The second stop on our trip last week was at the port of Calica, Mexico. It’s a small port just south of Playa Del Carmen. This was a really different place for a cruise ship to dock. There were no other cruise ships anywhere close to where we were. The pier was back down a dirt road in an industrial area. There were huge pile of rocks/sand that it looked like they were developing. It was not a touristy type place at all.

The day started out the strangest out of any day on the trip. We had a reservation with Budget to have a car from 8:00 am – 4:00 pm. We took a taxi from the pier to the rental car place. We got there at about 8:15 and it wasn’t open. We thought that was strange, so we walked around the block to make sure we were at the right place. After waiting for about 15 minutes we asked around to see what time the place normally opened and some locals told us that the guy didn’t usually get there until around 10 am. We eventually worked out a deal with Hertz for a Dodge Atoz (raw power!!!) and finally headed back to the ship at around 9:30.

The drive to the Mayan ruins at Tulum took about 45 minutes. Chris and I followed the rule, “When in Mexico, drive like a Mexican.” There were a few passes that we were closer than we wanted to be to the cars going the other way, but we got there in one piece. The ruins were really cool. We couldn’t walk up on any of them, but the view at the beach was absolutely incredible. It was really humid and hot, but once we got in the water the trip was well worth it.

Here are some pictures at Tulum: