Chichen Itza Recap

Since my brother left, I feel like I am a bit boring.  True, I do have the time to workout when I want, cook what I want, and enjoy the activities I want, but since he's left, I don't do many blog worthy things.  So I thought I would give a review of our travels to Chichen Itza.

We left early in the morning, and arrived before the big tour buses.  It was a beautiful, cloudy day, with a nice breeze, and no mosquitoes.  I let Patrick use my Cannon Rebel, so all the pictures you see are taken with my iPhone.

Chichen Itza is quite large, and during my first visit, I completely missed an entire section of the park.  Patrick informed me on how good of a tour guide he is.  He's also a cut throat negotiator too!

Columns at the Temple of a Thousand Warriors

 

Temple of a Thousand Warriors

 

My favorite!  El Castillo... The Castle

Venus Platform

 

Venus Platform- close up showing the drawings

 

Grand Ball Court

 

House of the Jaguar

 

Again, El Castillo de Kukulcán

 

A little information.  

 

Ossario

 

El Caracol, The observatory temple

 

El Caracol, the snail, receives its name from the curved shape of the stairs in the observatory.  The structure has an unusual place, but it thought to be in alignment with astrological events and specifically the path of Venus.

 

My sight seeing buddy

 

The Red House

 

The Red House

 

The front side of the complex de Las Monjas.

 

I love this building.  This my be my favorite picture because the beauty of the building is not lost, although the structure is crumbling with time.

 

 La Iglesia, the church

 

La Monjas, The Nunnery

  My younger brother posing in front of the observatory at El Caracol.

To get to Chichen Itza from Playa del Carmen, I drove North on 180 D towards Cancun.  You will take this for about 200 km, so make sure to fill up on gas before you leave.  Before you arrive in Cancun, you will see an exit towards Mérida.  Take the exit and continue on 180 D.  This highway has a cuota, which means you will need to pay to use it, about 200 pesos.  After about 90 km, you will arrive at the border of Quintana Roo and the Yucatán.  After the border continue another 105 km, and after the next toll booth, continue towards Pisté/Chichen Itza.  In Pisté, you can find a good and cheap place to eat.  From here, it is only a few more minutes to the ruin.  Keep right at the Y-crossing, and shortly, you will have arrived.

Remember, try to arrive early to give yourself plenty of time to explore the ruins before the large tour buses take over.  Enjoy!

Taking the Collectivo to Tulum

I'm so mad at my little brother for deleting my pictures, but I guess stewing in my anger isn't going to bring them back.  Arrrggg!  I just need to be around people with a little more estrogen and and little less testosterone today.  Breathe...

Anyway, yesterday my brother and I headed, via Collectivo bus, to Tulum.  If you are in Playa del Carmen, and interested in taking the Collectivo, you can pick one up on Calle 2 and Avenida 15.  It is super easy AND cheap.  Just walk up to the front of the line, tell the driver where you want to go, and get in.  The ride to Tulum from PdC takes about 1 hour and cost 40 pesos.  The driver drops you off right at the ruins, and when you are ready to leave, just hop back on a Collectivo waiting to drive back towards PdC.  I've also traveled this way to Akumal, and it's definitely the way to go IMO!

Patrick and I arrived around 3 in the afternoon.  There were no crowds, but it was soooo hot!  Gosh, I miss fall!  This was Patrick's first ruin trip since he's arrived, so I let him have my camera and take (and edit/delete) the photos.

I came to Tulum once before with the hubs, my (older) brother, and his fiance, so I just enjoyed the scorching hot sun, and my over-sized cooler on my shoulder.

Posing with the temple

Patrick being goofy

Carrying the extra GI-normous cooler!

After wandering around the ruins for a couple hours, we were hot, sweaty, tired, and hungry.  Not a good combination!  So we decided to walk down to the surrounding beaches.  Tulum has some of the most beautiful beaches in the area.  Plenty of white sand, and the reef prevents the waves from coming in super strong.  We brought all our snorkel gear with us, thinking we would take a snorkel trip, but we were a little tired from our busy day, so we just enjoyed our late lunch and relaxed.  We decided to settle down at Santa Fe beach, and we were not disappointed.  The beach was beautiful, with only a handful of other people.  It probably didn't hurt that we didn't get to the beach until 4:30 on a Thursday afternoon.  There are other beaches walking distance from the ruins, that I'm sure are gorgeous too.

Beaches of Santa Fe

Recommendations for Tulum:

1. Bring sunscreen, bathing suit, towel, and sunglasses!
2. Bring a little snack or lunch and water... LOTS of water.  There are restaurants near the ruins, but the restaurant on Santa Fe beach was not good and had a very small selection of food choices.
3. Don't be afraid to try the less popular beaches.  Tulum is set right on the coast, so many of the sightseers choose to go to the beach with access from the ruins.  Don't be afraid to explore, you might find something wonderful.
4. If you are wanting to do a snorkel tour, don't pay the high prices at the front of the ruins.  If you walk down to the beach, you can find boats and captains that will take you out with all the equipment for less than $20 per person.
5. Take lots of pictures!

Akumal: Snorkeling with the Turtles

On Wednesday, the hubs and I took my brother on his first Mexican bus ride to Akumal.  The "bus" is really a small van called the Collectivo.  After a short, but crowded ride, we arrived a short walk from Akumal beach.  Patrick had never seen manta rays and sea turtles in the wild, so he was pretty excited to get started.  After a quick lunch, and waiting the recommended 30 minutes before snorkeling, we headed to the water.  Right away we saw tortugas.  We snorkeled for about 2 hours, and decided to take a break, get a snack, and a drink.  We rested, reapplied sunscreen, and headed back out.  This time we saw at least 7 tortugas and 5 manta rayas.  AND... we have the photos to prove it!

Big turtle

Fishies getting a ride from the turtle, AND something else too...

He was HUGE!

Jade getting in close.  The turtles were really relaxed and let us get super close to them.

Patrick swimming down to see the turtles.

Fun times in the water.

The boys had a great time playing.  The photographer (me) is always behind the camera.

Manta rayas!  These manta rays were really fast.  We tried for a photo shoot with these guys, but they were shy.

Patrick got in close!

And so did Jade!

Self-portrait

More manta rays

My brother needs to eat a cookie!

Baby sea turtle

He was so cute!

The baby and his family!

After this little trip, Patrick was excited to get started on his diving.  Yesterday, he began his book work, and hopefully, next week he will be ready to get in the water.  What a little dare devil!