Tulum
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| Tulum street art |
Tulum
is a lovely coastal town that was popular with the more laidback hippy crowd,
into their beach shacks and yoga, but has now developed considerably over the
years as more and more tourists have discovered the chilled vibes the town has
to offer, as well as the gorgeous white sandy beaches, the amazingly
well-preserved 13th Century Mayan
site and the numerous cenotes
in the area.
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| Tulum |
Cenotes (seh-noh-tez) are a geological phenomenon caused by
a meteor hitting the region 16 million years’ ago causing a crater which was
then covered by sediment and limestone, but contains sinkholes which created
caverns and caves.
These sinkholes filled up with rainwater – called cenotes. They were used by the Maya people as sacred sites for self-sacrifice and burial. There are still human remains in some of them, and one or two contain bones from long extinct animals including mega-sloths and dinosaurs.
These sinkholes filled up with rainwater – called cenotes. They were used by the Maya people as sacred sites for self-sacrifice and burial. There are still human remains in some of them, and one or two contain bones from long extinct animals including mega-sloths and dinosaurs.
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| Tulum ruins |
On the day of our arrival we went straight to the site of
the Mayan ruins and were stopped by a guy handing out maps and asking if we
wanted to book any tours. We were interested in diving in the cenotes so the
guy called his friend who came to speak to us about it. He offered us a
discount if we would go along to a big hotel the next morning and listen to
their sales patter for an hour or so, to try to persuade us to subscribe to
their members’ club.
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| Tulum ruins |
We spent an hour or so walking around Mayan ruins before heading back to the hotel to cool off.
The next morning, we headed over to the hotel where we were
to be given the presentation on membership. We were given a fabulous breakfast
and at the end we declined the offer of membership (didn’t fancy signing up for
20 years), and were presented with US $100 for our trouble.
We were a bit
confused because we had agreed a discount on the diving, which didn’t get a
mention, so we went back to our guy and he gave us an alternative contact for
diving – less of a discount but we kept the $100.
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| Tulum beach |
That evening we watched the ‘boxing’ match between
Mayweather and McGregor and the next day we hit the beach and went out
snorkelling. There isn’t much to see in the sea around Tulum itself but we were
lucky enough to spot a few turtles and eagle rays, one of which was about 2m
across.
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| Tulum beach |
Cenote diving day was here and our Dive Master, Jacob who
had driven down from Playa del Carmen just to take us diving, picked us up and
we headed over to Dos
Ojos cenote, which means ‘2 eyes’. This is a popular cenote with snorkellers
and divers because it is one of the larger cenotes and is fairly easy, with a
depth of about 7m. Divers also have 2 lines to follow; the Barbie
line and the bat
cave. This allows for 2 different dives in the same cenote which means that
only one entrance fee is payable.
Most of the cenotes that are open to the public have an entrance fee which can range from 50 to about 200 pesos, so if you choose to dive 2 different cenotes, that puts the price up.
Most of the cenotes that are open to the public have an entrance fee which can range from 50 to about 200 pesos, so if you choose to dive 2 different cenotes, that puts the price up.
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| Cenote dive |
The Barbie line is so called because someone used a Barbie
doll being eaten by a toy crocodile to tie up the end of the line. The bat cave
is actually a bat cave – at the end of the line is a dome into which you can
surface and there are hundreds of bats living there which access the cavern
through a small hole, a bit like a chimney.
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| Cenote dive |
It was also pretty dark going through so we needed torches, apart from when the water became more shallow and we emerged from under cover to see the sunlight penetrate the water, making it glow bright blue. The cenote was full of stalactites and stalagmites and we saw fossils, but no dinosaur bones.
Once I had stopped shining my light in poor Baby D’s eyes, and after almost losing my tank which wasn’t strapped on properly, we both had a fantastic experience, even if we nearly got kicked in the face or blinded by torchlight a few times by over-zealous snorkellers who seemed to see us as some sort of exotic fish.
Chichen Itza
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| Chichen Itza |
We were on the move again the next day to Chichen
Itza, probably the most famous of Mexico’s Mayan ruins, about an hour and a
half away on the bus. We had decided to stay in the little town of Piste next
to the site for the night, so we could see the ruins then cool off in the hotel
pool before getting the bus onto Merida in the north west of the region of Yucatan.
Chichen Itza was the seat of power in the Yucatan in 600-1200 AD. The site’s
main attraction is the huge stepped pyramid in the centre.
Merida
Merida
or ‘The White City’, is the beautiful capital city of the Yucatan state, famous
for its deep Mayan and colonial culture and heritage. It was founded in 1542 by
Francisco
de Montejo, a Spanish nobleman, after he went to war with the Mayans living
there, who were upset at being ousted by the Spanish. The city was claimed and
developed by the Spanish, and named after the Spanish city of – wait for it –
Merida. The Mexican version is well worth a couple of days’ visits. It has the
normal bright, block architecture common in Mexico, along with colonial
building design adopted from Europe in the baroque style. Then there are
several art deco buildings spotted around.
