We woke up Tuesday morning and we were in Cozumel, Mexico! It was such a pretty day and a big group of us had big plans to visit Tulum, the Mayan ruins. We walked down the pier off of the boat and saw the gorgeous Caribbean water for the first time...seriously breathtaking!
Here we are with our boat, the Valor!
We took a taxi through Cozumel to another pier where we got on a ferry...
We took the ferry for about 35 minutes before arriving in Playa Del Carmen. It was a gorgeous sight to pull up to. I kind of wanted to just dive off of the ferry and swim all day.
Emily, Laurissa and I, all very excited to be there...and really wanting to get in the clear water!
In Playa Del Carmen we met up with our tour guide, Helaman, who is a stake president in Cabo. He was such a cool guy, and that's his real name...all his siblings have Book of Mormon names, including his little brother Lemuel! We took a bus with a bunch of other LDS people from our cruise for another 45 minutes to Tulum. All this traveling was so worth it, it was really incredible. I loved hearing Helaman give us the tour from an LDS perspective. Here's he is, with his BYU hat on:
Tulum is locating on huge cliffs that are right on the ocean. Just past the beach is the 2nd largest coral reef in the world that protected Tulum back in the day. No ship could sail past the coral reef without crashing.
Helaman told us that Tulum was built replicating Solomon's temple. There's an outer and inner wall, a main temple with two rooms, a baptistry, a sacrificial alter...etc. There were also carvings of a "Great White descending God"...It was all very interesting. Here are some pictures of the ruins:
Beneath the thatched roof below is a picture of the Great White God, he's upside down because he's coming from heaven.
This is a lookout tower, there were 4 of them surrounding the main temple:
These iguanas were everywhere! There were hundreds all over the ruins. They'd sit at the top of the wall and just bob their heads. It's a lot bigger than the picture shows:
As we were leaving Tulum, some of the tour guides had picked up the iguanas and were letting people hold them...Abby (the other Abby) went for it and cuddled this one for a long time. When she went to hand it back to the guys they said, "that's ten dolla, ten dolla"...nice.
Jared gives his thumbs up approval to Tulum! We loved it there...the only problem? We didn't have time to swim at the gorgeous beach...but we'd get our swimming done in the following days...
We got back on the bus to head back, and Helaman had bought us some tasty Mexican Subway sandwiches. They tasted good after all the walking we did. As we drove back, Helaman continued to teach us about the ruins. If you ever go to Tulum, get him as your tour guide!
That night we went to dinner and a magic show (that was pretty cheesy!), then hit the sack!
6 comments:
He really is such a good tour guide. I remember after our tour guide he took us to a mexican restaurant and that was everyone's favorite meal the entire week.
MAN! Never really wanted to go on a cruise, BUT now I DO! Looks so fun!
I am SO glad you guys had such a fun time. Cruising is the only way to vacation. Our tour guide in Tulum seemed to believe the theory of aliens rather than the LDS one--so an LDS perspective would have been awesome.
Glad Gracie did well with Grandmas.
Looks like you guys had a GREAT time! I'm SO jealous! I would have given anything for some time in the sun. I've always wanted to see the ruins in Mexico. Glad you guys had a great time and I am glad Grace survived being away from you guys.
Ha, Helaman was my tour guide when I went, too! That's funny. I remember Tulum had a much different feeling than any other ruins I went to, like Chicheniza.
It's so fun to see all your pictures-- looks like you had a great time!!! Looking at these pictures makes me want to get away to some sunshine!!!
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