Cruising the Caribbean - Day 6 - Tulum Mexico

April 10, 2015
Cozumel Mexico.  - My spouse and I have been to Cozumel more than once and because of that we really weren't too interested in doing the touristy things there.  The one thing we never had done was to travel across the straight to Mexico and visit the ancient ruins of Tulum.  In reading up on this trip the one excursion that was highly recommended was the Tulum Mayan Ruins Express so that ended up being the excursion we went for.

I was very pleased with our guide.  He had been an archeology major at a university in Mexico and he was of Mayan decent.  He was very knowledgeable about what he was telling us.  The trouble was he told us so much stuff it's gone in one ear and out the other but during the time it was fascinating.  What I also like was because there were so many other tours there he got headphones for us and we were all on the same frequency so he could talk to us about the different ruins.  If you ever do the tour that is definitely the way to do it.  It cut out so much of the distracting background noise of other tour groups.  And the tour groups were of people from all over the world and their guides were  screaming to be heard.

Here are the images I came away with.  This was telling you about the park area associated with the ruins.

 And this was the sign for the actual ruins.

 This used to be the actual entrance into the city.  Now it is closed off to preserve it and everyone goes in through a different way.

This was withing the compound walls and was the first impression you got of the place.

Now for the rest of the images.  The guide took us to this diorama of the area so we could see what he was talking about.

Years ago they used to let people climb on the building but now they realize how destructive that can be and you are not allowed to go on the buildings.  Because of that they guides take you into the field and talks to you there.  It was a hot day and our guide tried to get us under some shade and was appreciated for that.

Tulum, Mexico

the one thing I notice was that the building material used was limestone.

 The iguanas are kept in reverence and so it was pretty common to see them running on top of the ruins. 

 The palace

 The temple

 Temple Castillo -Tulum, Mexico April 10, 2015

 This is what would be facing the ocean.

Castillo - Tulum Mexico, April 10, 2015

 I like this because you can see how the area overlooked the ocean. 

God's of the Wind Temple at Tulum Mexico April 10,2015

 Here's the wall with all the vegetation growing on it.  I can understand how difficult it was to find some of these ruins and for them to be able to restore things to there former glory.

 Another iguana guarding the ruins.

 This was the map as we were leaving.  I think it should have been when you entered or given as a handout but then I think too many people would have hold up around it and you would have been lucky to get a brief glimpse of it.

I did get a closer image of the section that was in English.

If you like ancient stuff like I do this was definitely worth the effort to go see.  I highly recommend it. 

Wikipedia on Tulum
The map from Wikipedia





We had one more day at see and then we were back in Galveston.
I'm going to include the few images there left of the cruise.   As you can see the Navigator of the seas wasn't the only ship in Cozumel on that day.  They made sure you got onto the right ship. 

Oh what a fantastic trip / cruise that was and until we go on another trip--  That's all folks.