Travel Eat Drink Like a Local

December 25, 2014 Odometer reading at 28084 km. Start time 6:45am from Tulum. Pumped 1/2 tank gas for 360 pesos. Early morning drives are the best. No one is behind you and no one in front. Thick dense jungle all around. A rare sighting of a lone cyclist or a person walking on the street. Road signs are well displayed. We avoided Valladolid town on the way and reached Chechen Itza at 8am. Third car to enter the parking lot. Parking was 60 pesos, entrance 240 pesos per person. This time we decided to get a personal guide because of the extent of the site and as a means to save time on locating hidden stone carvings, etc. The individual guide cost 750 pesos and very knowledgeable Fernando Qunto, a Mayan, was our guide. The grand Chichen Itza with 5 similar inside and one underground Ball courts -notice the walls are straight making it harder to play than in Coba Observatory Tic Tac Toe On the way back 3km from Chichen Itza is another magic...

Odometer reading at 27915km 6:55am we head out from Tulum, sun yet to peep out. Awesome, peaceful drive with once check point just after Tulum town, and not many vehicles on the road.  After about 45 minute drive, we were the first to enter the parking lot! The secret to experiencing no lines for tickets, over-crowded sites and fantastic pictures without people all over is to wake up early and get there before they open. Parking cost 40 pesos. Entrance per person is 59 pesos. Boys got bikes for 20 pesos per bike and the bike rickshaw to take the old dogs around was 190 pesos for the long route with the guide -Miguel. We spent 2 fine hours roaming and climbing ruins.  Tallest at Coba and in Yucatan -Nohuch Mul stands over 130 feet Breathtaking vistas pay-off the climb Yes, they did play ball! Even the ball and the hoop were made of stone As we were exiting the tour buses were hoarding people and lines were forming. Good early mornin...

Beatifu l Tulum morning! Early morning view from the master suite. Rented a car from American Car Rental at the intersection of the Tulum t own. 550USD for 6 days. The guys there work according to the Mexican Time. By the time they picked us up, it was noon, the appointment was at 9am! Pumped gas for 560 pesos. Picked up the boys and headed to Tulum R uins. 59 pesos entrance with no guide. We had read about this location and the history of the place. So we knew what to look forward to. We walked by ourselves. Impressive! Well restored and worth a visit. Tulum Ruinas Back to Puebl o Tulum for lunch with the locals. Started raining hard -but who cares it's warm. Waited for a table at packed El Camello. Just awesome authentic food for four for 500 pesos. Local crowd, high noise level, all good! Yummy seafood goodness at El Camello On the way back stopped at Chedraui supermarket so that boys could pick up whatever local snacks they wanted. ...