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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Tulum Ruins

Armed with a decent night's sleep, a tasty breakfast of pastries washed down with above average instant coffee, two liters of water, a few snacks, hats, umbrellas, sturdy boots, sunscreen, bug repellent, and a few pages torn out of a guide book, we set off under cloudy skies for the 3km walk from our hotel to the Mayan ruins of Tulum.

The walk was straight forward, not unpleasant, and we entered the site about 9:30 (57 pesos each) just as the first tour groups arrived. Tulum ,a compact Mayan ruin perched on limestone cliffs overlooking the Caribbean Sea, was formerly a walled trading sea sea port but is now occupied by a steady stream of tour groups

Sun-Lings says the ruins were underwhelming and crowded but since we are Chinese it was OK. haha

We left the ruins at noon, had some tasty snacks called kekais on the way home, rested in our hotel room, ate more antojitos for dinner, and went to bed early as we need to get up for our 8:30AM bus to Chetumal and onward to the Mexico-Belize border.

The Tulum ruins from the southeast corner looking north.
Tulum, Mexico

The Tulum ruins from the northeast corner looking south.
Tulum, Mexico

Tulum, Mexico

Antojitos.
Tulum, Mexico


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6 comments:

  1. Crash Eddy30 November, 2012

    You've done your homework again, Sun Ling. I'd never heard of Tulum let alone this ruin. Chasing on GM, Quintana Roo appears to have a hotel in the middle of the ruin, I suppose this is a mapping error. A great kickoff for your tour.

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  2. john01 December, 2012

    Thanks Ed!

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  3. Kathy02 December, 2012

    I saw Tulum on my one brief visit to Mexico back around 1986, on a day trip from Cozumel (the island was a lot quieter back then). Tulum wasn't crowded, but I still wasn't impressed. In fact, I decided I just didn't have a "feel" for that type of architecture/decoration, and pretty much wrote off Central/South America. Clearly an over-reaction....

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  4. Anonymous03 December, 2012

    Tulum was the 1st Maya ruining we saw. so it was memorable for us. in comparison, it clearly shows decline in size and style during the later Mayan period. --weiqing

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  5. john05 December, 2012

    Thanks WQ and Kathy for your "impressions of Tulum" which illustrates that tramping around in ruins is a varied, personal, experience.

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  6. Sun-Ling08 December, 2012

    Normally I love tramping around ruins. I guess the problem with Tulum was that there was not much tramping, most of the ruins were roped off.

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