Walking back to a tour bus from Tulum ruins after a tour, all the south part of the park was empty (this is very rare and only possible maybe on the off season).
I realize the jungle turned so green and so dense incredibly beautiful since all the rain we have had lately, an image came to my head an illustration that left a strong impression on me.
I believe we can all relate to this: falling in love with one place believing that if you had a past life maybe, you live there, you have history there, places you will always love and always be important to you, well Tulum is that for me. So when i saw this drawing my mind made me travel back in time immediately, i believe you only enjoy history when you bring it back to life. What happened when tulum was just over grown by the jungle abandoned? it´s like time stopped there and that became a sanctuary for history and nature nobody went there nobody really cared much anyways! The jungle it´s so inhospitable and the swamp around made it a survivor like mission to reach the ruins by land people was living through the time of the conquest (1600´s).
So who interrupted this only moment of loneliness of the ancient city? The most distinguished travelers of course! : Stephens and Catherwood as I like to call them “the real Indiana Jones” they wrote a successful book of travel on their first expedition of 8 months (1839-1840) in which they covered 300 miles, the second book 1843 and the main reason why they returned is because they missed Tulum the first time, they located the only place were there was human life a ranch 2 miles away from Tulum at tankah with 2 inhabitants the sons of the deceased famous spanish pirate and smuggler “Molas”, who scape a jail in Merida and the death sentence as well, and was hiding there before he died, so they will be the hosts and the ranch their all inclusive resort! getting to Tankah was not easy there was a walking path of 60 miles that nobody have walked for such a long time and was almost disappearing no place to shelter, rest or get water so the best was to go all around the Yucatán Peninsula in a boat they visited Isla Mujeres, Cancun and Cozumel among other then deserted islands they finally got to Tulum took the luggage to the main temple “el castillo” and admire what they called “the most dense jungle of the Yucatan” they walked around and lost their breath to change the scenery for the deepest shades of blue the caribbean and they were the ones who gave a name to Tulum again in the news, books and maps.
Here Catherwood´s illustration on the book “Incidents of travel in the Yucatán” by Stephens and Catherwood
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