VIVA MEXICO DAY #3: Tulum

VIVA MEXICO DIA NUMERO TRES

Tulum

Absolutely breathtaking

We learned our lesson at Chichen Itza and decided to not take the tour route with the 70 year-old's to Tulum (more Mayan ruins), but to catch a taxi and explore it ourselves instead.  Of course this meant that we would get no explanation of what the buildings meant or how they were used.  But lets be honest for a second...I usually don't pay attention to that stuff anyway.  We were left to explore on our own and let our imaginations guide us (aka this is where they went the bathroom, or this is where they husked corn, or this is where they sacrificed the Ute Indians, etc)

Tulum did not let us down.  Instead of traveling 3 hours (4 hours if you are on a tour bus) inland like we did for Chichen Itza, Tulum was just 1 hour south of us on the coast.  The bright blue backdrop of the Caribbean against the old, gray, crumbling ruins of Tulum made the scenery absolutely stunning.

Not sure what these guys are doing.  Probably changing a light bulb or something.

This guy was H-U-G-E.

Like Shaquille o'neal of the lizard family

This man is either tired or looking for a lost contact lens

Doesn't Clayton's face in this picture just exude the joy picture taking???

Beautiful beaches with the ruins in the background.  How we would have loved to stay here if it wasn't so crowded.

I told him to do something exciting as a pose for this picture and this is all I got...

Not sure why my arm is gently caressing this tree...

We went at the pace of marathoners through the ruins.  Our hurry could only be explained by some desperate need for beach time.  We hoped back into a cab and headed to the highly recommended...

El Paraiso Beach

Clayton doing some serious contemplation.  My guess is he is thinking about the awesomness of his wife (who by the way kept her tantrums under control this day)

Back at the resort we...

... jumped in the infinity pool and swam over to the bar to order us up some drinks.

 Shark in the water

That night we headed to one of the restaurants at the resort (one that didn't have a strict dress code) and dinned on some amazing shrimp and other things I can't remember and called it a night.