Day three of our cruise starts with the ship arriving in Cozumel into the cruise ship terminal to berth beside the Princes Cruise ship. We once again run into Todd and Vivian who tells us their son and daughter-in-law are cruising with Princess and plan to hook up for a common excursion. We wished them well and impressed by their well thought out plan. We’re directed to a shuttle boat that is to take us to Playa del Carmen to catch our tour bus connection. Wanting to capitalize on the experience and the views, we make our way up to the top deck. Once we cast off, we all come to realize the water didn’t seem too rough while on the cruise ship but it’s impact on the smaller craft is difficult to ignore. Consider we’re on the upper deck and the center of gravity is well below us. I do my best to deal with the motion of the small vessel and land can’t come all to soon. Truth be known, this was a small taste of what lies ahead. Making it into port, we disembark and walk up to the three waiting tour buses. We board on a seemingly new tour bus of Fun and Sun Tours and are greeted by our assigned tour guide. Taking our seats, it’s a matter of minutes before we start this leg of our journey south on highway 307 to the site of the ruins. Our tour guide flatters us by letting us know how we elected to pursue history in lieu of some other fun-filled tourist activity. We like to connect with the past and even though the history involves people in a distant place and of a different culture, something is always to be gained. The buses pull into a tourist center to give us an opportunity to use the facilities and do some souvenir shopping. It’s not a long stop but definitely a welcome one, even just to have the opportunity to stretch.
We arrive at the site and run into Bill and Penny who came in on one of the other buses. It’s apparent they just had some rain and not two minutes off the bus, a deluge comes down and we all make best effort to put on rain gear…at least for those of us who plan for the inevitable. Karen saw her way clear to get us rain jackets from Old Navy, the kind that roll up and get stored in a zippered pocket. Too cool and very effective. Everyone else gets a quick lesson in capitalism, buying clear plastic bags for two dollars each and all that is required is to punch holes in it for your head and arms or whatever you need to do to breath and keep dry simultaneously. The rain comes quickly and it’s obvious the topography does not lend itself well to drainage. Puddles abound and once again, our water shoes allow us the luxury of not worrying about getting our feet wet.
Tulum is the site of a pre-Columbian Maya walled city serving as a major port for Cobá. The ruins are located on 12-meter (39 ft) cliffs, along the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula on the Caribbean Sea. Tulum was at its height between the 13th-15th centuries and managed to survive about 70 years after the Spanish began occupying Mexico. Old World diseases brought by the Spanish settlers appear to have been the cause of its demise. It’s one of the best-preserved coastal Maya sites.
Access to the site is tough a portal that was not engineered for tall people, a head banger at best so we’re careful not to get hurt. Once inside the compound, you see Grey ruins placed sporadically until our guide starts to explain the mechanics of how the culture lived. Then the placement of the structures and their individual use starts to reveal a planned sense of order. We discover Tulum has architecture typical of Maya sites on the east coast of the peninsula. We also learn the hierarchy of the society and the limitations it imposed on the number of people who lived inside the protected compound. Human sacrifice was common to the culture and one can only imagine the horror of those selected to appease the gods. Warfare was one source of human sacrificial victims. It is thought that losers in the ballgames may also have sometimes been victims, and sacrifice appears to have been connected mainly with ball games, festivals, and the assumption of power by a new king.
Our tour is cut short by another deluge of rain and our guide has little option but to give up on the tour because of the rain. But everyone, including other tour groups make best effort to stay with the exploration in spite of the weather. We do manage to get pictures and have the opportunity to follow-up the research later on via the web.
The rain finally subsides and even our rain jackets were no match for the amount of rain we had to endure. On our way back to the buses, we have the opportunity to stop and grab some burgers and fries with Coronas as the drink of choice. Some touristy shopping opportunities arise but we limit it to picking up the silver hieroglyphs we had an opportunity to order on the way in.
We’re pleased to learn the Maya and their descendants form sizable populations throughout the Maya area and maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs that are the result of the merger of pre-Columbian and post-Conquest ideas and cultures. Many Mayan languages continue to be spoken as primary languages today.
As for us, it’s been a day and we’re looking forward to our return trip to the ship and hopefully have an opportunity to dry out after some hot showers. The rain, we are told, is indicative of the rainy season that seems to have arrived a few weeks ahead of time. It’s an anomaly and unlikely to factor into any future travel plans we might make in the future.
However, the weather needed to make a point and what seemed like major downpours earlier were mere sprinkles compared to how hard we were hit on the return trip. The topography as I mentioned is relatively flat and there’s little opportunity to make provisions for dealing with the runoff. None the less, our bus driver continues on without regard for the standing water on the roadway and every “lake he propels the bus into has enough water come up and into all the window perimeters. In a matter of time, it becomes difficult to see any credible difference to being in the bus as to being outdoors. We’re all getting drenched and sitting on wet upholstery. At this point, it’s uncertain we are going to make the ships departure as we still have to get back to the shuttle.
We soon discover one of the accompanying buses has broken down (drowned?) so now all bets are off as to how this scenario will play out. Two of the buses make it back to the shuttle dock and we all have an opportunity to wade in eight inches of standing water. Getting on board the shuttle proved to be an immediate run of chilled tourists to the restrooms and lines quickly formed. As luck would have it, I’m closer to the end of the line than the front. That blood pressure medication I take daily is a diuretic…
I finally manage to get through that ordeal and take my seat. We’ve been informed arrangements have been made to pick up the passengers from the broken-down bus and that our shuttle would wait for them. It’s then that I notice the shuttle, although still docked, is riding waves as if at sea. The crew seems no worse for wear so we try to feed of their confidence while they pass out blue plastic bags just in case….
The last bus arrives and we cast off to a sea with ten foot swells. Cool….look down to the bow of the boat or the port side…then the stern. This made the trip in a smooth memory.
We finally make it back to Cozumel only to find our ship’s crew on the dock to offer assistance and the ship still in the dock. A homecoming we won’t soon forget. Ultimately, everyone is accounted for and the ship casts off and starts our next leg of the voyage to Isla Roatan.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
