Yesterday morning I slept in despite the two hour time change. I left my room at 11 or so and headed to the ADO (bus station). The neighbourhood looked a little better in the day than the night but I don't think I will be staying there again. I remembered where (approximately) my hotel that I staying in 9 years is, so I may try to hunt that down when I go back to Cancun. Plus it is close to Chedraui which will definitely get a visit - Val and I used to go to Chedraui, a Zellars/Fairway type of store, all the time when we lived in Carmen.
Bus to Tulum was fairly uneventful. We had a stop in Playa Del Carmen. That is a nice looking little town, I was tempted to get off the bus when I saw the beach from the main drag. But onward I went to Tulum, which is not nearly so pretty. When I arrived, I wandered around for a bit trying to find a hotel. I started with one, the Casa Rosa, that the bus passed on the way in. 450 pesos/night. I must be able to do better than that. Next hotel was on the main drag. Desk clerk 1 claimed to have a room for 250 but Clerk 2 said it is gone. Another hotel. 450 with private bath or 350 with shared bath. I looked at the shared- bath room. It was awful - AWFUL! Tiny with just a horrible metal framed bed taking up almost the whole room. Nowhere to put my bag. Plus the fan didn't work, the deciding factor. I declined.
After checking a couple more, I was starting to get the sense that there was a pretty standard price in town. I went back to the Casa Rosa. This time I talked to the son and he quoted 400 pesos. I looked at the room and it was 1 million times nicer than the other one - with Air and TV and a private bath - well worth an extra 50 pesos (about 4 bucks).
Once I was planted in my room, I headed out to explore the city a bit. I just wandered up and down the main drag. I ate some chicken mole which wasn't very good but I was so happy to be eating in a little Mexican hole in the wall, I ate it all (plus it was my first meal of the day at 5pm). After that I found a travel/tour agency. Tulum is very close to a giant park/biosphere where apparently the birding is pretty awesome. The guy had a pamphlet that said they did bird tours (1/2 day). My agent sounded pretty iffy, they don't run very often because people would rather snorkel. But he called and miracle, they were going out the next morning. One problem though, the group has to meet at Muyil (I think) which is south of Tulum at 6am. No bus. My guidebook (which is crappy by the way) says that the best way to see this area is to just rent a car. So, I told my guy I would look into a car and come back. Excellent - they are open until 9pm.
There is a car rental place (Payless) just by the bus station and my hotel. I started there. They don't open until 7:30 (it was about 5:30pm when I started this project). But, very Mexico, there was a guy out front who was willing to negotiate until they opened. 500 pesos a day. I said I was going to check some other places. Little did I realize the other places are way on the edge of town. I walked for 45 minutes, crossed dangerous highways, when I found Hertz - which was closed. I give. I went back to my hotel room to wait until 7:30.
I went back to Payless and tried to talk the guy into 400/day. Nope. Bus while I had been in my room, I flipped through the book again and realized how much there is to do in this area, if one has wheels. So, I got the car for 7 days - with discount. I calculated, it is only $250 Can for a week. I am justifying it by noting that bus tours to various locations would cost me that much and I wouldn't have the same freedom. I drove in Mexico when Val and I travelled around so I wasn't too worried. However, on my way back to the hotel (two blocks away) I took a wrong turn, got a bit lost, ended up in the bus station which did not please the guard and then I panicked and got back to my hotel (1.5 blocks away) but I drove the wrong way down TWO one way streets. oops. Fortunately, there weren't many cars around. I like my little car, it is a standard with manual steering - that is taking some practise, especially since the hotel parking is very tight.
Anyway, I went (walked) back to the tour agency at 8:30. It was closed. Arrg. I should have remembered, this is Mexico, times are flexible. So, now I have a car to get to a tour that I am not signed up for, don't know the name of or really where the meeting point is. I wandered down the street to see if there was another tour place open. I found a hostel (the place with the awful room) with a sign out front that they offer tours. The desk clerk found the tour guy who had never heard of the tour I was talking about. But the best birder in town just happens to be in the bar, lets go talk to him. So, as often is the case in life (or at least while travelling) one opportunity lost is another one found. I booked a 6am tour with Rene (hanging out in the Weary Traveller hostel) to the Sian Ka'an for Saturday.
