Sunday, July 10, 2011

Tulum

After a 3 hour bus ride from Cancun to Tulum we headed for our hostel. Boy were we in for a surprise. It was dirty and full of bugs and mosquitoes. While we waited Cheryl headed into town and found us another hostel. What a relief. Our new hostel ended up being on the beach, was clean and was around the same price.

The next we woke up early and rented bikes. We biked from our hostel to the ruins of Tulum. The Mayans were a powerful civilization in Central America starting around the sixth century and lasting up until the 15th century. Many people in this region have Mayan ancestry and are rightfully proud of their heritage and culture.   Hopefully my students remember my lesson this past year on the Mayans and Aztecs. I taught about them coming up with the first organized team sport in history called ballgame. We also mentioned that they were polytheistic or believed in many gods and their contributions including an accurate 365 day calendar, hieroglyphic writing and of course their architecture. Of course students you probably only remember the human sacrifice part and playing an awesome song that day, Cortez the Killer.

Anywho, Tulum was built in the 1100's and was an important religious center. It's location is magnificent along the beautiful Caribbean. Its location made it inaccessible due to the high rocky cliffs and strong defensive fortifications surrounding the site. Unfortunately many of the ruins are blocked off but the scenes  were spectacular. I could not help but think of what life was like here back in its heyday. What was everyday life like for the average Mayan. What was it like to witness one of the many religious ceremonies and see an enemy captive have his head chopped off.

Unfortunately my trip was cut short due to rain and crazy mosquitoes. Evidently I am tasty for I have bite marks all over my body. It was like being in Florida in August. I went back to the hostel and had a great day chilling on the beach and finishing my fourth book in 2 weeks. I also swam in the ocean for a long period of time, enjoying the waves and cooling myself off all at the same time. If you have not read Kite Runner I highly reccommend it. AWESOME, POWERFUL BOOK!

I wrote too much!










                                                  Our hostel.

                                                Inside our room, did I mention the mosquitos were bad.
                                              What a nice, relaxing day on the beach.

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