Adventure of the month

The early Mayans must have known a thing or two about real estate, because when it came time to building Tulum, it was all about 'location, location, location'. The ruins that remain are fairly compact and not all that spectacular, yet they are among the most visited in all Mexico. Why? Because they sit on a cliff overlooking a beautiful expanse of soft sandy beach, making it entirely possible to admire the ruins while you are swimming in the warm waters of the Carribean. That and they are only about a two hour drive from Cancun. Instead of going straight from Merida to Cancun for my return flight, I decided to break up the journey with a night in Tulum. Most of the small town is geared towards high-end travellers, particularly the resorts that sit on the beach, so I was pretty excited to get my own seaside cabana for less than $30 (although compared to Merida, I regarded this as an extravagant splurge).

Every weekend, there are concerts and festivals in various parks. The Museum of Anthropology is housed in a former palace. Among the exhibits are skulls that were deliberately deformed to denote social status, A Chac Mool removed from Chichen Itza, And a skull revealing emerald teeth bling. The 19th century building housing the museum was known as El Palacio del General Canton. Sunday street fair in the main square. Corn kernels served with a lime and chili powder. The region is known for their embroidered dresses. Originally, when blogging of my visit to Mexico, I had intended to only post photos of the ruins and flamingos, but the city of Merida, which served as home base was such a gracious host that it felt rude to leave it out. It may only be a four hour bus ride from Cancun, but in terms of atmosphere and sincerity, it may as well be on the other side of the world. While Cancun takes on the attitude of a sidewalk hustler, trying to turn itself into what the visitor wants i...

As expected, I could not spend a week in the Yucatan exploring Mayan ruins and not visit Chichen Itza. Prior to 7/7/07, it was already a pretty popular attraction drawing about a million tourists a year, but since that date when it joined the exclusive list of new 7 world wonders, the crowds have doubled, as have the vendors and quite sensibly, the restrictions imposed to protect the site from its own popularity. All structures are now roped off, any kind of climbing is strictly forbidden and many of the important sculptures and carving have been removed to museums throughout the world. It is enough to make me selfishly bittersweet. On one hand, I am happy that unlike other sites (ie Machu Pichu), there is a proactive effort at preservation going on. On the other hand, the experience here can not compare with that at Uxmal and Kabah, where one feels like they have an entire site to themselves, free to wander and explore, Indiana Jones-style, free from salesmen peddling fake silver or...

The aptly named Bird Island Pelicans and Cormorants just chilling . Celestun's famous flamingos in flight. Due to the rough condition of the water, the flamingos were restless, leaving us little chance to observe them standing still. And they're off again.... In the background, there are about a bazillion flamingos, but the water was too shallow for us to get to them. Not to knock the guy but there is some awkward looking flying going on here. After visiting the flamingos, we cruised around the mangroves for awhile. I decided to change it up for my second Mexican day-trip. I had done culture and ruins on day one, day two was going to be dedicated to nature, so I set off for Celestun, a flamingo sanctuary, about 60 miles from Merida. Being so close, it should have been a short drive, but since I took a local bus, I was treated to the proverbial scenic route. I was particularly dismayed after waking up from a 45 minute nap to find that I had not even left Merida yet. And ...