The Ruins

So, when we tried to make it to town to rent the car, again, after we had called and confirmed that they would hold one for us, no one was at the office when we arrived. It was locked up with a sign that someone who return at 10:15... AM? PM? Who knows, but it was already 11:45am.

Luckily, we had met a great cab driver and asked how much he would charge if he took us on our itinerary the next day. He quoted a fair price and we told him we would be in touch. While walking along the beautiful white sand, we decided it made sense to go with him. He was affiliated with the hotel, was really friendly and had suggested a way to do our full itinerary, plus more in less time than we had planned. We called him and told him to pick us up at 6am to start our adventure the next day!

Sunday morning, rolled around too quickly, but we were really excited to go to Chitchen-Itza, Tulum, a cenote and more. We both slept on the way to the first ruins- which were 2.5 hours away. When we arrived, in record time, we were one of the first ones there. Brilliant! We got our tickets, a coffee and decided to use a guide to get the most of our experience there. We learned soo much about the Mayans. They were simply a brilliant civilization. They were the first ones to create the zero, their calendars are still exact and their architectural feats are still stumping scientists and archeologists to this day. We also learned there is nothing to fear about the world ending. We are just going through the night phase of the earth and we are about to have a reset. Hence why all the earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. And, why people are focusing more on harvesting solar energy and finding ways to recycle and reuse.

After the informative guided tour at the completely empty Chichen Itza, we headed to the popular, local cenote. I originally wanted to avoid Ik-Kil cenote because of the crowds, but because Jaime planned our day so well, we arrived and there was just one other couple there. They soon left and we had the whole place to ourselves!! We stayed and enjoyed the beauty for a while then headed to our next destination: Coba. We did a brief drive-through of a colonial town, but continued on.

Coba was really interesting, as well. This time, we decided against a guide and walked the front half then caught a pedi-cab for the rest of the walk through the jungle paths. It was perfect to zip us through the sites, get a bit of a guided tour and get us out of there as quick as possible. We still had one more site we wanted to see and we would be cutting it close!

Jaime was surprised that we returned so quickly to the car. He asked if we climbed to the top of the structure, which we did- although raced up and down it was more truthful. So many people were nervously climbing or huffing up and sitting to rest on the way to the top of the pyramid while Nicholas and I powered through non-stop to the top. Took a couple of pics and practically ran down. My thighs are still killing me a few days after the fact, but we didn't want to miss the chance to climb it as this is the last year before they close it to tourists.

We were off to Tulum! Our final destination :) This is the site of the ruins right on the Caribbean- turquoise dream against spectacular ruins! We again powered through this one, as well. At this point, we were getting tired. I should say, I was getting tired and hey, ruins are ruins. Nicholas, of course, would have spent days at each one. He loves the history and is awestruck by these things. I am too, but to a much lesser degree.

After we got some great shots, we got back to the car and got home in record time. After a day in the beautiful weather, sun and lots of exercise, I was hardly surprised that I crashed for over 3 hours that late afternoon/early evening :) Talk about a great day!