dtraCorp - mexico 2008: quintana roo - tulum, coba, and the sian ka'an biosphere

mexico 2008: quintana roo - tulum, coba, and the sian ka'an biosphere

16th-may-2008 - posted by dtra

after our two-legged bus trip from xpujil (which went perfectly smoothly), we arrived in tulum around sunset (7.30pm) on a monday. too late to go to the beach, so we just settled into our accommodation, conveniently located 100m from the bus station (more info later), and had dinner nearby. the plan for tulum was to see the ruins early the next day, and then pretty much spend the rest of the day at the beach. the second of our full days was to be decided, and we ended up going for the coba ruins in the morning, and a bird watching tour in the afternoon. our final day (half day) would be spent at the beach. we decided not to go up to playa del carmen thinking it might be like cancun (i've heard that it's not), i can't say one way or the other though having not been there.

according to lonely planet, the tulum ruins open at 7am, according to rough guides, they open at 7am in certain months (of which april was one of them), according to the sign at the entrance to the ruins, they open at 8am. i think it's better to ask someone before you go, we got there at 7am hoping for some kind of sunrise photos, and ended up having to wander around the beach for half an hour (it took a while to get there) taking photos before returning to the ruins at 8am.

the ruins aren't particularly special (not compared to pretty much everything else we saw), but the setting and the lighting made for some of my best (favourite) pictures i think. at 8am, there aren't that many tourists, so you can get some clear shots, but by 9am, they are packing them in. there is a little beach just past the palace where you can go down for a swim if you brought your bathers. also, don't be alarmed when you see lots and lots of iguanas, we were surprised, but i think as the day goes on, more and more come out, they're pretty friendly here (as in they will sit still for your pictures), and you get some pretty big ones. definitely a must see site for the photographer, not so much for the archaeologist in you. we spent about an hour and a half at the actual site before heading back to our hostel in a colectivo.

we had a bit of a rest before going back out to the beach. the others will blame me, but i thought we should go to the beach on rented bikes (no pictures ), they cost $50 pesos for 24 hours from the hostel (we should've got better bikes from somewhere else). anyway, we rode out for what was meant to be a short ride (5km), but we missed the public access entrance, and kept going until we hit the biosphere (about 7km further from the beach), and kept riding a bit further till we found some kind of public access. it wasn't a great beach, and there weren't any restaurants around, so we only stayed briefly before riding back. we found the right turn this time, and made our way to the same spot that we had used earlier in the day to get to the beach. we had lunch first, then headed down to the sea. it's a great beach, white sand, small waves, clear, warm, blue water, and not too many people. we spent a couple hours in there (not quite as warm as koh samui, but much better than lorne ). very refreshing, as tulum is quite a warm and humid place.

we got up at the crack of dawn again the next day to go and see the ruins at coba, which has the tallest pyramid in the yucatan peninsula. we hired bikes to get around the site, but it probably wasn't necessary (although they were cheap anyway), the site i thought, was not as good as the others we saw, but it did have a few interesting strcutures, most notably, the ball court, and the two pyramids. we spent about an hour and a half there before heading back by bus.

after we got back to tulum, we had a quick lunch before our sunset, bird watching tour in the sian ka'an biosphere ($85 usd i think) started at 1.30pm. we basically got a private tour, as no one else had booked into this one. our guide, antonio, who was really good, told us about mangroves, the birds, the cenotes, and all the other biodiversity in the region. it made a big difference having a tour guide (as opposed to wandering around with guide books), they can point things out and answer questions . first, we went to a cenote for a swim (don't put sunscreen or anything else on to keep it pristine), the water is unbelievably clear (look hard in my picture and you can see some fish despite my poor metering), and these things are not all underground as i had previously thought. it's very deep though, so if you're not a good swimmer (like me), know your limitations and don't try to exceed them, stick to the shallow parts, and parts where you can hang onto something. we were in there for about 10-15 minutes before heading off to cesiak headquarters further into the biosphere (where they have accommodation, a restaurant, and other tour stuff i guess.

around 4pm, we headed through the mangroves to the lagoon, where we would get in a boat and speed around looking for birds. of course we saw many species of birds (i didn't have a bird watching lens), but seeing them is enough, pelicans, ospreys, herons (several species), egrets, frigates, vultures, terns (i think, or swallows), ibises, and probably several others which i forget. we didn't get a great sunset, as it clouded over, but the dinner was nice (if a bit small).

we got back to tulum between 8-9pm, and didn't do a lot from there. the last half day we spent at the beach, although we ran out of sunscreen, ozzy was the worst off, as he was last to apply. so we didn't spend too long in there, before heading back to town, and lunch, and then on the bus to valladolid for the next part of our journey. that's where i will continue next time.

picture of the temple of the wind god at tulum by the caribbean sea.