Merida wanted to be the Paris of Latin America, and there is
a lovely tree lined avenue reminiscent of the Champs-Elysees, called the Paseo
de Montejo, with cute little boutiques, arts shops, museums, cafés and
bars.
Before we reached Paseo de Montejo, we visited the Lucas
de Galvez market which sold an array of local crafts and food for just a
few pesos, and then we stopped in the City
Museum of Merida nearby to look at some artwork of Mexican artist, Gerardo
Cantu and to learn about the history of Merida. This included the
immigration of different nationalities (Korean and Chinese notably) who came to
Merida to help with the farming of local produce especially henequen
(similar to hemp but extracted from the agave plant). We later found out that
the immigration of Asian people which was presented to us as a fairly
benevolent event may have actually been slavery.
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| Cathedral |
We stumbled across a light
show which as it transpired was held every Wednesday evening. The light
show told the story of Francisco de Montejo and his conquest and development of
the city, against the wishes of the Maya people. The show went on to give us a
taste of traditional Mexican music and dancing.
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| Casa de Montejo |
The next day we remembered to search for a free walking tour
of the city. This is something we’ve done several times before but lately we’d
forgotten. Luckily there was a tour which met at 9.30am in front of the
cathedral so we walked up there to have a look round the San
Idelfonso cathedral and get to the tour on time.
The walking tour was with a company called Pink Cactus and we couldn’t miss
our guide in his bright pink t-shirt. Our tour was small; there were only 4 of
us, and we walked around the city learning about the history and traditions,
many of which are maintained today. When we had been in the market the day before,
we noticed live bugs covered in gems in a glass tank.
Our guide told us that this represents the story of a Mayan princess who fell in love with a slave that her father had brought home. When the dad found out about this blossoming romance, he got a bit upset and had the slave turned into a bug. She kept the slave though, and when she finally had to marry (someone a bit more appropriate than a slave…or a bug) she wore the insect as a brooch decorated with jewels over her heart, as a sign of her undying love for the slave.
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| Jewel bugs |
Our guide told us that this represents the story of a Mayan princess who fell in love with a slave that her father had brought home. When the dad found out about this blossoming romance, he got a bit upset and had the slave turned into a bug. She kept the slave though, and when she finally had to marry (someone a bit more appropriate than a slave…or a bug) she wore the insect as a brooch decorated with jewels over her heart, as a sign of her undying love for the slave.
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| Paseo de Montejo |
We learned about the multitude of free museums in the
city including the Casa
de Montejo, modern art museum – (Museo
Fernando García Ponce), the City Museum, (all of which we visited) and the
diverse architectural building styles, including how, in days gone by, if an
Italian arrived in the city, they would be roped into designing buildings
regardless of whether or not they were architects. We learned about the best
bars, and the best ice-cream places, one of which sells a sweet bacon and bean
flavour to represent the tradition of having set meals on particular days. (On
one day of the week, the people of Merida eat pork and beans).
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| Rabbit |
The guide told us about the signs on some of the roads which
had a picture of something, with the Spanish word for whatever the picture was below.
For example, there might be a picture of a dog, with perro written underneath it. This helped the illiterate find their
way round town, and I guess it helped then learn to read. There are about 1000
of these pictures dotted around the city.
He told us about the white love seats/you and me
chairs/conversation chairs which appear in the squares all over the city. As
well as copying the Parisian boulevards, one designer who had seen this style
of chair in Paris adopted it for Merida, and now they appear all over the
place, including a huge one in the Parque
de Santa Lucia.
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| Love seats |
One of the bars recommended by our guide was La
Negrita. This seemingly unassuming place which at first glance looked tiny,
was actually huge inside, with a courtyard packed with punters. We ordered a
couple of beers and then came an endless supply of snacks to go with it. We
skipped dinner that night.
Earlier we had spotted a cool looking bar called Catrina’s
Cantina, where a band was playing, so we stopped there for a drink, just as
the band had started to pack up. Suspicious of being fleeced because the bar
had no menu, we only had one drink each (Margarita for me) and our bill was
£1.50…50p of that was my Margarita (11 pesos). I am still amazed by that. It
was a great Margarita too.
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| Mix of architecture |
On our way back to the hotel we stopped at the Parque de
Santa Lucia, as we had been told that there was a band playing that evening.
Apparently something happens every night in Merida. We didn’t stick around for
the band as we waited for an hour and they didn’t appear, but we did discover Marquesitas.
These beauties are thin, crispy, sweet crêpes smothered in Nutella and, get this, grated cheese. ISN’T THAT THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD EVER?
#mexico #merida #divingcenotes #tulum #dosojos #marquesitas #chichenitza
These beauties are thin, crispy, sweet crêpes smothered in Nutella and, get this, grated cheese. ISN’T THAT THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD EVER?
#mexico #merida #divingcenotes #tulum #dosojos #marquesitas #chichenitza
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