Our trip to Tulum began with the bus ride from hell. It was like a big joke but without any laughing. We sat 16 hours on a bus which, in the rain, smelled like wet dogs. In front of us was a cute, but baby-ish baby who made other smells which we won't talk about. So the smell makes you nauseous enough, but then for at least 8 of the 16 hours we rode hairpin turns. There was not a lot of sleeping happening, we'll just round it off at that. We arrived in Tulum, sleep deprived, nauseous, and disoriented. We took the first room we saw, and slept for the entire day.
Once we'd gotten rested, fed, and decided to book a flight for the return trip, we felt pretty much better and as it turns out, Tulum has a pretty fantastic beach.
So that pretty much brings you up to speed on the less picturesque events, but from here on out I think we're good to stick with photos and captions, hurray!
These are some cats that saw us order the shrimp ceviche at the restaurant on the beach. They're cute so we took pictures of them.....
Ryan soaking up a good moment in paradise.
Yeah we have a lot of pictures of iguanas.
We took a walk around the ruins at Tulum. They're not as spectacular as the ones in Copan, but you really can't beat the setting, can you?
The beach at Tulum. It really actually looks just like a postcard.
I know this looks like a picture of rocks, but its actually a picture of rocks...with iguanas fighting on it!!
Those gray clouds poured down monsoon rain for like 10 minutes. All the tourists and guides ran for cover huddling under palm tree clusters. I wish I had a photo of that..
So remember how we ended up all stranded in San Pedro Sula at night and we teamed up with another couple to get a cab and a hotel room? That's them again! We ended up on the same bus to the ruins. That actually happens more often than you would expect, but its still crazy.
I told you we have a lot of pictures of Iguanas.
Ryan at one of the entrances to the ruins. The wall that surrounds Tulum is unique to this site. When these ruins were built, the Mayan civilization was in decline and each village was at war with another, so they needed protective walls, whereas the older ruins didn't. This site also has frescos which are closed to tourists, but pieces of it are still visible and one scene depicts a man on a horse, which means they were still being worked on after the Spanish arrived, bringing horses with them. Originally, the Mayans believed that the horse and the man were one being, and worshipped it as a God. When one of Cortes' horses died, they collected the skeleton and worshipped it.
One of our days in Tulum was spent at Xel-Ha (Shel-Ha) which is the largest natural aquarium. Now its a park, and you pay an admission fee for an all inclusive day. It includes snorkel gear, tubes, food and drinks (both alcoholic and non alcoholic), towels, lockers, etc.. and you can spend the whole day perusing the park. If you pay extra you can add other activities like swimming with dolphins or weird underwater things that aren't quite scuba diving, but not really snorkeling either. Basically you can snorkel this huge area full of amazing fish and rocks and caves. There are some water zip lines, and that thing where you walk on a rope and hold onto another rop above your head and try not to fall off into the water.... I don't know what that's called. We ate lots of good food, and did some awesome snorkeling, there were dolphins and manatees...It was pretty awesome. Most of the photos I took were on a disposable waterproof camera which I haven't developed yet, so I don't have many right now. This thing is a...White nosed coati? I think. We saw a few of them roaming through the forest. 
This is one of the little crevices you can swim in. Its a pretty impressive network of little caves and tunnels. That was Ryan's favorite part of the snorkeling.
Annnnd another iguana....
Manatees...They don't do a lot, and they kind of look like big rocks, but they're all endangered so I thought I'd take a picture for good measure.
WELL that's about all for the Tulum trip. We spent more days there than we actually took advantage of. I was sick one day (that seems to happen a lot to one or both of us...usually me). At the end of it, we bussed up to Cancun and flew to Guadalajara. This was SUCH a better way to go than by bus for a hundred hours, and only a little bit more expensive. Totally worth it.
Thanks for bearing with me whilst I struggle with this lack of.....words...in my brain.....? See what I mean? Its tragic. Its ok though, pictures are more fun to look at anyways.
Adios!
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