When is the best time to get some sunshine? That would be when the mid-west is at it’s coldest… wintertime. I actually decided to go to Mexico on a whim, even though I had already been with one of my friends a few years before. I had just gotten back from my Niagara/Canada trip (see Canada for more details) that summer when I thought, hey, let’s go to Mexico around Christmas time. So I booked my flight, crossed my fingers I wouldn’t have to work, and started planning our trip.
SPOILER ALERT: The weather here is hot! Although it may look really nice in the pictures since it’s cold back home, the heat is exhausting. Seriously, I could be sitting in the shade and still feel the sweat dripping off me. It also got me really confused because I kept talking about things I wanted to do when I got back home, aka summer things, until I remembered it was still wintertime at home.
So this vacation has been part sight-seeing and part relaxing. That's actually kind of odd since I don't plan trips where I can just relax. It was surprisingly nice. It’s been the perfect mix of sightseeing and lounging on the beach. Most of my vacations thus far have been "run, run, run you-can-sleep-when-you’re-dead vacations". But this has been nice. I’ve been doing a day of touring the ruins, and then a day of relaxing on the balcony, at the pool, or on the beach. The resort is very small on a side street of Fifth Avenue (in Playa del Carmen). It’s an adult only resort so it’s pretty quiet. I’ve been spending my off days on my own private balcony overlooking the courtyard, pool, and waterfall. Each morning I can go down to the “lobby” to get some coffee and sweet breads (banana nut, zucchini, coconut lime). As for the food in general… it’s delicious. My favorite venues were the street carts. Most of them were housed at the other end of Fifth Avenue, but at least I got my exercise in prior to eating. I decided not to tell my dad about eating street food in Mexico (he worked for Public Health testing food and water samples) since I was pretty sure he wouldn’t approve. But hey, I haven’t gotten sick yet! Overall though, the landscapes are beautiful, the water is beautiful, the ruins are amazing, and the sunsets in Cozumel are by far the prettiest I have seen.
Keep on reading for my day-by-day adventures!
Day 1, December 27: Tulum
My first full day in Mexico!! I woke up bright and early to begin adventuring! I had to walk all the way to the other end of Fifth Avenue to the bus stop and bought bus tickets to Tulum. While Tulum is a city, it is most well known as the ancient ruins located on the water. Back in the day, it was a popular port city due to its location near the ocean and also served as a defense for the people in times of war. I wasn’t allowed to climb on any of the ruins and many had barriers put up to prevent people from even thinking about being able to climb them. Fortunately, I was allowed to wander the grounds as much as I wanted. The ruins weren’t very tall so you could see most of the city from wherever you were standing. The backdrop of the ruins was the ocean, which was a sight to see. I had come prepared with my swimsuit that day and was disappointed to hear that the beaches were closed that day due to the winds. After touring the ruins, I walked around the city of Tulum for a while before the bus headed back to Playa del Carmen.
Day 2, December 28: Beaches
My day began on the balcony, just doing some reading, drinking some coffee and checking up on emails. I had decided that today would be a good day to hit the beach. While there are lots of places to swim in Playa del Carmen, I opted for a popular spot at the far end of Fifth Avenue. Fifth Avenue is lined with shops and restaurants, as well as salespeople trying to offer their tours. Since I really wanted to swim in a cenote, I ended up inquiring about a few different tours that would take us to a cenote. I ended up booking a tour for the next day that included a cenote and Chichen Itza! But until then, I swam in the water which felt amazing with the hot sun. I had brought a long sleeved swim shirts to make sure that I didn’t burn (I had made that mistake a few years ago while snorkeling in Cozumel). A fun surprise after I got out of the water awaited me: fire dancers. I watched their show for a while until I was ready to head back to the resort to clean myself up. It’s also really nice to have someone clean up after you every day since I usually got sand all over my room! That night I decided to check out Cozumel. Since I had been there before (one of my best friend’s hubby is from there) and had explored the city already, I decided that I really just wanted to see the sunset. It was by far one of the best sunsets I have ever seen. The sun was so vibrantly orange, and the views over the water made it a spectacular sight to see. I then spent the evening walking around the shops in Cozumel before taking the ferry back to the mainland and calling it a night.
