Cancun

A day to explore Cancun, a 'town' which to no great surprise to me, I didn't like much. Cancun 'downtown' does not have a great deal to see and the Hotel Zone is exactly that kilometer after kilometer of hotels. Nevertheless I went out to the hotel zone to sit on the beach, try to get rid of some of my pallid white skin and swim in the sea (which was pleasantly warm). After a couple of this I was bored so returned to the hotel via a little trip to 'La Isla' shopping center. Lots of touristy type stuff there if you wanted it.

In the evening I went to the pre-trip briefing and met most of my fellow travellers. Lots of Aussies (i.e. too many), English people, a Dutch guy, an Italian and a Norwegian. The tour leader for a change isn't from Australia but Holland. Handed some money over, got an overview of the trip and then went out to dinner with the group. After eating headed off to a bar for some more drinking and then back to the hotel

The first day of the tour proper. Got up and had a breakfast of sorts and then loaded the coach up. No 'trucks' for us this time but rather a normal coach with plenty of room. A couple of hours drive took us to Tulum.

Tulum

According to my guide book Tulum is the ' most picturesque of all Maya sites' and someone, I don't know whom, had told me beforehand that it was better than Chichen Itza so I was looking forward to this visit. However despite the lovely setting on the cliff tops overlooking the Caribbean I was a little disappointed. The site is quite small and the ruins not as impressive as the other sites that we visited later.

The car park for Tulum is now a little distance from the ruins and there is a 400 meter or so walk (or train for lazy people) to the site itself. It takes little more than an hour to wander around the ruins, then I mellowed out on the beach for a while.

Tulum as seen from the entrance, Templo del Viente on the left, El Castillo on the right

El Castillo from Templo del Mar

Temple del Viente and Beach from El Castillo

A Gecko

At the car park area there was a display by the Voladores which I am not sure is native to this part of Mexico but looks good and impresses the tourists

Then it was back in the coach to go to Playa del Carmen.

Playa del Carmen

Although still definitely a package tour type town, Playa del Carmen is much nicer than Cancun. Checked into the hotel (Hotel Sian Ka'an) which names all the rooms after Spanish girls names so that ignorant English speakers don't have to remember Spanish numbers. This hotel is a block or so from the beach and is quite nice. Went down to get some lunch with Øyvind and Francesco (the Norwegian and the Italian in case you hadn't guessed), and then sat on the beach looking at the 'sites' and swimming a bit. During the time on the beach while the weather clouded over - that was the last of the sun that we saw for a long while. Had dinner in some restaurant or other and then went to Kuba bar since 'girls drink free' there on Sunday night and the woman wanted to go. Of course all that this really means is that men pay double. During the night it started to rain - hard.