On Thursday morning, we set out early to go to the Tulum ruins. It was only a 10-minute or so drive from our place, but we'd heard that it got really crowded later in the day and we didn't want to chance that! Based on what little I'd read about the ruins, I thought it was a fairly small site, with not much more than a big temple in the middle and a parking lot right nearby. Actually, it was a pretty big site (not compared to Chichen Itza, I'm sure) and the parking lot was a nice, shaded walk away. And it's a National Park!
The entrance fee was about $3 per person - we declined hiring a guide at the entrance, but in retrospect I kind of wish that we did. Even though there were descriptive signs all over the park, from everything I overheard the guides saying, we would have learned more if we'd hired one! It was still a really interesting place, though. We learned that it was one of the few Mayan coastal cities in this part of the Yucatan and it traded with cities all up and down the western side of Central America. I overheard a guide telling his group that all of the buildings were originally painted in bright colors - reds and yellows - and you can still see tints of the pigment in some places!
(click to see the panorama!)
By the end of our visit (about 9:30am), it was already starting to fill up with visitors! I'm glad we went early - especially because there's absolutely no shade at all and I somehow managed to avoid getting sunburned on our whole trip. The beach below the ruins is supposed to be really nice, but it was closed because of high tide when we were there. On our way out, we finally got cocos frios! They just chop the ends off of a coconut, you drink the coconut water, and then they chop it in half and you can eat the coconut! When we got back to our place, Molly & Ryan decided to bike to the beach again and Matt & I set out for the town. I really wanted to stop in a few shops I'd seen online that stock Mexican-made crafts. There are tons of souvenir shops up and down the main street, but most of them sell really similar things. I did end up buying a blanket from one of those shops too, so it's not like they aren't worth stopping at! Before we shopped, we needed to eat - and we finally ate at the taco place at the top of our "to try" list. We both got one of each of their four options (skipping a chicken one) - cochinita pibil, relleno negro (shredded turkey with black chile paste and a hard-boiled egg), and poc chuc (like carne asada). Best tacos of the trip! And that's saying a lot. I think it was about $5 for six tacos and two drinks. If we'd gone there on the first day, I might not have eaten any other tacos...except maybe the al pastor.
After tacos, we headed out to shop! We went to both of the stores I'd seen before and I kind of wanted to buy everything in the second one. In the end, we stuck to buying "just" a wool rug (!), some traditional artwork, and a little enameled metal skeleton. I'll post photos later! On the way home, we decided to stop for margaritas because it was happy hour and they were 2 for 70 pesos (so...about $1.75 each). We spent $10 and that was enough to put me to sleep when we got home around 2pm!
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