Tulum and around
Tulum is supposed to be one of the places to visit in Yucatan, but not entirely sure why! The town is a bit of a dump, one long street of restaurants, souvenir shops and internet places, and is 5km from the beach. You can stay on the beach (in cabañas) instead, but people we spoke to said that you were then pretty much stuck where you were staying. Anyway, it made a useful base for us.
The ruins at Tulum are not particularly impressive in themselves, no big pyramids here, but they are on the top of short cliffs above white sandy beaches and turquoise sea which makes for an impressive and different setting. Very picturesque.
Visited the ruinas at Coba too. These are less excavated than most of the other places we have been to. The structures have (mainly) been cleared, but there are no extensive cleared plazas and the like, so you suddenly discover the various bits of ruin in among the jungle. The bits are quite spaced out too. You can rent bikes or bike-taxis, but we chose to walk. On the way back it had got a lot busier with dozens of bike riding and bike taxi people flooding past, it felt a bit like a Mayan Centre Parcs then! We really enjoyed these ruins (though are glad we got there early as they turned out to be much more popular than we expected). The views across the jungle from the big pyramid (I´m sure it has a proper name, but don’t know what it is!) were great, and we had it all to ourselves for a while too.
Then on to Isla Mujeres. This is supposed to be a relaxed island even though it is just off Cancun. I think that has changed a bit since our guidebook was written in 2004. Its nicer than Tulum, but is quite touty now, you can’t walk down the street without people trying to get you into their shop / restaurant, rent you a bike / scooter / golf buggy etc. It does have some beautiful beaches though, and the sea is a lovely way of cooling off as it is ridiculously hot and really humid too.
Tags: Mexico, Travel
Jenni
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