Having seen the night show at Xcaret a couple of days earlier, it was almost magical to walk around the ball court and imagine a game being played centuries ago. According to the guide, the captain of the losing team would be sacrificed at the end of the game. Must have been an interesting end of the game for the everyone for sure!! It would have been a good idea to read about all the structures in advance so would have made sure to see them all during the visit.
The tour group had been divided in 2 groups, and we got an english or spanish speaking guide based on preference. We got about an hour of guided tour and about 45 minutes to take pictures after. It was definitely worth the long trip and a 14 hour exhausting day to see the Mayan ruins with kids.
After a delicious ice-cream at the main entrance, we headed to the last stop of our day, the Suytun cenote. It had showers close to the entrance, everyone had to shower before getting into the cenote. The cenote is ft deep and there are safety vests for rent for 30 pesos each. The cenote itself was about 30 steps down into a beautiful, eerie cavern with a skylight letting in some light.
The kids enjoyed hanging around in the clear water for a while before heading back. Heading back, it took a good 3 hours to get back to Cancun, drop people at different hotels on their way. Overall, these are well managed tours and take good care of people during the day.
The highlight of our day was getting a mayan birth certificate for our kids. It was organized by the tour guide for 20 USD each and it was hands down the coolest souvenir we have ever taken home so far! We planned the visit to the ruins of El Rey on one of our slow days so we could get some break from long days of adventure.
Getting to the ruins was a breeze, we hopped on a southbound bus from the bus-stop closest to our hotel. The El Rey ruins are very small in scale, maybe not much larger than a football field. Most of the ruins are small structures that have not stood the test of time as well as some other Mayan ruins like Chichen Itza. However, they are more famous for the hundreds of iguanas that run tame all over the area. It makes for a great place to spend an hour with the kids and take some fun pictures with the iguanas.
Our exploration of the mayan ruins of Tulum was part of an all day tour with Alltournative Tours covering Jungle Maya adventures and Tulum ruins. It started early in the day, picking 11 of us from 4 different hotels in the Cancun Hotel Zone from AM. We were lucky enough to have another family with 3 kids the same age as ours and one more couple as part of our group. Tulum is an archeological site of the ruins of the port city of Tulum that rose in prominence around AD. It is a walled fort city with the walls on three sides and a cliff facing the Atlantic on the 4th.
It is known for it gorgeous back-drop, with tourists thronging at the cliff side, waiting to take the perfect Instagram picture! The entry point for the ruins is about half a mile of walk, first through a souvenir market, then a long stretch of road under the hot sun with not a lot of shade.
It is however a relatively small site so coming back if needed is not a bit deal. If going with a guide, you get a good description of the ruins and the mayan days when the city and culture were thriving. You typically get another hour to take pictures, walk around and get back to the vehicle. The place is over-run by wild animals like iguana and coatis. We got many opportunities to get close to them around the ruins.
It does however get really hot while wandering around the ruins, so a wide-brimmed hat and sunscreen and water bottles are a must.
Walk back to the parking lot seemed like a 2 mile walk, it was probably closer to one mile. For a family that is reasonably fit, we were all exhausted by the time we got back. The souvenir market outside the Tulum was a good place to pick up some gifts or a hat or a cool drink of delicious coconut water to cool down. By evening, the place started livening up and we even got a picture taken with people dressed as ancient Mayans for our memory book.
Overall, it was an exhausting day but we brought home tons of wonderful experiences and memories!! Your email address will not be published. They can hunt from May to August. However, the temperature is very hot. Besides the weather, and the dense tangle of trees and vines, the rainforest jungle has unfriendly natives, poisonous snakes, dangerous spiders, quicksand pits, and all kinds of nasty things.
In spite of the difficulties, some archaeologists are willing to brave the dangers of the rain forest to learn more about the mysterious Maya Indians. Three years ago, things got very exciting for these brave archaeologists. New technology is helping to discover hidden ruins of ancient Maya cities, cities that are 1, years old.
With this new technology, and with what they have learned so far, archaeologists now believe the ancient Maya civilization at its peak about 1, years ago had a population of around five million people and covered a much wider area than they originally thought.
They've found forts and moats and remains of homes in swamps that they believed were uninhabitable.
Using this new technology, they have found about 60, ruins, some of which are platforms that once held a home. It's looking ever more likely that the ancient Maya Empire was an enormous civilization, highly advanced, with hundreds of cities connected by a well constructed network of roads through the jungle.
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