Tulum Tour, Mexico
Day 4 in Mexico we took a half day tour to the ancient city known as Tulum. Our ride arrived bright and early with the wrong name on their attendance sheet except for one letter but at least our voucher numbers matched up . The tour was a little smaller then the last consisting of 10 people or so and our chariot was a extended white van with ac, thank God. Shortly after starting the tour our guide began outlining the activities for the day, part way through I realized we were on the wrong tour. We were plopped on the full day tour instead of the half day. After rectifying the situation our guide explained we would be meeting another guide at the drop off point where he would take ownership of us half dayers.
We arrived at a giant octagon slab of concrete with multi colored paint which housed a sketchy flea market. Hundreds of vendors sandwich next to one another bidding for the attention of the thousands of tourists passing by as they entered the park. After a quick paid bathroom break we were introduced to our charismatic tour guide Juan Ronaldo, who continually pointed out means “John Raymond in English”. As we continued on our 10min hike down a dirt road to the park entrance, Juan created small talk, asking our names, where we were from and if we were celebrities back home. My only guess is that he enjoys the spotlight and was trolling for a little lime light in the great north.
As we approached the gate or mosh pit of sweaty tourists. Juan was kind enough to point out the entrance and exit point to and from the park. He collected all of our tickets and ushered us to slither through the sea of people, bypassing all lines and structure of gates Juan fist fist bumps with the gate keeper and handed him our tickets. Once through, he reached over a desk of another government official and took a small Mexican flag and said “I’ll bring this back later”. Juan then assured us that if we ever get lost your just have to look for the flag waving above his head and you would be saved. As he began his tour briefing us on the things we are about to see, I felt a tug on my shorts. I turned to see a small ring tailed coati who posed long enough for me to snap a couple shots and then scurried off. We then headed off down a path to the entrance of the park stopping only so Juan could fist bump his fellow tour guides and fora brief explanation of a samba tree and its uses.
The entrance was a small single person walkway threw an ancient 20ft high wall that lined the city. Because of the incline and trees growing atop the wall you could not see any of the ancient city, so the moment you come out the other side is truly breathtaking. As you stop to take in the sight of the remnants of a city that was 50000 strong thousands of years ago, Juan quickly ushered us over to a tree that had no people standing under it so we could seek shelter from the relentless pounding of the sun. He then told us that because he staked claim on our shady vegetation that he would do his explanation of 4 of the monuments in veiw here instead of in front of the corresponding creation. We were all extremely grateful.
Juan’s explanation of the park and its history was very informative, and his English was impeccable except for the occasional mispronunciation of certain words. Most memorable would be “shadoo” instead of shadow. He also tried to interact with the group as much as possible and did a good job of remembering names. Most of our group was either extremely anti-social or too hot to think because most of the responses came back “I don’t know?” After a while His efforts of social group interaction fell primarily on me mainly because I had a basic knowledge of Mayans from past reading and the tour the day before, plus I was the only one to politely entertain his questions. After Juan was finished his tour he set us free to explore for 20mins before we had to meet him back at the flea market.We made our way down to the beach directly below the main temple in the city. Even though the beach was riddled with seaweed, it was still an impressive view looking up at Tulum. We wandered the crowed park snapping shots whenever we could and then started making our way back to the meeting point.
As we staggered back into the flea market baked to a crisp and brains boiled to near mush from the sun. We must have took a wrong turn somewhere because we ended up at a dead end surrounded on 3 side by thirsty vendors. i could see the lust for a sale growing in their eyes as they all got up simultaneously and started to head towards us. We turned and high tailed it out of there confused and disorientated with only 3 minutes left till dead line we made our way out to the parking lot nowhere near the meeting point. So we started to sprint walk around this oddly shaped market trying to find the booth we were supposed to meet at. Every booth looked the same each with their own enticing pitch to try and lure us to spend some of our hard earned foreign currency. Just as we were about to give up hope because it seemed like we have run a full circle around the octagon we decided to turn one more corner, and voila!! Juan!! He must have seen the panic in our eyes because he kept asking if we were alright and immediately handed us a cold bottle of water. We then climbed inside our van which now had the heat on cranked to full blast. If at any time in life I could of said out of the frying pan and into the fire and mean it literally this would of bean it. Juan quickly switched the dial to AC and we were on our way.
About 20 minutes later we arrived on a resort with a beautiful beach which is actually ranked the sixth beach in the world. We were given our own group beach tent, lined with 12 or so low hanging tables and some comfy beach chairs. We were handed menus, my eyes scoured the drink section as though I was a thirsty camel lost in the desert for days . Bingo!! $3 Heinekens! I couldn’t ask for more. We then walked down to the water and dipped our feet in and peeped the view. White sand as far as the eye could see and off in the distance you could see and ancient temple planted on the edge of a cliff face. We then headed back to our beach tent and sat and enjoyed the view complimented by the sought after and well deserved ice cold Heinekens. 2 cervezas later and we headed back to our foreign home.
Travelling Trev.