Spring Break is the time for adventure and enjoying new friends and great times, but if you’re visiting Cancun or Playa del Carmen, consider taking a day trip to visit the Mayan ruins in the area. These can be found at Chichen Itza and Tulum. More than 1,000 years ago the Mayan culture flourished here, and at the time was more advanced that European culture. Many of their buildings remain, and it is still a mystery how they built these huge buildings – some with 100-ton pieces of stone – without any machinery or even draft animals.
Chichen Itza is the most famous, and there are a lot of tours that will take you there. You can even spend the night in a hotel beside the park. Walk around the “pyramids,” and let your imagination run wild at the stone structures. A tour guide will tell you all about the culture and history. There are many acres to explore, and you can climb around on most of the buildings. The great pyramid at Chichen Itza has a burial chamber deep beneath the ground that you may explore. Climbing the tallest building there can be a bit scary. The steps are small and there are more than 100 of them. After an enjoyable tour, have a cold one at one of the nearby cafe’s and soak up the culture. The people in this area are more Mayan than Spanish, and you can see it in the art they sell.
Another nearby ruin is Tulum, which is just down the coast. it is much smaller, but it was a coastal town 1,000 years ago. There is great snorkeling and many carvings that are interesting to study. There is one that you can find, which looks a lot like an astronaut in a spaceship, giving credence to some theories of extraterrestrials. Whether you buy the theories or not is one thing, but you will have a great time exploring these Mayan ruins around Cancun.
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