Of the 31 states in Mexico, Quintana Roo is lucky to be the one bordered by a crystal-clear Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean laps up against this state's long, white sand beaches which line up along the second largest barrier reef in the world. These stunning attributes coupled with a mostly warm and sunny tropical climate, make this part of Mexico a much sought-after tourist destination. And tourism is driving the economy of this state, as it has seen its population grow from around 250,000 in the Eighties, to over 1.5 million in 2015. The statistics show that selling banana daiquiris is a better job than picking bananas and the growth in the number of jobs that support the state's tourism industry has been substantial. Many workers from other parts of Mexico have come here to work in tourism.
The other thing drawing in the tourists, is yet again, the excellent Mayan sites that connect across the borders from Belize and Guatemala onto the Yucatan peninsula. In past, pre-blog visits to the area, Gym and his lovely wife have visited Tulum and Coba. Today, they would take a guided tour of the Chacchoben Ruins.
Mrs. Gym would lead the expedition on that day as her hubby was still feeling like the giant bag of chalk. He pictured himself as looking like the Michelin Tire Man, on a bad day. The guide Yam, was a tall local fellow that was of mixed race but not so much of a Mayan in his overall appearance. He reminded Gym of many of the Texans that he had met over the years, with his easy command of English and his laid back character.
Chacchoben was first reported to the Mexican government about 40 years ago by an archeologist working for the Royal Ontario Museum. He had flown over the site and noticed domed "hills" in an otherwise flat landscape. After the government became interested in the site, the land was expropriated from the local farmers and the area was studied more thoroughly. It isn't as spectacular as Tikal but there are some impressive pyramids and again a huge area surrounding the uncovered ruins that will provide jobs for archeologists for decades. The intrepid travelers were shown evidence of the red paint that was used on the exteriors of the buildings in Chacchoben. This red dye has survived on shady, north-facing walls, where the sun couldn't fade the coloration.
The tour was about 90 minutes and again we had to cut it short because they had to allot 90 minutes to drive us back to the beach and another 90 minutes for us to find our way from the strategic drop-off spot, to the dock. The tour company dropped us off at the entrance to another seaside mall that opened to a labyrinth of circular alleyways, ingeniously designed to take you by every storefront in the entire development. Kudos to the Mexicans who successfully tied the guided cultural tours to the unguided shopping experience and exposed the heavily laden American wallets, to the shopping mall obstacle. It should be noted that Gym is cheering for the Mexicans, as Mr. Trump has forced it's only two North American neighbors to re-negotiate a perfectly good free trade trade agreement. He is such a knucklehead!
That night, the intrepid couple had a reservation in the ship's Italian-themed restaurant, called Toscana's. Seated right next to them was John Taffer, an American television personality. Mr. Taffer is the host of the show Bar Rescue, where he goes into failing bars and rescues them from oblivion by tweeking their crappy business plans, doing a few renos and re-jigging the menus. Gym hopes he wasn't visiting Toscana's in his professional capacity because Gym thinks Toscana's is a pretty nice dining option.
That night the ship would begin the long passage over the top of Cuba and essentially east across the entire width of the Caribbean Sea. It would take 48 hours. Gym and Mrs Gym were looking forward to a day at sea and they would get one that proved to be uneventful and relaxing. Somewhere, north of Cuba, Gym started to feel better.
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| Welcome to Costa Maya and for our travellers, welcome back to North America. |
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| The boss |
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| Yam, the day's guide, an expert on Chacchoben |
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| You can see here how the jungle was chopped away to reveal the ruins and how the vegetation can slowly dismantle the ruins by rooting on these derelict structures |
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| Unlike Gym's first experiences at Mayan ruins on the Yucatan Peninsula, you are not allowed to climb the steeper pyramids here. That is a progressive moves most likely due to the injury hazard on these crumbly structures. In Tikal, the built stairways to the top and that might be the next step here. |
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| A beautiful Temple Pyramid at chacchoben. |
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| Back at the shore and having maneuvered the shopping obstical unscathed, the travellers gave pause to their positioning. With the exception of Cartagena they had been everywhere on the right and were now headed for Miami, on the left. |
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