Tulum

One of my criterion for going on a big vacation is that we visit some historical site(s).  Tim does not mind because he is just a big of a nerd and likes learning new things.  The Mayan Rivera gets its name because of all the Mayan history located within a couple hundred mile radius so we had to decide where to go. Random fact about me, I was a Native American Studies minor in college, so I was quite excited to know we could actually see some Mayan ruins, but where do we go?  I really wanted to visit Chichen Itza but it was a 2 1/2 hour bus trip one way and that was going to be a little difficult with a 1 year old.  Tim convinced me that Tulum was a better choice since it was only a 1 1/2 hour trip one direction with some stops along the way. So, Tulum it was, and I was not disappointed at all.

Addy was great on the bus ride and loved having her own big kid seat.

 When we arrived I was a little disappointed to see the lame touristy shops, but once we were inside we saw this:

Yeah, those are people up there.  5 people who were not just balancing but also playing music.  And no, they were not strapped in from what I could tell.  Here is a closer look.

Pretty cool, right?  I knew right then that this was going to be amazing.  We rode a tram to the official entrance and I took the obligatory photo of the sign/map explaining what we were going to see.

Tulum's traditional name is Zama, which means "sunrise".  It was named as such because it was the furthest Mayan city to the east and was the first to see the sunrise.  It was eventually renamed Tulum by the Spanish, which means "walled city."  We experienced the walls when we had to walk through them in walkways made for the traditionally short Mayans.

There were no walls to the east, since Tulum is directly on the Caribbean Sea.  Not only did Tulum border the Caribbean, but it was also protected from Spanish ships by a coral reef off shore. Can you see the white breaking waves off in the distance?  That is the coral reef.  You will be able to see it better in a later picture.

Then the ruins...they were amazing and so old!  And still intact after all of this time.

Even though she wasn't really that into everything our guide was saying, there were times Love Bug looked interested.

Of course, Tim & I were interested!!

 Then to look at the 2nd most beautiful beach in the world (according to my tour guide, who also said the #1 most beautiful beach is in Tahiti). We didn't go down because we had the stroller, but it sure was nice to look at.  See the coral reef in the distance?  Almost to the horizon?

Tulum was amazing and I would recommend it to anyone.  If you are ever in the area, you should definitely take a couple of hours to go visit.
Back on the bus for a 30 minute drive to Adventura Cove Palace, were we could eat and relax for a couple of hours. Tim & Addy took advantage of those 30 minutes and slept.

Adventura Cove was really cool.  It had a little lagoon where you could go snorkeling.  We didn't have enough time to figure the whole system out, but it looked amazing.

They also had indoor patio area that was really beautiful.

Then we headed back home to Moon Palace.  It was a great excursion and all three of us had a good time, but were exhausted when we got home.  Thank goodness for room service, comfy beds, and black out curtains.