Tulum

After four or five days having every every whim catered to on the resort I was eager to get out into the countryside a little bit - and embarrass myself through the use of my mediocre Spanish. So the boys chartered a van to take them to Tulum, notable primarily for its scenic location. The Mayan settlement was constructed shortly before the arrival of the outside world, but was for a time a critical commercial outpost on the Yucatan.

Above is the Temple of the Descending God. The Mayans believed in three states of existence: earth, sky and underworld. I swear, I've never heard anything like that before - those wacky Mayans!

Our tour guide was of limited utility and set us back a few hundred pesos but hey, at least we weren't going to get lost.

Truth be told, Beckett was more into the train that took us from the visitors center to the actual archaeological site, but hey, he was expecting warriors and stuff. Oops.

The visitors center was pretty touristy. Lots of overpriced magnets, tacky pyramid-shaped paper weights, that kind of thing. These dudes on the pole swing thingy were pretty cool (I looked it up. They're called los voladores and it's a traditional dance representing the four seasons. They have four seasons too, who knew? Core crazy cooincidences! Next you'll tell me the Spanish word for "email" is email.)