Now, I had to figure out what to do for Friday. Well, when in Tulum, do the Tulum ruins seemed logical. My inadequate guide book said it opens at 7 am and be there early to beat the crowds. So I got up early and headed out at 6:45. It is just out of town so I figured I would right on time. But, I took the wrong turn and then another one. I did find the road to Punta Allen which I may try to reach and I also saw a very strange animal - do they have lemurs here? (update - it was a Coatimundi) It was big, looked like a cross between a monkey and a rodent, was orangey, and had a very long, ringed tail. It lazily crossed the road right in front of me but then disappeared into the forest before I could get my camera.
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| This is a Coatimundi - picture stolen from Google |
I reached the Tulum gate at 7:20 to discover that it wasn't open yet. I could wait there or I could drive to another ruin, Coba, which is inland, further out of town. I decided on Coba. A very easy drive and I didn't even get lost. Two new birds on the way, a Yucatan jay and a Keel Billed Toucan. I got there just after 8 and there were a few people there but they were all birders. This was promising. Since I hadn't planned to come to Coba, I hadn't really looked at the layout of the park. It is huge with many ruins at the ends of various dirt roads. I just started walking, with no idea of what I would find. There weren't a million birds but the ones that were there were good ones. I got some new ones on the way. There was a British group on an actual bird tour of the Yucatan. I tried not to bug them but I pointed out a Blue Crowned Motmot to them so they started to point things out to me. We would cross paths often as I or they stopped to see something interesting.
Eventually we reached the end of the road, a group of small pyramids and plaque things that I don't remember the name of. There was almost no one else around. We were all starting to peter out at that point so I sat by a man and we had a little birder chit chat. About 10 minutes into our conversation he mentions that most of his group at in the woods watching a Mottled Owl. Poor guy, he probably only say a dust outline of where I had been sitting. Into the woods where I found the group just in time. There was a beautiful, big brown owl, just sitting on the ground looking serene. I got one photo before the guide accidentally startled a 2nd owl that no one had noticed. They both took off with huge wings flapping. Amazing.
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| Mottled Owl |
I headed back then but as the group passed me once again, they mentioned that they were going to look at the other pyramid. There is another pyramid? Apparently, there is an even better site off to the left of the path. I had just happened to go right, which was prefect for early in the day because this is definitely the path less travelled so more birds around. It was 11:30 or so and I had been walking almost nonstop since 8am. It was getting hot. But I veered left when the path forked. This path had tons of people, many on bikes. There were regular bikes or chauffeured bikes with up to two passengers. It is a big park (over 40 km Sq. ) so many people took advantage. Each ruin is far from the next ruin (or so it seemed since I was tired and hadn't eaten more than a few digestives).
Coba
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| La Iglasia |
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| Ballcourt |
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| A 'Stela'. They are carved with images of gods and whatnot. They are all over Coba. |
Eventually, I found the pyramid. It is huge, apparently the 2nd highest in the Yucatan. And it is still open for climbing. I climbed Chichan Itza back in the day and it has since been closed for climbing so I didn't want to miss this opportunity. Did I mention it is high. And midday. I started my accent at 12:03. But, on the plus side, I think the steps are lower than they were on Chichan Itza, it is those high steps that kill me. Some parrot landed on the now eye level tree tops which gave me an excuse to stop and rest halfway up. I made it to the top which of course is not very exciting except for the thrill of accomplishment. The view was just miles and miles of treetops with the other pyramid poking out in the distance. I wish I could have climbed that one just to have been able to see the big one from afar.
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| First view of the Nohoch Mul pyramid - pretty impressive |
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| Heading up (see the tour groups - probably looking at trees) |
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| It's tall. And look at those brutal steps. These stairway has not been rebuilt so there a missing steps and big chunks fallen away. I actually can't believe they let people on there. |
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| I made it to the top - me and everyone else. |
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| View from the top, you can just see a glimpse of the far off lagoon and the other pyramid peaking out from the treetops |
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| Zoom on the other pyramid |
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| The very top from the side |
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| Carvings on the 'structure' at the top of the pyramid from the front |
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| Heading down |
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| Back at the bottom. |
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| From a distance you can see the whole section of the stairs (to the right) that have fallen away) so as you climb it get narrower the higher you go. |
I really do think that the perfect day is birding among archaeological ruins. I got back to my car at about 2:30. Slightly burnt, dehydrated, hungry with unhappy feet but with several new birds and a super day to remember. I got back to my room after 3 and took a nap.
Now I am out having dinner at a place with Wifi. I just finished chicken quesadillas which were fine but I ate them all just so I would have something to put the excellent guacamole on. You just can't beat guacamole made where the avocados grow. Now back to my room. I have another early start tomorrow.
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