Day 3, December 30: Chichen Itza
It’s time for one of the best days in Mexico! It all started with a quick cup of coffee and some sweet bread from the resort. After a quick breakfast, the tour bus came to pick me up at 7:30am. It was one of those big buses, with maybe 20-30 people on it. I hopped on and was on my way to our first stop: Cenote Oxman. A cenote is basically a natural sinkhole that is filled with groundwater from underground. Cenotes are actually really common in the Yucatan and an important source of water since there are few lakes and rivers through the peninsula. The cenote we went to was a basically a big hole the ground, with the edges coming about 3-4 feet off the ground (so basically you can’t just fall in it). A bunch of flora was around the edges of the ledge but if you peered down, you could see long vines of plants and branches going down into the water as well as a bunch of blue down below. One had to walk down a flight of stairs to get closer to the water. I decided to jump off a ledge into the water (it was only about 10 feet high). I opted to wear a life jacket so I wouldn’t drown since parts of the cenote can be pretty deep. The water was pretty cool but that felt really refreshing since, even though it was early in the morning, it was hot. Since the water is underground, it is kept at a stable temperature all year. I was disappointed that I only had about 20 minutes to swim in the cenote but I had to keep moving as I had a busy day in front of me.
The next stop was a Mayan village. Someone talked to us about obsidian rocks, which are these black rocks produced from lava or volcanos or something like that. It apparently fractures pretty easily which was used for cutting in the past. The man talked to the tour group about the uses of obsidian and then told/showed us how after leaving the obsidian rocks in the sun, they were good to put on your sore back or neck. Our group was provided a buffet lunch while these dancers (did they have a name?) performed for us and even danced with bottles on their head.
After lunch we headed to Chichen Itza. Chichen Itza is amazing and it is no wonder that its main pyramid, El Castillo (castle) was declared one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007. This pyramid is just so amazing, and the people who built it were pure geniuses. Basically what happens is on the equinoxes, the sun is so perfectly aligned with the pyramid that the shadows depict a serpent that slithers down the corners of the pyramid. It is just amazing. It’s basically a calendar that was built by people with such precision. The group had a tour guide who told us all about the place. He told us about El Castillo, the ball court and how to play their game, depictions carved into stone about people getting beheaded, and of course, the place where the people sacrificed others. We weren’t allowed to climb onto any of the sculptures but they were all so amazing to see, especially after knowing more about the place and its history. The place was crowded with people, so that was the only downfall. However, dealing with a crowd of people is worth seeing this amazing place. Did I mention this place was amazing?
After Chichen Itza, the tour group headed to the town of Valladolid, which is about 25 miles east of Chichen Itza. Valladolid is named after the (at the time) capital of Spain. The town is very colonial and is comprised of colonial era architecture and churches. I walked around the main square, checked out one of the churches nearby, and tried a Mayan crepe. It was the shape of a long rolled up cookie but was comprised of a light, crispy outer shell and an inside of (my choice) bananas and Nutella. It was good, but it was nothing compared to the crepes in France. The tour group didn’t have a ton of time in Vallodolid since it was pretty late when we got there, but it was nice to at least have an hour or so to check it out. We finally headed back home but I didn’t get back to my room until almost midnight. I was exhausted and so glad that the next day was another day to relax.
Day 4, December 31: Beaches
Another late and lazy morning was in store for me today. I really loved my balcony and started my morning with a cup of coffee up there. Finally, as the morning came to a close, I decided to spend some time just walking around Fifth Avenue and checking out of the shops. While a lot of them were very touristy, I do have a fondness for some good souvenirs. It was New Year’s Eve though! My evening (and whole day basically) was pretty relaxed. I actually ended up getting dinner at a Thai restaurant (I still needed my weekly Thai food apparently…) which was pretty lucky for me since most restaurants had tons of booked reservations due to the holiday. Since one of my best friends’ husband is from Cozumel, when I read about a tradition of eating a dozen grapes on New Year’s Eve, I immediately contacted her. She informed me that according to her husband, one puts 12 grapes in their cup of wine which represents each month of the New Year. Upon eating the grapes at midnight, one makes a wish. Of course that is what I did! Here’s to a new year, 2015!
Day 5, January 1: Coba
I booked a bus to Coba! Coba was probably one of my favorites, probably because I got to climb it. Of course that doesn’t mean that Chichen Itza isn’t the wonder that it is, but I had a ton of fun at Coba.
