinic site, but was more like a water park. There were no rides or anything, but you could snorkle, walk on ropes, dive, jump off cliffs (seriously--my sister and brother did it), and visit this underground/water cave, which ended up just being a stupid photoshoot. There were restaurants all over the place, and it was badly set up--you literally could be walking around and have no idea where you were. There were signs, but if you followed them to one place, that place would eventually dissapear on one of the signs before you got there, which I guess meant you were going the right way, but was quite frustrating after a while. Anyway, not that fun. Although snorkling you did see a bunch of pretty fish.
But later on just me and my dad drove out on our own and visited Chichen Itza. It was HUGE. Literally, a city of ruins! It was unbelievably amazing! The site was so big! We didn't do it with a tour guide, so we did get kind of lost at times (XD because I don't have a great sense of direction, and my dad who usually has a great sense for some reason gets it turned around in Mexico), but it was amazing. (Plus, it was a slightly cooler day when me and my dad went, but I don't know if it was because the place did have a lot of trees and thus more shade or what, but despite being totally inland, Chichen Itza was so much cooler temperature-wise than Tulum had been!) A lot of the ruins were still roped off of course, but you could get much much closer to them, and there were ones you were literally allowed to touch, ones you could walk into and explore around, and there were some with faded paint still on them and others that were still covered in vines and partially underground and it was just so amazing. Even though the place was covered in vendors and other tourists, for some reason that didn't take away from the magic of the place. If anything, it made it more realistic like we were literally back in time of the hustle and bustle of the ancient city. It was seriously so amazing, I can't stress that enough. Hopefully you'll see in the pictures when I post them. And there was also this giant cenote thing (that despite hearing about cenotes a lot while I was there, I didn't figure out what it was until we went to Chichen Itza) where sacrificed bodies were thrown. It amazes me that a culture so mathmatically advanced still could be so ruled by a religion that required the deaths of its believers.
I did see though, both Tourist Mexico and Rural Mexico while I was there, and it was something of an eye-opener for me...but more on that in a different entry.
Anyway, I'll post more about the trip later. Just letting you all know I'm back for now and fangirling about the ruins I saw. XD
Turns out I'm leaving for my other trip, to Greece, this Thursday!
I had no idea the trips were that close.
:( So between resting (because the trips and flights did wear me out, I didn't have a lot of downtime) and packing and appointments and stuff, I don't have a lot of time between. I had thought I had at least a week between! Oh well.
But, I did take a ton of pictures in Mexico (Cancun on the Yucatan Peninsula specifically, was where we were), especially of the Mayan ruins, because I'm a history geek like that and love them and find these things fascinating. I'll be posting them later (no garuntees if that means before or after I get back from Greece) for all of you. ;)
It ended up being mostly me and my dad visiting them, as even though we all went to Tulum, my brother and sister and Mom all got completely worn out just walking there and thus with half of the tour group, left before really looking at any of them. It was really really hot, so I don't blame them, but me and my dad were too excited and interested to be deterred by that. Although my dad visited Tulum with my mom for their honeymoon (21 years ago), and was dissapointed with how they are now because there are strings and stuff blocking you from getting too close to the ruins now (think like a museum, you can look but can't touch or anything). Even though it's to preserve them, my dad was really upset because just staring at them didn't give you anywhere near the amazement of being able to climb up on them (which he and my mom had been able to do--which my dad loved, and my mom was scared to death while doing XD) and look out over everything. I still thought they were pretty amazing, I guess since the only other ruins I'd seen in real life were the ones in Ireland, which I still love but these ones were very different and much more intact than the Irish ones. Plus, they were all right by the Carribean Sea, so they had a nice breeze now and then (it was ridiculously hot there, I was sweating so bad). Plus, the beach right nearby just added to how beautful everything loked.
Packaged with the trip and tour to Tulum was also a trip to this place called Xelha (which we went to first I believe), which is supposedly also a ruinic site, but was more like a water park. There were no rides or anything, but you could snorkle, walk on ropes, dive, jump off cliffs (seriously--my sister and brother did it), and visit this underground/water cave, which ended up just being a stupid photoshoot. There were restaurants all over the place, and it was badly set up--you literally could be walking around and have no idea where you were. There were signs, but if you followed them to one place, that place would eventually dissapear on one of the signs before you got there, which I guess meant you were going the right way, but was quite frustrating after a while. Anyway, not that fun. Although snorkling you did see a bunch of pretty fish.
But later on just me and my dad drove out on our own and visited Chichen Itza. It was HUGE. Literally, a city of ruins! It was unbelievably amazing! The site was so big! We didn't do it with a tour guide, so we did get kind of lost at times (XD because I don't have a great sense of direction, and my dad who usually has a great sense for some reason gets it turned around in Mexico), but it was amazing. (Plus, it was a slightly cooler day when me and my dad went, but I don't know if it was because the place did have a lot of trees and thus more shade or what, but despite being totally inland, Chichen Itza was so much cooler temperature-wise than Tulum had been!) A lot of the ruins were still roped off of course, but you could get much much closer to them, and there were ones you were literally allowed to touch, ones you could walk into and explore around, and there were some with faded paint still on them and others that were still covered in vines and partially underground and it was just so amazing. Even though the place was covered in vendors and other tourists, for some reason that didn't take away from the magic of the place. If anything, it made it more realistic like we were literally back in time of the hustle and bustle of the ancient city. It was seriously so amazing, I can't stress that enough. Hopefully you'll see in the pictures when I post them. And there was also this giant cenote thing (that despite hearing about cenotes a lot while I was there, I didn't figure out what it was until we went to Chichen Itza) where sacrificed bodies were thrown. It amazes me that a culture so mathmatically advanced still could be so ruled by a religion that required the deaths of its believers.
I did see though, both Tourist Mexico and Rural Mexico while I was there, and it was something of an eye-opener for me...but more on that in a different entry.
Anyway, I'll post more about the trip later. Just letting you all know I'm back for now and fangirling about the ruins I saw. XD