YUCATAN PENINSULA, Mexico — It's hard to get any kind of ancient vibe or sense of history at the Tulum ruins overlooking a blue-green Caribbean on a hot, sunny day.
Entire families now lounge on the beach and picnic where some 1,600 years ago Mayan Indians rowed ashore in canoes for far more important events than catching a few rays.
The beauty of the setting sun is undeniable, but when some spaz in flip flops and a baseball cap turned backward bounds into your view with a disposable camera for a shot at some old "pile of rocks," well, it kind of sucks the life out of any time for pondering what must have been.
For those trying to get away from it all, it's just part of life up and down the east coast of this peninsula in April.
In Cancun at the northernmost tip, it's high rises, noisy beaches and streets throbbing with people and traffic in between shops and restaurants. Head down to Akumal about an hour south and it's a slightly different story.
At Villas DeRosa, things are as laid back as Nancy DeRosa, the woman with long, curly brown hair who runs the place. Whether it's an old roll of unused film she's got lying around, a new toilet seat or a life preserver, she'll get it for you — today, maybe tomorrow, whenever. Time isn't too important here.
At DeRosa's it's three stories of condominiums in two buildings in between where the jungle ends and the sea begins. A few doors down a licensed massage therapist with strong hands will give you a massage under a thatch roof on the beach for far less than resort prices — well worth it.
There's a constant breeze from the east and the hypnotic sound of surf crashing against the sand is uninterrupted by man-made noises like the thump, thump of aerobics music at the sterile resorts. People still walk the beach around here, but in far fewer numbers than at the
sprawling compounds (you need wristbands to show you belong) that flank Villas a few hundred yards in either direction.
The atmosphere in this nook is like a siren song, lulling you into complete complacency. And it wouldn't be so bad if you spent your entire vacation just lolling about the grounds, ending each day outdoors in the warm, moist gloaming while swinging in a hammock.
But new adventures are only minutes away on paved roads with signs aplenty to direct clueless gringos. If you need gas on the way, though, count your pesos out to the attendant (no self-service at stations) and count your change — you've been warned.
Just south of Akumal is Xel-ha (pronounced shell hah), a vast aquatic theme park built around a natural lagoon. The biggest draw here is the snorkeling. The waters are clearest along the shoreline and also closer to the sea where there's eye-popping marine life — giant manta rays, grouper, barracuda, parrot fish, tuna.
If you don't like your nature so developed, cenotes, or natural inland wells, and cave diving are popular among scuba divers. Some outfits require special certifications before you can go with them.
And scuba divers are courted all over up and down the coast, where an outing beneath the surface of the Caribbean might cost about $60 or $70.
A fishing guide at Villas named Wayne Nefzger — Does he own a shirt with sleeves? — tells of an old Spanish galleon that crashed offshore, where precious and semi-precious stones supposedly still reveal themselves to divers who brave 160-foot depths.
For a trip with Wayne into the open, rocking and rolling sea, be sure to keep your eye on the horizon if you want to keep your breakfast down. And just smile when at the end of an unsuccessful excursion Wayne says, "Well, that's fishing." He recommends that deep-sea pescadores try their luck here in late summer.
The real catches or inland jewels in the Yucatan are found in among the trees and vines that envelop centuries-old Mayan ruins, many of which go unnoticed to the untrained eye.
From Akumal, head south along MEX307 into the town of Tulum — watch for ruins right alongside the road.
At the edge of Tulum — great local color, shopping and food without being touristy — you'll see a sign for Coba. Turn right for a 40-kilometer drive into the jungle to a small town built up around 6,500 stone structures that make up the Mayan ruins there. The astonishing thing in Coba is that only 5 percent of the ruins have been restored or unearthed.
Before you start your tour, pay for a guide once you're inside the gate by the bicycle taxi rental hut (this is where the University of Mexico guides are). A guide is good for the low-down on who did what, when and why.
For example, there's a relatively uninteresting ball court to look at in Coba. But learning from the guide that the first guy to get his ball through the other guy's stone hole was actually put to death — that's information you can't put a price on.
In Tulum, everything is roped off, except the beach. But in Coba, the curious can climb atop the few pyramids that rise above the jungle canopy. You can touch a centuries-old temple or walk through an ancient stone corridor. In Coba, you get the vibe.
Entire trips can — and should — be planned around seeing as many Mayan ruins as possible on this peninsula. Uxmal, Chichen Itza and down south into Campeche and Quintana Roo, Guatemala and Belize reveal tons more ruins — and opportunities to discover more about a fascinating culture that carries on even today.
If you go to the Yucatan Peninsula
Getting there: Contact Villas DeRosa toll free at 1-866-619-9050 or e-mail dive@cenotes.com — a night's stay can run about $70 to over $100. For more information on Villas, log on to www.cenotes.com. For about $600 (peak season) Frontier Airlines has service through Denver to Cancun. From Cancun, rent a car or hire a van just outside of luggage claim at the airport for about $60 USD or $70 USD (a taxi will cost you about as much but might be less safe or comfortable). Akumal is about an hour's ride south along the coast.
Things to do: Not far from Akumal there're five eco-parks, including Xel-ha, and three locations to see Mayan ruins — all cost to get in, but prices are cheap. Shoppers should check out Playa Del Carmen (especially at night), the Yucatan version of Bourbon Street, but without all the smut and smell of stale beer. There's plenty of great snorkeling right off shore, and there's a dive outfit, Aquatech, and deep-sea fishing guide right at Villas DeRosa.
E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com