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We took a guided tour of the Yucatan, organized by Club Med. The tour was conducted in French. We learned a lot of French in the Yucatan! Our first stop on our tour of the Yucatan was Tulum. Tulum is the only Mayan ruin that was built on the Carribean, and is a walled city.

We took a guided tour of the Yucatan, organized by Club Med. The tour was conducted in French. We learned a lot of French in the Yucatan! Our first stop on our tour of the Yucatan was Tulum. Tulum is the only Mayan ruin that was built on the Carribean, and is a walled city. The series of ruins at Coba were rather unique in that they were hidden in the middle of the rainforest. Nohoch Mul is the tallest pyramid in the Yucatan . From the top of the pyramid, we could see a series of smaller ruins poking their heads out of the canopy. Caterpillars devouring a tree... We stopped in at a small village whose name escapes me right now. Inside one of the municipal buildings. Unfortunately these two weren't paying much attention to the sign.. We stayed in Club Med Villas, which used to be a series of government-run hotels right outside the archaeological sites. Club Med bought them all. All of the villas were very similar. Next up was Chichen Itza, the most famous of all the Mayan ruins in the Yucatan. It was hot. Very hot. We stopped in Merida, the capital of the state of Yucatan. We shopped and wandered the streets. Our last stop was Uxmal. Here is the sign for the Club Med. A view of the Pyramid of the Magician. Uxmal means "thrice-built" in Mayan. They would build temples on top of one another. In fact, this pyramid has 5 phases of construction that have been found. Uxmal was one of the largest cities in the Yucatan. At it's peak it was home to about 25,000 Maya, in 600-900 AD. We watched a sound and lights show, which was actually well done. Here is the group we toured the ruins with.