Rosie and The Operator awoke to the sound of howling wind…but no rain…yay, lets be off, we are in Tulum Mexico and going to visit our first set of Mayan Ruins, The Tulum Archeological Site.
This Maya site was known in ancient times by the name Zama, which means ‘City of the Dawn’ because it faces the sunrise.
The earliest inscription has been dated on the site to what was thought to be its inception in 500ad – the heyday of the city was between the 13th and 15th century. The demise….no one is sure but the city seemed to fall 70 years after the Spanish invaded in the mid 1500s. Historians have attributed this demise to introduced diseases bought by the Spanish invaders resulting in high fatalities that the locals had no immunity to. This disrupted and depleted the Mayan society so greatly it caused the city to abandoned.
Each Mayan city had a specific purpose, and Tulum was no exception. This site was a seaport, trading mainly in turquoise, jade and obsidian. As well as being the only city built on a coast, Tulum was one of only a few protected by a wall.
Made of limestone, this humungeous 784 metre long wall protected the town on three sides, with the sea doing the biz on the fourth. The wall is seven metres thick, varying in height from three to five metres high….no doubt this was built to protect the precious bounty inside and the seaport.
Inside the wall, the site itself it is not a large space, but it has a lot of important buildings, it seems the site housed 600 – 1000 people and many think only gentry and nobility lived inside the walls with the everyday working man living on the outside.
As soon as you enter through one of the five small doors in the thick walls you are greeted by a field of gently rolling hills, black and grey stone ruins rear their heads while huge gulls weel overhead.
Most prominent amongst the remaining structures is the Castillo, or castle, which is perched on the edge of a 12 metre cliff overlooking the Caribbean coast. You can walk down to the beach from here, but because of the windy weather the stairway was closed as was the beach. Check out the brown seaweed that has been pushed up onto the white sand from the storm surge and tide.
It is still a pretty amazing view, Rosie was hoping to get some pics from the beach looking up but it was not to be. This is not one of the most prominent or amazing ruins in the area…what gives it its point of difference is the stunning clifftop location.
The Castillo stands 7.5 metres tall. It was built on top of another building and looks so amazing. Amongst its stones were so many iguana…some of them were huge. Even though there was no direct sun, it was still humid and very warm, they were out sitting on the warm rocks perfectly camouflaged by grey on grey and were not to bothered about the tourists taking pics of them.
The Temple of the Frescoes is amazingly still mainly intact and looks so awesome in situ. This used to be a observatory devoted to the tracking of the sun. The walls are tapered to hold its own weight and not collapse and on some of the lintels you can still see scrapes of colour from ancient times. On the top of the walls there are red Mayan hand prints….it gives you shivers. The doors and lintels are so low, you think that midgets lived here….but no, the hand prints look normal size.
2,5 million people visit this site every year…today there was only a handful…Rosie was so glad we weren’t sharing our first ruin with heaps of people. It was very special.
Walking out of the site, in the carparking area which was swarming with souvenir sellers having just set up for the day was a man holding an iguana…Rosie wanted to touch him…he felt so cold, his skin felt so baggy and rough and tough like a beaded purse. Next minute the poor iguana is being thrust into The Operators arms and the Mexican is saying ‘you hold, you hold’ The Operator looked a little stunned, but look, The Iguana had a big smile on his wee chubby face.
The rain had started again, but we were off to the Gran Cenote for a look at our first sinkhole. The whole Yuchatan Peninsula has hundreds of these. Huge caverns of limestone hold pools of the most beautiful, clear, naturally filtered water. These used to be integral to the survival of Mayan villages and all were built around or near cenote as their water sources. Some of them were even used for sacrifice as gateways or portals to the next world, as per the human bones, treasures and precious stones that have dredged from some of them. Today they are used mainly for swimming and have steps and stairs and the most well set up platforms to enter the water from. Most of these sinkholes are interconnected underground via long limestone tunnels that can be scuba dived by the more intrepid.
This cenote was right on the edge of town, with a high fence around it, the lizards were out enforce here too, and a $70peso entrance fee $4NZD each was to be paid. Rosie and The Operator didn’t really know what to expect as they couldn’t even get a sneak peak before paying…oh well, that’s what we are on holiday for. A surprise around every corner.
We walked down a track and got to the edge of the cenote, the vegetation is thick around it and the smell of the jungle earthy and wet from the rain. It has eased off abit but the pitter patter of rain can be heard as it lands on the broad leafed green plants. We also hear the sounds of a public swimming pool…laughter and shrieks plus the occasional splash…this sounds exciting, we get to a break in the bush and peer down into the sinkhole.
There, 10 metres below us was the most awesome sight. It was like an underground paradise, the bluest water you have ever seen, foliage hanging down into the pool from where we were standing. An area of lily pads where you could see turtles swimming in the clear water of the pool amongst the swimmers and then seeking refuge amongst the dense lillys.
Entranced, we start to descend into the hole in the earth. It is quite humid down here on the board walk, Rosie is surprised how few people there are here. The water is very cool, refreshingly so, some areas are standable and then you step off the ledge into the deep abyss which is up to forty metres deep.
What a beautiful place, floating on your back in a starfish position, looking up at the sky and the treetops of the jungle around the hole, this is paradise…then some one has to jump in….spluttering, recovering, crabbing to the side of the platform…..the spell is broken.
Wow, what an introduction to the cenote…we certainly will be visiting more.
Time for dinner, Rosie has a hunger on after her big day. Its taco time, beautiful fresh and amazingly good value $30pesos for three, $2 NZD…it was also happy hour, x2 SOL beers, buy one get one free for $40pesos, oh gosh why not. Might even do another couple of rounds of everything. What else is their to do…..its pouring with rain again…..we have another round and sit and watch the deluge.
Tomorrow we are off to visit the ancient site of Coba…it is like an Indiana Jones jungle adventure at the temple of doom….well, thats what the guidebooks say, sounds exciting. Rain is still forecast…so it will be intrepid as well.
