The 5 day's tour, -Playa del Carmen, Xcaret and TULUM

Monday came and we weren't sure where to go yet (our apartment was rented out to someone these days so we had to go somewere). We had been talking about going back to Antigua, Guatemala. Just to be there a few days, maybe go back to the spanish school and say hello to the teachers there and I would of course wannna go back one day to Safe Passage a see how things are there and say hello.
We were looking online for flight tickets and we got an agency here on the isla to look for tickets too, but they were all going via Panama and they were very expencive. It just got to expensive and were taking too long to go that short way. So we headed down to Playa del Carmen and Tulum.

The front cover of our travel "bible" has it picture from the spectacular scenery from Tulum

The birthday girl ready to go (in front of the ferrys we take to and off our Isla).

We took a bus down to Playa del Carmen first. The busses in Mexico are actually really great. They have good standards. Air-condition that works, comfy seats and they always show a movie on board. To travel with bus is pretty cheap in Mexico too; it costs about 20 Nkr pr hour.

Mr V fell asleep after 30 min on the bus, half way there. When we got there we didn't know where to go, so we just walked a bit around. We had just discussed that we wanted a room with a nice ocean view this day. After all it was Gry's birthday this day, so we had to spend some bucks on a nice location. It wasn't so hard to find ether, the hardest part was to overlook all those people that want to "help you" with everything. We found a "good enough hotel" with a great ocean view and checked in, and then took a walk in the center of the town.

The hotel room

 The view

It was a big tourist machine wtth stuff you can find all over in Mexico I guess, but still it was a nice break from the small Isla.

In the streets of Playa del Carmen.. Their costumes were really cool though..

After we had a pretty good dinner, we went back to our hotel and relaxed.

Mr V tested the pool(and Gry had to join in)

Viktor fell asleep pretty early this day and I went out to get a few things, a bottle of good red vine was one of them of course.
It's funny how we imagine how things will be but doesn't always turn out that way. After half the bottle of vine, around eight thirty we "passed out". That's how the real life is(with kids!).

Tuesday we went to a big amusement park called Xcaret. It is a huge water and animal park close to Playa del Carmen. It was pretty impressive! The location and all that they had developed it into. They had lots of performances too, from the old Mayan time to the new Mexican traditions.

Flamencos and parrots

A old Mayan statue

They were cultivating lots of exotic plants and flowers

-and mushrooms

We had to go thru some tunnels, Mr V was a bit skeptic at first..

We took a floating tour thru some narrow water canals in "the jungle".

From above... you could swim in some of those canals too.

Lot's of Iguanas along the way

This is an old Mayan ritual performance.. Of some reason i didn't get a picture of film of the really cool thing that they did. They all were hanging by their legs in roaps from the top and spinning  outwards and down untill they touched the ground. Amazing thing to watch!

there were some animales there too, like this Jaguar..

This guy was just sitting and watching all those funny looking monkeys passing by..

Down by the water..

This is a 360 degree picture of the same area like the two pictures above.

And they had Dolphins there..

Doing their tricks.. Pretty fascinating animals!

Ice-cream "lunch" is mandatory at these places.. Most important to daddy... hehe

There were these "small holes" (don't know the English word for these, we the Norwegians call them kulper) you could swim and snorkel in.. there were lot's of them along the shore.

There were lots of fantastic aquariums too with corals and fish, but I couldn't capture the great colors in them with my camera.. The dolphins and the fish seemed to be Viktor's favorites.

Stingrays

Big turtles

All in all it was a pretty impressive park (if you look away from animals in captivity that may have been better off in their natural environment..).  The location of it was fantastic, with jungle and water front. It even had authentic Mayan constructions within. They also had many shows of the different time period’s in Mexico's history. We didn't get to see them all.

 

Wednesday we took our backpack and stroller and hit the road again. We took the bus to Tulum. When we arrived there we took a taxi about 10 min to a place mentioned in our bible but that one didn't have any free rooms for us, so we just walked a bit down the street to another place called Mar Caribe. Here we got a pretty basic cabaña near the beach. No shower, no bathroom, no water.. it had two bed's, a small coffee table with two chairs and electricity only during the night. No heating ether of course, even though we really needed it that night! It was really cold!!

 This is the inside of that cabaña. 

Outside, just after sunrice -we are taking a walk to Tulum

The resturant at our "hotel"..

"Hotel" showers

Although it was very basic the charged "pretty much" for it. I guess the charged for the location of the place. One night there was 600 peso.. about 270 Nkr..

(written by thomas)

On Thursday we walked to the famous Mayan ruins in Tulum, It was just a 10 min walk from our "luxuary" hotel! (40 min, because Mr V wanted to walk all the way himself.....) he now hate his stroller! And he is running all over the place;) He is really funny and quite determent. He get's so angry when he doesn't get it his way! It's hard not to laught when he gets "hysterical"....

When we arrived at the ruins we had to pay 50 peso per person (23 kr) And we started walking towards the ruins. It was a beautyful rainforest before we arrived. Inside it was impressive, but it is nothing compared to Tikal in Guatemala, where Thomas and I visited in 2008. But i love the sorroundings in Tulum. The sea was all around, and some of the ruins was located high up with an amazing wiev of the ocean. Tulum had one of the most beautiful beaches i have ever seen. Calm and turquise water.. And not many people arround as well.

Here you can see the ruins from our beach in Tulum;

Enterance "poster" at the Tulum ruins:

This is a stone the Mayans carved in paintings and symbols, but they are not very visible anymore

This is reproductions of some of those fading pictures they once made

Thomas is also with us on this trip. I'm not very good at taking pictures of him! Here he is standing very close to a cliff. Scary!!

The amazing wiew from the mayan ruins!

We also spend some time at the beach, and we all loved that, especialy Mr V. The water was warm, the beach was not crowded, and the was a lot of sand to play with! the world's biggest sandbox for Viktor. When Viktor had his little nap, his parents ran to the bar to buy an icecold beer (corona) and we just enjoyed he beautiful surroundings.

360 degree image from beach of Tulum

Viktor som prøver å ta seg en liten siesta!

We took a bus back to Playa del Carmen thursday evning to spend the night there,

 then we ate at a really nice resturant down at the beach.

Turns dark really quickly

Friday we headed back "home" to our Isla Mujeres. We came home to a compleatly empty house. The other two apartments were empty now(and will be for a while), and we have the keeys to them all actually.. New landlords.
(the last part written by Gry)