Blog Post #1 - Tulum

Day 1

Our trip to Tulum began in Tijuana. With an early wake up, we ended up in the Tijuana airport at 4:30am… and yes the weekend of the cartel riots. Unfortunately, I flew solo due to the flights getting booked out. But I quickly (4 hrs of waiting) met my friends in the Cancun airport. With that settled, we picked up our car and drove 1.5 hours to Tulum. Upon arrival to Mayan Monkey, we were stoked to hear the distant sound of dance music and people partying. So after settling in, we decided to go to the hostel bar and have a few celebratory drinks.

Day 2

We began our stay with a trip to the Tulum Mayan Ruins. Although there was a large crowd, it ended up being much more interesting than I had thought. Learning about the history of one of the greatest civilizations in history was a unique part of the trip I didn’t expect.  Later that same day we didn’t have much planned so we went into the beach area where we visited SferIk, an architecture museum that seemed to be very popular among instagram users. After leaving SferIk we walked our way to a rooftop bar, called Mateos! Happy hour blessed us with cheap mint mijitos, pina coladas, and good views. On our drive home however, we got unfortunately got pulled over by a cop and had to talk to him in broken Spanish for an hour- before we finally were able to bribe him and be on our way. After this incident Aidan, who was the driver, was not looking forward to the next day where we had planned to drive 2.5 hours to the middle of nowhere. 

Day 3

We started our early morning at 5:30am, and left to prepare for the day. We got all our pesos and a nice hardy breakfast and we were on our way. After driving through nothing but jungle and tiny towns for 2.5 hours, we finally reached our first spot and first cenote of the trip. Cenote Ik Kil. The view was incredible and unlike anything I had ever seen before. But, we were slightly underwhelmed when we were forced to wear life jackets and among very large crowds. The swarms of people in bright red life jackets took away from the natural beauty of this cenote. So… we decided to get on our way to our next spot. Cenote Lol Ha.

Lol Ha was everything I thought it would be. While in Tulum, large crowds seemed to be a very common trend. However after finding Cenote Lol Ha in the middle of a town with a 15 person population, all that changed. For about an hour, we had this natural sinkhole with some of the bluest water I have ever seen all to ourselves. The local who worked there was fairly surprised when we started doing flips off the cliffs. On top of the view from above, the light rays shining through the hole into the blue water was another beautiful view and a different perspective. All 6 of us were so stoked about Lol-Ha that we really didn’t stop talking about it the entire trip. Our last stop on this journey was none other than Chichen Itza, one of the 7 wonders of the world…

It was so cool to learn about one of the most notorious empires in history. One of the coolest things is that the Temple of Kukulkan emitted a bird chirping noise when you clap. No one knows the reason for sure but it's known that it was no accident. After reaching our breaking point in the heat and humidity, we decided to make our way back home.

Day 4

After a night out of partying in Tulum, naturally we got a late start to the day. With nothing planned, we took a look at google maps, pinpointed a cool looking spot on the map, and drove on very bumpy roads to a random lagoon that borders the ocean. Unfortunately, the lagoon proved to be not so interesting, and the ocean was covered in pounds and pounds of rotting seaweed. However, along the way back, we found a little local spot that doesn’t get much year round business, so we decided to stop there and eat a nice ceviche lunch and drink some fresh coconuts.

Day 5

On day 5, our stay at the Mayan Monkey came to an end. With 4 hours to kill in between checkout and check in to our air b n b, we decided to go to the famous Cenote Calavera. We showed up early to beat the crowd, which proved to be very worth it. We met a nice English couple and spent some time alone in Cenote Calavera. We messed around for a little while, but the longer we stayed, the larger the crowd became. Afterwards we dropped off Will for his bus to the airport, and the rest of us checked into our air b n b. 

At the air b n b we decided to decompress and just relax for the rest of the day. However, out of nowhere it began to thunderstorm for the first time all trip. Instead of staying inside,  (although not so smart) we decided to take this opportunity to swim in the pouring rain.

Day 6

On our last full day here in Tulum, we thought it was necessary to visit the coba ruins. But first, we stopped at Cenote Tankach-Ha, which unfortunately was too dark for us to bring our cameras down! Tankach Ha was surreal, almost like a cave. With a wood staircase leading down from the ground level all the way into a gaping cave with bats flying around and some of the clearest water I have ever seen. Because it was fully underground, there was a lack of oxygen which made it very tiring to climb to the top of the jumping platforms. However the thrill of jumping made it all worth it.

After we had our time at Cenote Tankach-Ha, we made our way to the Coba Ruins. Once again, learning the rich history of the mayan empire made it all worth it, however we were quickly met with disappointment when we found out we could not climb the ruins. In the past people were able to climb to the top of the coba ruins but unfortunately, and probably for the better, they do not allow it any longer.