Ruins, turtles, and carnaval!!

The past couple of days in Tulum have been eventful! On Friday (i think) we went to the ruins at Coba. Coba was a mayan city of 50,000 people at its peak. It also was the intersection of a number of mayan "highways" so clearly it was important. I can't believe the maya built roads out of sandstone, one goes from here to Chichen Itza, which is about 200 km away! The archaeological site is huge, apparently they have only uncovered 5% of the city. If you look into the woods and see trees growing out of odd, geometric looking mounds, those are more ruins. Coba has the only pyramid in Mexico that you can climb, so we wanted to do that for sure. It has 120 steps and is very steep. We walked around with a guide in order to actually learn something, as there aren't many plaques that explain what you are looking at.

On Saturday we did a snorkel trip to Akumal, where the sea turtles come really close to shore, and the reef is not far either. I think we probably saw 10 turtles, all different sizes. It was amazing. They just swam around, munching on sea grass, not appearing bothered by all the tourists floating over them. They reminded me of my dad's cows.

Yesterday we had our last day in Zazil Kin, the beach cabana spot. I have been waking up really early due to the sun and the birds, so I went to the beach and did yoga for a while. It was windy, so there were a couple of kite surfers out on the water. We packed up and moved me to a new hostel, because Chris left early this morning. I am really getting a good taste for budget accomodations in Tulum! I could practically write a guidebook! I am going to look at whether I can link from this blog to my trip advisor profile, so if you are interested you can see the places I have stayed. Tulum accomodations are fairly spread out, but we found it was all close enough if you have a bike. We got free bikes from the first hotel, then we rented bikes for 90 pesos ($7.50)/24 hrs one day after that. I would advise people coming here to choose a hostel keeping this in mind. The first hotel advertised dorms for 190 pesos ($16) and they had free bikes. Other hostels are 150 or 160 but the you have to rent a bike for another 90. Taxis from town to the beach are 70 pesos ($6) and the bike ride is probably about 3km from the town to the beach and ruins. In the afternoon we biked to a nearby cenote. A cenote is a sinkhole/cave in the limestone and its filled with beautiful fresh water so its lovely to swim in. There are a lot around Tulum, they were sacred to the Maya because they were considered access points to the underworld. Understandably. Last night there was a carnaval parade and dance show in the main square of the town. Dance groups of all ages dressed in sparkles and feather headdresses put on a great show. The best of it was the young dancers, they were the most enthusiastic and also uncoordinated. It was great fun. I guess the mexicans in this area have borrowed these traditions from their Caribbean neighbours.

Today I am resting, doing laundry, and catching up on my blog! Tomorrow I will have another low-key day in Tulum, maybe go to the beach one last time (though not the last for this trip!), and then Wednesday I am going to meet up with Juan Carlos, my new friend from the yoga ashram, in Playa del Carmen!