Mexico–07 August 2014 |

Mexico – where we saw ancient Mayan temples, walked with wild iguanas and experienced the amazing Armando.

Cozumel

The next stop on our cruise was Cozumel in Mexico where we travelled to Tulum on the mainland to visit the ancient Mayan walled city there. Tulum actually means “wall” in ancient Mayan but no one knows what it was originally called as it was abandoned by the time the Spanish came across it in 1518. Tulum dates back to the 6th century AD and was thought to have a population of around 1,000 people when it was occupied.

The tour was a bit of a shambles with our leery Mexican tour guide Armando losing two tourists at one point in the tour. Armando was from the old school or perhaps from no school at all. He had cobbled together some facts and figures from what looked like the old school project books you used to get at the newsagent. He had cut out and laminated pictures from these books which he passed around to the passengers on the tour bus who, when not playing with their iphones, had a cursory look.

Armando was also quite fond of a joke about the chicken you eat in Mexico actually being iguana and repeated it all day in the remote off-chance that someone didn’t catch it the first fifty times. It never failed to amuse Armando though who always chortled after telling it.

When we went to the ruins at Tulum, Armando let everyone roam around and make their own way back to the bus which was a fifteen minute walk from the ruins. This is where people got lost as there were many different roads and general confusion about where the bus was parked.

When we got to the bus and were about to leave, a fellow tourist informed Armando that two people had not returned. Armando counselled the tourist not to worry and walked out to have a cigarette while he thought. After finishing a leisurely smoke, Armando returned to the bus to ask what the two tourists looked like. He then got on his phone to ring a mate in one of the shops to put out an all points bulletin on the two.

Armando testily told us that the cruise ships were pretty uptight about having people not return to the ship. He then shrugged as if this was some sort of unnecessary bureaucracy that was imposed on him.

Half an hour later, the two missing tourists turned up and Armando gave them an earful for being late. Being late, also meant that we had to wolf down our boring lunch at a nearby beach in order to get back to the ship on time. However, despite the omnishambles, there was a lot to enjoy about Armando’s carefree and incurious ways.

Tulum itself was stunning. As was the sun which stunned us in to a stupor by midday. With temperatures over 40 degrees celsius (it was 42 degrees on the day we visited) and almost 100% humidity, it is no wonder Mexicans have afternoon siestas. What was also amazing, were the number of iguanas roaming about the place. Apparently, there are also jaguars that roam at night. Thankfully, we were there during the day (of the iguana).