An amazing Mayan city in an incredible location (Tulum)

Member Name: lm09

Product:	Tulum
Date:	17/04/09 (126 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to get to, stunning beach and close to the brilliant eco park of Xel-Ha

Disadvantages: Not as impressive as Chichen Itza

I visited Tulum in July 2004. I was staying in the Riu Tequila hotel in the Playa del Carmen resort (seperate Dooyoo). Tulum, which is in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, is around 40 miles to the south of Playa del Carmen and around 100 south of the popular tourist resort of Cancun. The easiest way to visit from either Cancun or Playa del Carmen is by bus.
We took a tourist bus, booked through Kuoni which cost £40 at the time and included transport to the site and enterance. A taxi though from Playa Del Carmen would only cost around 30USD (United States Dollars) with entrance to the sight is 5 USD with an additional charge for those wishing to use video cameras. The freeway, 307, is a good quality road by Mexican standards and is a wide freeway so getting there is an easy enough job.

So Tulum then and a quick bit of history. Tulum is a major Mayan site which, it is believed, was occupied around the 13th century. The walled city was first seen by European eyes in 1518 when Juan de Grijalvas' expedition sailed past. The sight he must have seen from the sea would have been incredible. The site today whilst largely in ruins is impressive enough, but in its day the walled city must have looked amazing and intimidating, especially from the sea.

The location of the city is what makes it so special. Tulum served as port for the Maya and is built on the cliffs overlooking a natural habour. The habour itself is a navigable gap in the coral reefs which can be clearly seen from the cliffs. This natural harbour now leads to a stunning beach with perfect Carribean sea white sand. Above the beach on cliffs 40 feet up are the ruins.

The mayan word Tulum means 'wall' and Tulum does have a massive wall that encloses the city. Running around 400 meters north to south and around 200 meters to the cliffs the city is enclosed by a massive stone wall. The wall to both the north and south sides has two gated entrances now only recognisable due to the gap in the walls. The tourist entrance is through the one gate on the eastern wall.

On entering the site I remember seeing the ruins and just being blown away. The setting is incredible and the ruins, whilst they really are just that, are in really good condition. Under the blazing hot blue sky with the Carribean sea behind them they look amazing. The centrepiece, if you like, of the site and the most intact ruin is the castle (El Castillo) which has watchtowers overlooking the Carribean coast.

The entrance to the Castilo has serpents engraved above the doors and the steps up to the watchtowers, whilst weathered, look like they could have been in use by the Maya just hours before you arrived. Our guide also identified two small marks on the Castillo where torches were lit to act as lighthouses for canoes and vessels to neogtiate the perilous reef.

The major draw card for Tulum though is the frescos located in the appropriately named Temple of the Frescos. The temple and the frescos date from around the 15th century. The three floors of the temple are covered in frescos giving an amazing insight into the world of the Maya. The whole site of Tulum is believed to have been important for the worship of the Diving God of the Maya. Many of the Frescos are representations of this Mayan deity. The frescos also depict the three levels of Mayan life, the dark underworld of the dead, the living earth and heaven and the home of the rain Gods. This building is an amazing piece of history and - like the ruins of Chichen Itza - tells us so much about the Mayans and their belief in the afterlife and the place of the Gods. (See my sperate Dooyoo on Chichen Itza).

I went to Tulum before going to Chichen Itza and I would recommend that you do it in this order for the simple reason that the ruins at Chichen Itza are much more spectacular than Tulum and coming here second may be an anti-climax. For its setting though and for me as my first encounter of the Mayan civilisation this was mind blowing and a place I would 100% recommend you visit.

Aside from the Castle and Temple of Frescos the site has around 15 buildings in various states of ruin that make for a great half days exploration. A big and important tip for you, take plenty of bottled water as it gets incredibly hot under the warm Mexican sun and take and apply plenty of sun cream as there is very little shade. Oh and if like me you love to take photopraphs seriously consider taking additional batteries for your digital camera because it is so so photogenic. Oh and if the ruins are not enough for you, look out for the seemingly hundreds of lizards, mostly iguanas, that seem to be in every photo I have as if to add just another sprinkling of the exotic to the location.

Close to the ruins of Tulum, around 8 miles to the north, is another stunning place to relax and cool off from your mornings exploration of Tulum and it seems to be always done as part of the same day out organised tours, hence me including it in this review.

Xel-Ha is a Mexican natural park built around a stunning mangrove forest. The entrance to the park costs 6 USD and for this you get flippers and a snorkel and life jacket to swim in the mangroove river and lagoon. For me this was my first experience of snorkelling, which was firstly a great way to cool off but also incredible in terms of the variety of aquatic life. The colours of the fish are stunning. My wife also new to snorkelling and not quite so confident was stalked (much to her horror and my amusement) by a 3 foot barricuda. An amazing little excursion after the morning of following the Maya.

Summary: A great introduction to the Mayan Civilisation and nice prep for the longer trip to Chichen Itza