Into 2013, and I’m still going through the motions of finishing off blog posts that have been on the To-Do list for 13 months.

These pics are repetitive. In a day of skycycling through tree canopies and, zip-lining and rappelling into underwater caves (lots of fun), I mostly just got a lot of pictures of skycycling. I think my camera battery died after that activity. Skycycling is traversing a zipline using the power of pedaling. Crammed into a little cabin, it’s an exhausting venture, and it probably gave me the superficial blood clot that was diagnosed a couple of weeks later. Anyway, here’s Part 14 of the Tulum photo blogging series, from Hidden Worlds Cenotes Park.

The whole set of Hidden Worlds photos on Flickr

Entrance building welcome cat

Pedaling…

Pedaling, with EA in front of me

Pedaling…

Tree canopy

What goes up must come down

The day after the wedding, and before the outing to Adventure World, I took a drive by myself to downtown Tulum. Not a whole lot to see, and yet it WAS a lot to see, since, in my little American bubble, I haven’t seen much of life outside the U.S. I’m well-aware that simply going into the less-touristy downtown area of a resort town is hardly experiencing the life of the locals, but I felt like I somewhat got away from the tourist thing for about 90 minutes.

Village dog

I had breakfast at Antojitos La Tuxtlequita. It was adequate.

Huevos motuleños

I feel I failed to capture the excitement of downtown Tulum

Not Downtown Tulum, but it was from that morning, outside of my hotel

Not really from the morning; from late the previous night; I enjoyed my maracas

The return of Tulum pictures! It’s been over 10 months, and I still haven’t finished going through the photos. I’d like to try to wrap that up. There are some great pictures that are worth the work to sort through.

Ironically, I do not have an impressive trove of photos from the wedding. The wedding. That’s why I was in Tulum Mexico on 11/11/11. Photography at the wedding itself was discouraged, so I don’t have anything from that absolutely stunning ceremony. I had my compact camera with me at the reception, but I didn’t make use of it. I’ve got the memories, which are great memories. It’s remarkable that I have such vivid memories, given what’s considered a tequila “shot” at a Tulum wedding and that I consumed…more than what one might consider reasonable. What can I say, there was magic in the air. It’s sad I don’t have more photos (of that night.)

Complete set of Tulum Flickr photos so far

The view before the ceremony

Cake! Yes, that’s a Mayan temple cake

Food! There’s some meat and other stuff. That’s all I know. I took a picture.

Creepy unicyclist! This figurine on display at the hotel restaurant was a frequent conversation topic throughout the evening.

Tequila! Tequila made frequent appearances throughout the evening.

I hadn’t even begun to finish posting my Tulum pics six months ago. I was still on Day 2 of 4. Here’s my Tulum Flickr album up to what I have uploaded today.

These are the pics I’ve had on my phone all this time. These span all four days.

Day 1: Flying into Miami (queue “Thank You For Being A Friend”)

Day 2: Entrance to Cabanas Tulum (the lovely, quaint place on the beach adjacent to where most of the other wedding guests stayed)

Day 2: Mojito at that place we went to brunch at on the way back run the ruins

Day 2: Brunch at that place

Day 2: Wedding preparations

Day 2: Foot

Day 3: Pouring wine into a Pringles container

Day 3: Drinking out of a Pringles container

Day 4: Cancun Airport Mr. Gels and Liquids

Laziness and three weeks of distance make it an ever more difficult task to go through my Tulum photos. I’ve got at least three decent sets left. This is not one of them. Just a few pics to represent where I stayed, which, I think, as I had mentioned, was at the hotel next door to where the main wedding action was taking place (and where everyone else stayed). Cabañas Tulum is a pleasant little place on the beach. Oh, yes, I did already write briefly about where I stayed. I just hadn’t mentioned the name. So now I’m breaking out the tilde and mentioning the name.

So here’s precisely where I stayed:

If I stepped out onto that patio, this is the view I had:

And if I walked down that path, I would see this:

On my first morning in Tulum, I had a terrific breakfast at my hotel’s restaurant. I tried to remember the name of the dish. I spoke something into my cell phone, but it’s mostly unintelligible. What I think I discern is machaca, so this is some sort of machaca-with-eggs-and-other-stuff dish. It was delicious.

And then there was the view.

The whole Flickr set so far

Next up: Tulum Ruins