Day Trip to Tulum and Tankah Bay

We left at 8 AM to drive down to see the Mayan Ruins at Tulum. Even though it is the second most visited ruin in Mexico, this was our first visit.
There are a few more pictographs carved in stone than some other Mayan sites, but they don’t photograph well, so here is an example of the carving at the Temple of the Frescoes.

    
Claude and Mags have a nice truck which allows us to visit the area attractions without taking public transportation. Here they are with Peggy having entered the portal through the walls surrounding the site.

    

Here is a view looking toward El Castillo.

 

A closer view of El Castillo

 

    
Tulum is not a large Mayan site but it has spectacular views.  El Castillo sits on a cliff directly above the Turquoise ocean.

You could walk down these stairs to the white sand beach called Boca Pela directly below El Castillo.

Here is a good tip. Get to Tulum early in the morning, so that you can avoid the crowds that arrive starting at around 9:30AM.

It's also cooler in the early morning.

They average about 10,000 visitors a day during the winter months so the place is crawling with tourists by mid-day.

Below is a view looking to the North along the ocean.

 The ruins are crawling with very tame iguanas of every size and shape.

 
Mags & Peggy enjoy the Bougainvillea along the path.

 

After our morning at Tulum we drove back toward Xpu-Ha but decided to stop at Tankah Bay where friends of Claude and Mags, Glen & Maureen from Alberta, CA, had purchased three ocean front lots and moved their 5th Wheel in while they work on improvements. Here is a view from the water of their spread.