“Cuanto cuesta… um… Tulum ruins?” I asked the taxi driver in my limited Spanish.

“Cuarenta.” Came his reply.

Ah, 40 pesos from our hotel to the ruins. We hopped in. On the way to the ruins, just 3 kilometers down the road, we tried to have a conversation with the taxi driver with our limited Spanish and his limited English. We mentioned that we were checking out of our hotel that day and heading to Hacienda Tres Rios, a resort a few kilometers north of Playa del Carmen. He offered to pick us up at the ruins when we were done, take us back to our hotel to check out and drive us to our next hotel for 400 pesos. We were trying to travel on the cheap, and this price beat taking the bus. We agreed.

The ruins at Tulum are impressive. They are perched on a cliff overlooking a beautiful white sandy beach and the Caribbean. From the looks of it, this must have been a Mayan resort. We had arrived early in the morning trying to beat the tour buses and the heat of mid-day. But it did not take long before the crowds poured in and the temperature went up. We made our way around the ruins and Sydney had fun counting the iguanas. We stopped at several spots that looked like a great place to have a family picture taken and asked the nearest people if they wouldn’t mind taking our picture. Every person we asked was from Europe. Tulum was truly a magnet for Europeans.

After making the loop through the ruins we made our way back to where our taxi dropped us off. We found him waiting and he took us back to our hotel where we quickly grabbed our bags and checked out. Next stop land of luxury and electricity. We were excited.

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After arriving at the Mayan ruins of Coba, we paid our entrance fees and started down the wide trail leading into the jungle. The tour buses were arriving and there were already large crowds of people. We had read that they no longer allow tourists to climb the pyramid at Chichen Itza, but they do allow people to climb the big one (Nohoch Mul) at Coba, which happens to be the largest one in the Yucatan at 138 feet tall. I am not one for heights, but Kerri and Sydney were gung ho about climbing this monster.

Coba is spread out over a large area and requires a lot of walking through the hot jungle. At the entrance were people available to hire that would shuttle you around on a bicycle with a seat on the front that could fit two adults, or two adults and a small lap child. After awhile, Sydney informed us that Mayan ruins were “boring” and her legs hurt. We told her once we got to the large pyramid we would hire someone to give us a ride on their bicycle back to the entrance.

One of the great things about Mexico is the iguanas. They seem to love hanging out at old Mayan ruins and for a 5 year old that was hot, tired, and bored with staring at old stones, this was our salvation. She thought the giant iguanas were really “cool.” We made a game out of trying to see how many iguanas she could find. This perked up her interest during our death march to the large pyramid of Nohoch Mul.

Once we reached the pyramid, I knew I was not going to make it up this thing. It was really high with steep steps to the top. I have an issue with vertigo and always feel a bit dizzy. But whenever I am on stairs or up high, it seems a bit worse. This place was so isolated that medical help would be a long time coming if something happened, if you survived the fall. Kerri and Sydney started to climb and I started to follow. We got up about half way when we stopped. If we would not have looked down, we could have made it. But looking down really showed how steep the steps were and how sketchy it would be climbing back down. I decided to stay put and told Kerri that they could go ahead without me, but looking down had convinced her that maybe this was high enough.

Back at the bottom of the pyramid we made our way to the bicycle drivers and hired a young Mayan to give us a ride to the last of the groups of ruins and then back to the entrance. He was huffing and puffing in the hot weather and we felt sorry for the poor guy. But the breeze created by the motion felt wonderful and Sydney was enjoying not having to walk anymore.

Once back at the parking lot we  found our taxi driver still waiting. He took us back to our hotel in Tulum where we promptly went searching for cold beverages and lunch.

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We just returned from our two-week vacation to Mexico. We had a great time and did not have any problems, other than sticker shock at the prices. After arriving at the Cancun International Airport we made our way through Mexican immigration and customs. Mexican customs is like a lottery. You push a button and if you get a green light, you go through. If you get a red light, your bags are searched. Fortunately, we got a green light and were not delayed. We had reserved a private shuttle van through USA Transfers to drive us the 120 km to our beach cabana in Tulum. This seemed like the easiest way to get there and the price was not too bad at $79 for the three of us. The CHEAPEST way would have been to take the transit bus downtown to the ADO bus station and then take a taxi from downtown Tulum to our cabana. Although this may have saved us a few pesos, it would have taken a lot longer and after having to get up at 3am to make our flight, this did not seem like a good way to start our first day of our vacation.

After our van dropped us off at the front door of Cabanas Copal, we checked in and were led to our… simple… accommodations. When I booked the reservation online for this hotel I knew it would be basic. It was advertised as having no electricity, optional clothing beach, and mosquito netting. The cabana had a thatch roof, cobblestone floor, and a shower designed by the Marquis de Sade, but had a phenomenal view of the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea . From the reviews, the “clothing optional beach” sounded like it was in a certain area. Nope! It was wherever the nudies wanted to “hang” out. We have no problems with nudity, but it is still a shock coming from prude America to a beach that has naked people all over the place. The funny thing was that our 5 year old daughter did not even notice. She was too busy playing in the soft white sand and warm waters. After getting back to the cabana we experienced “the worst shower ever.” The shower was a tiled deep bowl that had a rounded and slippery bottom. The water trickled out of the showerhead and was lukewarm at best. The shower also had large windows with small curtains. While taking a shower, you had no choice but to bear it all to the world on the other side. Good thing it was a nudist beach…

The hotel has a rule about no food in the cabanas. We thought that our granola and Cliff bars would be safe since they were unopened and sealed inside large plastic zip lock bags. I was awakened in the middle of the night by the sounds of a critter tearing into things. I hoped that it was outside and went back to sleep safely behind our mosquito netting. The next morning we found that the zip lock bags had holes chewed through them and a half eaten Cliff bar was on the floor. I guess they were correct about no food in the cabanas.

We went to the hotel’s restaurant and had an overpriced breakfast. Our plan for this day was to go see the Mayan Ruins of Coba. So after breakfast we waved down a taxi and haggled a price for them to take us the one hour drive to Coba, wait for us to tour the ruins, and then return us to our hotel. We were hoping to be able to take a bus out to the ruins to save money, but the buses rarely head out that way and are often full on the way back. Since we were only planning on spending two nights in Tulum we had to make the most of our time. So, after agreeing on 600 pesos (about $50 USD) we were off to see Coba.

We are flying to Mexico tomorrow morning. We will be spending two weeks touring various parts of the Yucatán Peninsula. We have wanted to do this trip for many years for a chance to see the Mayan Pyramids and enjoy the white sand beaches and turquoise waters of the Caribbean.

We are very excited, yet the US State Department keeps trying to ruin our excitement. I registered our trip through their website (https://travelregistration.state.gov) which will send travel warnings sent directly to your email. They sent me a warning awhile ago talking about the problems in Mexico with the drug cartels. Sure, you see that every week in the news. Yesterday, I received a nice detailed message offering a travel warning to US citizens visiting Mexico. It described in detail about gun battles in the streets, Americans being kidnapped and never found, carjackings, and even the use of grenades. Those drug cartels really know how to party! Fortunately, these problems are mostly at the border towns and we will be in areas that have not seen this kind of violence. But, we will be in Mexico and it is always a good idea to be aware of your surroundings and use caution. There are dangers everywhere and a little common sense goes a long ways. If we cannot survive Cancun, how are we to survive a round-the-world trip?