Riviera Maya
Cancun and Beyond
January 4th was a travel day with some cultural stops built in. Before leaving Chetumal, we made a stop at the local Maya site of Oxtankah. It contains several smaller buildings and a couple of main structures – the Plaza of the Columns, and the Plaza of the Bees. Oxtankah is a heavily wooded, humid site. It is within a few hundred meters of the beach, and may have had some pretty nice views of the bay if it was less grown up when the Maya occupied it. Oxtankah has an on-site museum and the remains of a Spanish chapel. The site itself is not nearly as large as Calakmul, Uxmal, or Chichen Itza, and can thus be walked easily in an hour or two. We enjoyed walking through it, but it probably would not be worth a trip to Chetumal just to see this site.
We next made our way to Lago Bacalar. Due to porous underlying geology, there are almost no lakes in the Yucatan. What lakes there have are fed by mobile underground water that feeds the cenotes the region is known for. Those underground water formations also feed Lago Bacalar. This lake has a white limestone floor that collects water, and gives the lake a remarkably clear character, and a distinctly blue hue. It is beautiful, and offers a nice place to swim, which we did during the middle part of the day.
The region has also been plagued by piracy and revolts. The piracy problem became so acute in the 17th century that a fort was built at the town of Bacalar in 1729. I walked the fort while we were in the area. There is also a piracy museum here, but I did not visit it. During the mid 19th century Yucatan Caste Wars, the area was captured by Maya rebels and was not retaken by the Mexican government until 1902!
The lake area was a nice stop, seeing that it was on the way. In my opinion, it would not be worth a special trip to the area. We continued northward and reentered the land of the gringo tourists. We spent the night at Playa del Carmen in anticipation of visiting Tulum the next day. Our accommodation in Playa del Carmen was not close to the main strip of restaurants and shops. This was fine in many ways, particularly since we had a car.
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We spent the morning of the 5th touring the beautiful Maya ruin at Tulum. Tulum was far and away the busiest site we visited. While Tulum does not come close to Chichen Itza, Uxmal, or Calakmul in terms of the size of the structures, it does have one distinctly beautiful characteristic. It is built right on the coastal cliffs overlooking the Caribbean on the Riviera Maya. There are countless opportunities to grab postcard- or Instagram-worthy shots. We were struck by the number of our fellow tourists who appeared to be at Tulum for just that reason – to collect pics and clips to post for someone to see at some later date. Some were even walking around recording with a device at the end of a long selfie stick, without ever stopping to read a sign, take in a scene, or even look at the ancient buildings.
Obviously, when you go on vacation, do what brings you joy. I would ask that you at least consider this, though. When visiting a place (or even your kid’s sporting event, for that matter), remember to experience the moment. That is, after all, what sets travel apart from the things we collect in our abundance as Americans. We do travel for the experience. If all we do is make a record or collect a photo, and not experience the trip, of what more good or use is that than an image taken by someone else?
Tulum is worth experiencing, even if it was not the remote, less touristy adventure of Calakmul that I preferred. It does contain a nice variety of ancient buildings. It was one of the last major sites built and occupied by the Maya. It was particularly important because of its access to both land and sea trade. A lot of obsidian made its way through the city. It is also protected by a wall on the landward site. The wall varies in height, but is generally 4-5 meters high. Tulum is not unique in having a wall. Mayapan (another very late city) had a wall, as did El Mirador in Guatemala. The walls often seem inadequate for defense, designed more to delineate areas designated for the aristocracy and thus off limits to commoners.
We took our share of pictures at Tulum, though I don’t think that impeded our enjoyment of the place. If anything negatively impacted our experience, it was that we were constantly bumping into other tourists, rubbing elbows, and having people cut in front of our views and photos. Chichen Itza would probably have been like this had we visited anytime other than the afternoon of December 31. Tulum is beautiful, and worth a stop. It would be easy to include on a more typical Cancun beach vacation. It might be a more pleasant stop if it could be done on a day when it was less busy, or perhaps first thing in the morning.
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It was an easy two hour drive to hotel row in Cancun. We are not beach bums, so spending the afternoon of the 5th and morning of the 6th on the barrier island was adequate for us. I found a beautiful older motel being dwarfed by its generic younger sky-scraper siblings, and decided to give it a try. We absolutely loved it. It had a pool on the ocean side, fronted by a gate that spat directly out on the beach. Our spacious room was adorned with columns, marble floors, and large French doors that opened out onto a balcony overlooking the Caribbean. Our balcony had a hot tub, albeit marginally functional. The entry was elaborately decorated with large paintings and other nice pieces of art. The place really did have a sense of opulence, and it had character. It must have been a top of the line resort in about the 1980’s. I enjoyed that charm about it. I also enjoyed that it was about 1/3-1/2 the price of the generic skyscraper hotels surrounding it. It felt like a pampering compared to Xpujíl and the other middle-tier places we had stayed on the earlier legs of the trip.
We swam on the beach. We a scrumptious steak at a top flight restaurant. We pretended to be honeymooners in our marble floored suite with its balcony overlooking the sea. We ate fresh fruits for breakfast by the pool, with the air open to the Caribbean. It was a wonderful culmination to a trip that had exceeded my expectations. I learned so much about the Maya. I saw so many ancient wonders. I ate good food. I had the freedom to manage my own trip, and an adventurous partner. It was a great experience.
I came across one more surprise the morning we left. Right there on hotel row on the barrier island of Cancun, there was another small Maya ruin. It didn’t take too long to walk it. But since it was there, I had to walk it! It’s just something to check out if you run across it. We had a late-afternoon flight to DFW, arrived after nine and drove out to the periphery of the metroplex before calling it a night. We were up early and home before midday on the 7th. We packed a lot in for such a short trip.
