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Exploring Mayan Ruins Amidst Playa del Carmen's Luxury Villas | Day 303 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Oct 31, 2023

Mayan Epic Quasi Jungle Overload with a Total Tourist Way out!

It is a returning joke in our family how old stone takes centerstage for many of our excursions. We have seen a lot of old stone. Not tired of it yet. We enjoy hunting for old stones, pausing with awe for a while, and then discussing what we see.

In Playa del Carmen's planned community, some of the jungle has been tamed, and the remains of the Mayan culture are loosely preserved between the villas with Seaview and pool. It is the only place on the Yucatan Peninsula where you can visit Mayan ruins without buying a ticket (and without the crowds).

As far as I understand.

It was a day of downpours, and we walked to the ruins between them, the humidity quite high, just like the temperature. We were dripping. But we did find the ruins, we did enjoy the ruins, and were treated with the Central American Agouti, also called Sereque - an animal we had never heard about before, and with some new birds for the list, some lizards, squirrels.

While it was epic, it was also too hot, and my sons especially did not cope well with it. So before we walked back to do the second round (we had to take turns as the dogs were not allowed), we dipped Storm in the ocean (he was especially overheated), and after taking over with the dogs, we benefited from the location in the dead center of the tourism area, and paid a load of money for medicine: Coca Cola and Potato chips.

While Silke did a second round with her dad, my sons looked at me as if I was insane: “Are you giving us Coca-Cola?!” As a cancer survivor, I consider the drink a powerful medicine to treat nausea, overheating, discomfort, and low blood sugar. I had to take my time to convince them it worked, and lore and behold: it did!

That was fun. And different. And epic. And too hot. Walking back, trying to find art supplies and organic oat milk, was not the best of plans, as another downpour trapped us in the mall, and we were near our breaking point when we finally returned home.

With love

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Cecilie Conrad

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Hi, I'm Cecilie Conrad. I'm a trained psychologist, mother of four, radical unschooler and full-time traveller. I have lived with unschooling for over a decade and help other families find their own path – whether it is about homeschooling, unschooling, or the bigger question of how you want to live as a family.

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