Hiring a Van and Driver - It's the Way to Go in Mexico

I had this post saved in my drafts, I just haven't had the time to finish it. Ok, it's been a long time since we took our trip to Mexico, but I thought I would share some pictures anyway.

Our flight home from Mexico was on Friday morning, October 31st at 6:00 am, so we spent the last night of our trip in Cancun. On Thursday, we had scheduled a van service to take us from the Barcelo, about 60 miles to the Hotel Zone. We decided that rather than break up 2 days, we would hire a van and driver on Thursday and then after our time was up we would have them take us to Cancun.


We found http://www.playatransfers.com/ on the internet before our trip and decided to go with them. Tello, the owner of the company took us from the airport to the Barcelo and we enjoyed the service so much we decided to book the day trip with his company (which consists of Tello and his employee Raul). For $160 we had a huge van all to ourselves. Tello told us to book a car because he doesn't have any cars. That meant for the price of a car, we would have a van.



Raul, our driver, told us all about the local culture, food, and just about what it is like to live in Mexico. Our first stop was Coba (emphasis on the last syllable according to Tijs) where we were determined once again to climb the pyramid.




Coba is not just the tallest pyramid on the Yucatan Peninsula, it's a whole city of pyramids estimated to date back to about 500-900. It's way out from civilization and the area today has about 1,100 people living there. It may seem like it takes a long time to get there, but it's well worth the drive.


Once you get there the work is just beginning. There are ruins, including ball courts, right near the entrance, but you have to rent a bike and ride a couple of miles over dirt trails and roots to get to the big pyramid. It's definitely a jungle. There are various ruins along the way, in fact, so many that you tend to look right past them. A lot of the site is still unexcavated. It's 42 meters to the top of the big pyramid, so about 12 stories. The stones are uneven and the site is not OSHA approved. There is a single rope you can use to steady yourself but I don't think it would save your life if you tripped.
















After touring Coba for a couple of hours we were ready for our next adventure. Pam told us about the cenotes in the area and that was what we wanted to do. Raul had asked some of the other drivers what we should do. He told us for $9 USD each we could see 3 cenotes and zip line into a sunken cenote. That was perfect.


We drove through a small village behind the Coba site and into the jungle. We stopped at the side of the road where there was a thatch hut. There were no other tourists anywhere to be seen. When we parked a small Mayan man went into the thatch hut and pulled out the zip line equipment. We hiked a little way into the jungle and strapped on our life lines.


We were not so sure it was safe and Jared decided he wasn't going to do it. He would walk down to the bottom of the cenote and take pictures. In the picture to the right you can see the Mayan zip line operator helping me in to my harness and Raul, our driver in the background. We were still a little leary so we asked Raul if he wanted to take Jared's turn. Once we saw Raul go, we figured we wanted to go too.






It was fun jumping off the side of the cliff and into the cenote but take a look at the picture below. The drop zone was a rigged wooden landing with an old mossy, moldy matress at the end. You can't see it but if you are short, like me, you also had to stand on 2 cinder blocks stacked on top of eachother to be high enough to unhook from the line. It was actually funny how primitive the ride was, but it was also a lot of fun.







After our zip line adventure we went to 2 more cenotes. The first one was a gorgeous cave with stalagtites and stalagmites, but it was not the best swimming hole. It was a little shallow.













The third cenote is the best swimming area. It was deep and cool and the water was the most beautiful blue color. Even though it was a lot of stairs to climb, it was amazing.



There was a bus load of dutch tourists there and some of them were jumping off of a platform way up high. I understand Tijs did that last time they were there. I wasn't that brave.





After all of our climbing that day we wanted to do something a bit more relaxing. Raul kept telling us about a turtle sanctuary on a beach not far from Tulum. It was late in the season but sea turtles lay their eggs on the Caribbean beaches and the facility is run by students who label and protect the turtles. He wanted to show us the baby sea turtles but there were none to see. The beach was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen though. There was one person, a student sitting on the beach. It was completely undeveloped except for the pens where the sea turtles were protected.





The day ended with a very long drive back to our hotel in Cancun. We bought food from a street vendor at a traffic light to end an incredibly fun day. At the hotel we had some really good authentic Mexican food. Yummy!!!! They have the best salsas in Mexico!




Let's go back!!