It only took me a week to lose my first pair of sunglasses

Reluctantly we left Cozumel (but not before we were taken to this awesome taco stand that made the best tacos I´ve ever had), and headed down to Tulum.  Tulum is a gorgeous beach, with the added bonus of having a Mayan ruin perched up above the sand.  If we had more time I would have loved to stayed longer and just become a beach bum, which, considering the ridiculously dark tans we saw, many people actually do. 

Instead we hopped the bus to Coba, our first large ruin that is located right next to a crocodile-infested lake.  We spent the afternoon counting crocs swimming in the shallows.  We walked around the lake a bit through the small town while the kids made fun of us and the stray dogs treated us like their long lost owners. 

We slept in a very basic hotel last night, with no hot water (something to get used to, because that is often the case, although in the heat sometimes a cold shower can be more refreshing than it sounds) and only a very slow ceiling fan to relieve the heat.  We´d been warned about loud barking dogs, but all we heard was the rooster when the sun came up.  We wanted to be up early anyways, so we could get over to the ruins right at opening time.  A lot of the ruins are very popular and busloads of tourists arrive to get in the way of your photos, but if you go early in the morning you can beat the rush and have a nice visit to yourself.  Indeed, we waited at the gate with only three other backpackers, and were able to climb the main temple all by ourselves which was nice. 

The pyramid was pretty impressive, I´m not sure but I think of the others we will see only the one at Tikal is bigger.  We also saw some very colorful birds, some vultures, and of course we picked up another dog.  These dogs just seem to love being around people, they run up to you and then follow you around for miles.  This one even climbed to the top of the pyramid with us!  I couldn´t vouch for his health status, but they are a far cry from the packs of mean stray dogs we encountered in Taiwan.

We had intended to take a nice leisurly pace through the Yucatan, and had even come up with a new route that would have allowed us to see much more of some more ruins as well as Chiapas.  But last night I started looking in the guide books reading about Honduras and El Salvador and realized how much more we have to see.  We are loving Mexico, but I guess we don´t have to spend two nights in every cute little town we pass.  So we are skipping over Valladolid and are heading straight for Piste, where we will be able to see the World Wonder Chitzen Itza tomorrow morning (first thing!), and then on to Merida tomorrow night. 

Our Spanish is improving as we learn phrases and vocabulary, but I am certainly looking forward to starting a class somewhere.  People are very gracious with our limited language ability, and I know as we improve people will be even more friendly and interactive. 

And our farmer tans are coming along very nicely.