Dives, ruins and Sea

Disaster struck, a dodgy chicken taco from a street vendo and im laid low. I caught the overnight bus to Tullum on the coast because not up to braving the heat of Palenque - not to worry there will be other Mayan sites. Arrived in Tullum in the morning and headed to the Weary Traveller hostel (which is how im feeling). Hope to spend a week here seeing some ruins, swimming and hopefully to do some cenote diving

Cenote

The Weary Traveller has a no cash system. When you buy beers, food etc it goes on your account. This could be expensive. They have a cook your own burger with salad and 2 beers for $5, 6 bed dorms with celing fans for $12 and loads of travellers, some heading south, some north who ae a good soure of information. This is how my time was spent

Tullum beach and ruins

DAY1

Still recovering from 18 hour bus ride so took it easy and caught up on some sleep. Had the burger meal and learnt to play Texas Holdem poker - each game is only $2 - lost $4

DAY2

Feeling better and organised 2 dives in one of the many cenotes near Tullum. Theae are underground cave systems formed during the last ice age and filled with cool fresh water and stalagmites and stalagtities and bats. The maximum depth you go is 12m and you are never more than 60ft from natural light. The dives were amazing. Visibility was unlimited. sometime you forgot you were in water. The 2nd dive we went to where the salt water mixes with the fresh water and it looked as 1 american put it like an acid trip - from perfect clarity you went to where everything was a swirling blur. That night had my second burger meal and lost $4 at poker\

Tullum beach

DAY3

Went to Tulum beach. Now in Australia the sand is golden and a little course, but here, the sand is a dazzling white ( like an americans smile) and as fine as sugar. The water is muliple shades of blue and luke warm. The only problem is the wind. When you come out of the water you discover your towel half buried in the sand. The other attraction of Tullum is the Mayan ruins high on a cliff overlooking the sea. those Mayans sure knew the concept of location

That night 3rd burger meal and lost $4 at poker

DAY4

Decided it was time to see some Mayan ruins. Headed to coba about 50km from Tullum. Coba was home to 55,000 Maya at its peak between AD800-1100) The ruins were impressive culminating in the 42m Nohoch Mul (big mound) which you could climb. Going up was the wasy part. Coming down that was more difficult so i did what all good tourists were doing, coming down on my arse. In the afternoon headed to the beach and that night had burger gain and more poker - surprisingly i lose $4

Coba

DAY5

The clocks went forward today which caught a lot of people out. i headed to Chichen Itza the biggest ruins in these parts and a 3hr bus ride away. This site saw a lot of human sacrifices and its main attraction is the El Castillo (the castle) pyramid sitting in the middle of the Great Plaza. Unfortunately you cant climb it but it is certainly impressive. As where the hordes of tour groups here all clapping there hand to hear the great accoustics of the site. I heard from a traveller at Tullum who was here during the Spring euinox when a moving serpent illusion appears on the staircase that there was 10,000 people here. The day was overvcast so no serpent and 10,000 disappointed people.

Going down is the hard part

Arrived back in Tulum, decided to eat out for a change and then finally won at poke. $16 which made me even for my week. I had checked my account and decided ti was time to leave. I would head to Belize in the morning. I had enjoyed San Cristobal and the meeting the people at The Weary Traveller but the Yucatan just didnt feel right, it had lost something. I hoped Belize would have that soemthing

El Castillo

Human sacrifice platform