After having rented the car late Thursday night, we were able to leave early Friday morning. We drove two hours to the Mayan ruins of Tulum. This is the only Mayan ruin on the ocean, and also holds the distinction of being active after most all of the Mayan kingdom had disappeared. These folks hung around long enough to die out from small pox and other diseases brought by the Spanish sailors in the early 1500's. We hired a private guide for the tour and enjoyed our visit. Due to clever planning (Connie) we had arrived very early before the crowds. This was the first day of driving which was very strange after such a long hiatus. We rented a standard transmission, Chevy Aveo, which I thought was small until we parked next to some really small cars. Stop signs, stop lights, speed limits etc are simply advisory and apparently can be ignored completely. The only thing you can not ignore are the Topes.
These speed bumps on steroids come in all shapes and sizes and can rip the bottom out your car if you take one to fast. You can be on a 4 lane divided highway with unlimited speed and have to break to almost a stop to drive over the Tope. After we finished with Tulum we drove on to Valladolid for out hotel and base of operations. Our hotel was Hotel Colonial la Aurora. This modestly priced hotel, is a colonial building with the courtyard converted to a swimming pool. The rooms had A/C and a TV.