12 January 2020 Post 4 of 4.
Our final week in Mexico included the change of year (hello 2020!) and meeting up with some friends – Heather and Frank, and Sourabh and Anne – which was a lovely way to end the trip.
We had made our way to the north east of Mexico to Playa del Carmen, a resort town on the Caribbean Sea. Fellow tourists had said Playa del Carmen was an “experience” that we needed to “experience”. We weren’t quite sure what that meant and figured we’d find stuff to entertain us cause we’re good at that. In hindsight “resort town” tells me exactly what Playa del Carmen is all about.
With Heather and Frank we made the most of our flash accommodation with a rooftop bar and pool, and enjoyed swimming in the Caribbean with the gazillions of other tourists. New Year’s Eve was very busy and loud. We did a bit of people watching and danced in the city park to a DJ before counting down to the new decade on the rooftop. It was the best place to be on that warm clear night with fireworks going off up and down the coast and all around us and no crowds.
After new years, we headed south down the coast to Tulum – a nice village which is quickly approaching “resort town” status. Almost the whole Yucatan Peninsula in the north east of Mexico is limestone and when porous parts of the limestone collapse into the natural water table below they create awesome water/swimming holes called cenotes. Cenotes come in all different shapes, sizes and settings, with some significantly commercialised and others just like a lagoon in the bush. Some have resident turtles and bats, one has a small crocodile (which I only pointed out to Abhi after we’d swum past it…), others have awesome cave systems that are great for scuba diving, and others have zip lines and diving platforms = a real mix.
The Mayan ruins at Tulum are in a gorgeous lush green setting overlooking a bright blue ocean which is relatively calm due to the nearby reef. The ruins were similar to others we’d visited in Mexico in terms of layout, style and construction, however each site adapts to its landscape, is home to an array of different wildlife and has varying remains of sculptures, paintings and carvings which makes each ruin visit worthwhile. And with new radar and satellite technology, archaeologists continue to identify Mayan ruins hidden in the jungles.
I didn’t realise that the Mayans lived across the eastern end of Mexico, through Guatemala and Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador from as early as 2600BC, with each city operating independently, and trading and warring with neighbours. The Aztecs on the other hand, were an alliance of three city states in Central Mexico who dominated their geographic region for not even 100 years until the Spanish arrived in the 1520s. And then the Incas were a separate bunch again who were further south, from Columbia down to Chile. I blame after school cartoons such as the Mysterious Cities of Gold for misconstruing my understanding of these things!
Abhi is a bit of a history nerd so was very interested to see reoccurring themes and animal motifs seen in the Aztec and Mayan archaeological artifacts that are similar to Indian, Persian and Egyptian mythology: turtles, birds and water lilies, head-dresses, symbolism of heaven, the four quarters. Interesting to see the movement of stories with people.
I do really recommend Mexico for a visit. I recommend learning a bit of Spanish to assist in your experience, and I recommend sticking to the cultural and historical bits. I highly recommend being out and about on Friday and Saturday nights and Sundays as the town centres are bursting with fun, music and colour. And take the opportunity to travel during a fiesta period – Christmas and Day of the Dead are two of the big ones.
Mexicans are very affectionate people and proudly demonstrate their love. We were unwarned witnesses to two wedding proposals – one high on a Mayan ruin at Palenque and one as a flash mob on a Friday night in downtown Campeche. In Oaxaca we were accidentally part of two wedding parades in the streets with bands, dancers and all sorts of craziness. It’s definitely a country of celebration, music and love.
We finished Mexico in the company of Sourabh and Anne, enjoying local delicacies and catching up on life, before a 24hr stop over in Los Angeles. Los Angeles was a slightly weird way to end a holiday that was so focused on history, nature and culture, but the big bus tour provided some interesting views on those aspects related to Hollywood and the American dream. I lost count on how many psychic practices we saw – they were as common as liquor stores – I guess people in Hollywood need a lot of reassurance to keep chasing those dreams.
Until the next holiday – hasta luego!
