We were on the fence about whether to do the quintessential tourist trap of Tulum – the Tulum Ruins. It’s really not our style, and I have been making a deliberate point on vacations to get to know the essence of a place the best I can. When I visited Guatemala with my buddy, Chris, despite seeing the notable Mayan ruins of Tikal (in which part of Star Wars was filmed), the most meaningful part of the trip for me was Christmas with his family, when people from all along the street stepped outside at midnight to give their neighbors hugs and good wishes among the sound of small children running with fireworks. When Em and I toured Italy with her family, I was excited to find out what the Sistine Chapel smelled like (based on Robin Williams’s line in Good Will Hunting in which he puts a cocky Matt Damon in his place by telling him he doesn’t know what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel)

…but I was disappointed to find that in the summer, it really only smells like the sweaty tourists who crowd the place and ignore both signs and yelling docents who tell them not to take photos. Anyhow, in Tulum, I really wanted to focus my time on cenotes and wildlife as opposed to tourist traps. I was mildly interested in the ruins though, and Em said she would feel silly if we had come to Tulum without seeing them, so we went.

All the advice we read and heard said to get there right when it opens at 8 AM in order to avoid the bus loads of tourists that come around 9. We got there a little after 9, and it proved to be the worst time to arrive. As we approached, we saw a multi-segmented trolley that was styled to look like a train pull up and burst from both sides with a bolus of pale, sunburnt Americans. It felt like a very old Disneyland, at least at the entrance.

We were excited to see an iguana on the entrance road, but we later realized that this was nothing special, as most of the structures are roped off to prohibit tourists from walking, but the iguanas were crawling all over the ruins with pride.

It was apparent that the ancient Mayans were relatively short. Most people had to duck to get through archways, but they were just the right size for Em.

The siting is prime real estate. The Mayans built this place as a sort of fort on a cliff with five passages to the shore. In its current state, there is a nice stairway down to a pristine but crowded beach area.

Em was really into reading all the posted tidbits of information. We would try to time it so that we could stop at these signs and have a chance to read them before the next tour group came and crowded the area.

There was a bit about how the Temple of the Sun was situated in relation to other buildings with a line of sight to the sun at the Spring and Winter solstice.

Given 700+ years on the beach, the site is fairly well preserved. Some bas relief carvings are still visible on facades, and in a few places, paint is still visible. It was quite impressive given the intangibility and transience of the things we make today.

We jumped into full tourist mode for a minute and took a selfie with me in my Buildium shirt to send to my coworkers. By the time we left, most of the crowd had cleared out as well.

We are not tourists, I swear!