Early night last night – 10 hours sleep – feeling very relaxed. Up at 7:00 to watch the sunrise over the Caribbean then an early taxi to the Mayan city of Tulum a few miles up the coast.
We’re not far back in the queue; a Coati, a small furry thing about the size of a cat entertains us while we wait.
Tulum is the only substantial Mayan settlement right on the coast. It was also known as Zama, which means Dawn, it was one of the first place in the country to see the sun. It had a wall with ramparts and watch towers to control the comings and goings, the elite lived inside the walls, the commoners outside.
We head straight for the beach to try and get the best views without too many people. The sun doesn’t want to play and it’s already filling up before the light is good.
There are no big pyramids here, it’s more a seaside town than a big city like Chichen Itza. It’s known that the people of Tulum traded cotton, honey, salt, weapons and jade with other cities up and down the coast by boat. As well as living on fish and game from the jungle, people had small gardens and grew maize, tomatoes, chills, squash, beans and fruit.
The first hour is quite peaceful but Playa del Carmen and Cancun are only an hour or two away and it soon fills up to uncomfortable levels.
The beach was closed first thing because the tide was very high but it opened a bit later and hundreds of people squeeze onto the narrow strip of sand, including Florence.
We returned to the hotel about 11:30 and have a late breakfast\early lunch of green juice, green salad and quesadillas.
Read and wrote diaries for a bit then wandeedr down to the next hotel for a jalapeno marguerita (Florence) and Mexican coffee (Andy). Florence was befriended by a black cat. Read and wrote a bit more, lazed on some sun-loungers until the sun dropped a bit then went for a swim in the sea. The water is warm, the waves are stong enough to body surf in, the sun is going down, it’s all quite lovely.
Strolled down the beach to an Italian restaurant, nice view of the sea as darkness comes. The pasta is all handmade, my wild mushroom sauce is very tasty too.
A nice lazy day, early start tomorrow – and a new country!