The driving in Yucatan remains pretty boring, not much to see and straight stretches of road, so we made a welcome stop en route at Muyil ruins, just within the Sian Ka'an Biosphere, some 1.3m acres of protected tropical forest, mangrove swamp and marine environment. The Castillo would have been used as a lighthouse for Mayan hunters in canoes returning across the lagoon, and is decorated with a pair of herons keeping watch over the jungle.



We arrived in Tulum a bit later, and had quite a challenge finding Posada 2 Amigos, finally locating it a bit further from the centre of town than expected, where the roads are very rough and full of potholes. Once through the gate, the Posada is fine and we are now happily settled into our poolside room, and while the staff are friendly, the language barrier seems the biggest here.



So Tulum has three parts, the Pueblo or town either side of the highway, the ruins, just north of the town, and the beach, 3.5kms down the beach road and running parallel with the highway.

Tulum ruins are set within fortified walls, on cliffs 15m above the turquoise Caribbean. They may not be architecturally the most exciting, but they certainly have location. They attract huge numbers of tourists as there are miles of resorts nearby.



Our last ruin to visit was Coba which is quite spread out, and while we walked, many people rented a bike or a triciclo.



There was a ball court with its rings remaining and also a 3D skull set into the centre of the court.



There was also had one of the tallest pyramids, Nohoch Mul at 42m which we climbed, as did many others, including a couple of girls from Madrid who chatted football with Chris and the Sibit bag saga ends here.





We also stopped at Grand Cenote for a cool down on the way back to Tulum, due to its location the most expensive we've visited, and I still couldn't tempt Chris in.

However, on the last day he did come snorkelling with me at Yal-ku lagoon in Akumal. We hardly had to swim at all, just float on the surface and watch the fish, a huge shoal of small silver ones, black and yellow striped ones, large grey ones and small blue ones ... There were pelicans and herons too, treating the lagoon like a snack bar whenever they got peckish!





Each afternoon, we picked a different beach club for lunch and some sun ...





The first night here, I had to buy a hat as I had lost mine, and the man in the shop recommended Don Cafeto and we ate here three times, enjoying the food and the cool tunes played by the band.

 

We've had a great time, driving around 3000 kms in 31 days with more topes than you can imagine and have also lost count of the rather delicious margaritas!
 
We have seen everything we had hoped to see on the Yucatan Peninsular ... including 4 beaches, 9 cenotes, 15 ruins, a football match and enough refried beans to last a lifetime! Everyone has been friendly and fortunately very patient with our poor Spanish.
 
And now amigos, having seen the whole Mexican Enchilada, it's time to return home so thanks for sticking with the blog, it's been great having you along!
 
Hasta la vista!