There was only one bus to Coba and one bus from Coba, so I didn't have much time to cover a lot of ground. I decided to work with what was there… I rented a bike! That was a really smart idea in hindsight, since I wouldn’t have made it to the main pyramid there, the Ixmoja pyramid. Coba is actually a big ancient city and is the largest combination of stone sculptures. The largest pyramid, Ixmoja, is 138 feet tall! It is one of the tallest on the Yucatan. I climb up the whole thing! It was definitely pretty easy to climb up it, and the views from the top were amazing. It was really hot that day, so in between the bike riding and climbing up the pyramid, I was sweating like crazy. Going down the pyramid was a bit more of a challenge. There was a rope there to help people up (or maybe down?) but I ended up sitting on each step and walking my butt down each step. But I managed to get down safely, and just in time to rush the bike back to the gate to catch the bus back to Playa del Carmen.
Day 6, January 2: Snorkeling
Another day off, and I thought, what should I do today? I can’t spend another day just lounging on the beach. I mean, I’m used to those vacations where we don’t even have time to sit, let alone lounge. Welcome to Akumal Turtle Bay! This is about 25 minutes south of Playa del Carmen and is the perfect place to see and swim with giant turtles! I went with a local tour guide who drove me to Akumal and provided all of the supplies. It was actually pretty nice to have someone walk me through what I was supposed to do and not have to worry about where to go and what to do. Of course you can’t touch any of the wildlife, but the turtles would swim right by you that I basically had to move to make sure they didn’t touch me! Some of the turtles were almost 4 feet in size! I also saw a lot of fish and coral too. While I had the waterproof camera with me, something wasn’t right in the lens so a lot of the pictures ended up foggy instead of clear. At least I got a few pictures, and it was definitely one of those experiences that was just breathtaking to have been able to do. As if swimming with the turtles wasn’t enough that day, I ended up swimming in our resort’s pool and then spending the sunset on the beach. While the sunset wasn’t really great since the beach and the water faced east instead of west, it was fun to watch all of the people on the beach coming together and partying.
Day 7, January 3: Ek Balam
The night before while walking down Fifth Avenue, I thought, hey, what else can I do tomorrow? I walked into a place that was like, hey we have 2 spots left for a tour to Ek Balam. I just said okay. Then the salesperson said, we have the Spanish tour and the French tour but the English tour is all sold out. I booked the French tour. Who knew French would be needed in Mexico!? The first stop was Rio Lagartos. As it sounds, it is a lagoon and part of a natural reserve. Apparently this is a popular place to go birdwatching or to see alligators. The tour started when a van picked us up. I was in a group with 3 other couples. Once we got to Rio Lagartos, we took a boat out onto the water to see birds and alligators. We did see one alligator, as well as many birds including flamingos and pelicans. It's apparently the one stop to visit to see flamingos. Our tour guide then offered us to take a bano maya. Since the clay there is really high in sulfur, it is believed that one should cover themselves with the clay to ... I’m not even sure? I was too distracted by the other couples busy covering their whole bodies in clay. I passed on the bano mayo. My main purpose for taking the tour was to see Ek Balam, and I did not want to have a bunch of clay stuck to me when I went to see it. Those that were covered in clay jumped into a small pond to rinse off, but I was glad to not have to worry about all of the clay on us. Lunch included a delicious entrée of fish and chicken. It was really fresh and delicious.
Finally we were off to Ek Balam. Only the center of Ek Balam has been excavated, so no one is sure how large the site really is. So far, 45 structures have been mapped and it is comprised of 2 palaces and a large pyramid (el torre) which is located in the center. El torre (tower) is one of the largest in the Yucatan and measures 500 feet long, 200 feet wide, and 100 feet tall. It was huge!!! The view was really pretty, especially since the sun was starting to go down over the trees. Ek Balam is also known for its structures being built from stucco and limestone instead of stone, as well as the preservation of the king, Ukit Kan Lek Tok. I was able to climb onto a smaller structure and see El torre behind us. And I was able to climb El torre to see the other structures that I had climbed as well. I definitely had fun climbing the structures.
Day 8, January 4: Go Home
All good trips have an end, and my time in Mexico had come to an end. While I was glad to be going home away from the heat, I was not all that excited to go home to the mid-west winter (and back to work!) It was great to finally see some Mayan ruins, swim with the turtles, and see a beautiful sunset in Cozumel!