tulum
the weather is holding. kind of. i'm not quite sure what kind of freak pressure system we've found ourselves in but the forecast for the week was grey and rainy, so the half days of glorious sunshine which start to fade away into grey and intermittent drizzle as the afternoon wears on are actually a bit of a relief.playa del carmen is a strange place, a complete tourist ghetto catering to americans and not backpackers with mcdonalds, diesel stores and high prices to match. to be fair the food is not expensive on a gram for gram basis: it's just that the portions are so inexplicably huge. actually an explanation is close at hand in the obese bellies and gargantuan arms on display all around. still, i'd much rather pay half prices for meals then sending half my meals back... forget kiddie-adult, they should do europe/us prices.
we went down to tulum today, a set of ruins perched on a set of cliffs overlooking the caribbean. after a minor diversion caused by me absent mindedly getting off the bus a few miles early, we arrived at our final set of mayan ruins to be confronted by hordes and hordes of gringos: the curse of proximity to cancun, and indeed playa, strikes again. the actual ruins were again strangely disappointing: the juxtaposition of crumbling stone structures with the deep blue-green expanse of the sea should have been stunning, but all views were obscured by people milling around everywhere, like bizarrely clothed camera toting yankee flies. the other problem was the manner in which the authorities have made the site as ergonomic as possible. this may sound like a good thing, but the neat pathways and steps and the relative paucity of structures make the whole area look more like a mayan theme park than the real thing. if tikal was versailles then tulum seems like eurodisney.
strange. anyhow the final days are all about tat shopping and relaxing before heading back into the maelstrom of housemoving, flathunting and work. off to watch a scrap which seems to be brewing between a mariachi band and a crew of panpipe toting peruvian impostors, may the best tones win!
posted by bicrom @ 10:53 pm
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