It’s strange not knowing what time it is. There’s no clock or phone in my room, and it’s a long walk to the front-desk building just to find out. But I guess that’s what a real vacation is like. Still, some things are time-dependent. For instance the sound-and-light show tonight. I still have time for a swim and a shower - and laundry in the sink - before the evening. And I’m not hungry, so...The driver comes for me at 6:30. (There’s a private direct entrance to the ruins from the days when the hotel owner owned the entire monument, but it closes at 4.) I kiddingly ask if he wants to drive me to Uxmal on Friday and he says yes. (Later he says it will be his relative, Netto.) He drops me off at the entrance of the ruins and will be back to pick me up when the show’s over.
The show costs 510 pesos ($27) and there are audioguides for the walk-around before the show, but I don’t take one because you have to leave ID and I am not leaving my passport! Besides, I’ll see all this tomorrow morning, complete with the guide’s explanations, so it doesn’t matter. I enjoy just seeing the buildings lit up and sometimes I can hear someone else’s audioguide, in English or Spanish. We all roam around the main pyramid, some sides of which seem not to have been restored. And on one side the wind whips up and I hear a sort of lamentation from the stones. It’s very gripping in the dark. (My guide next day says not everyone hears it, and the spirits were talking to me.)Fate can often be kind. It’s not a week-end, so there are still tickets available... and one seat free in the front row when I arrive. The young man on my left is from Portugal and doing a grand tour of pyramids, like me, but in reverse. He tells me about Uxmal - my next stop - and I tell him about Tulum. I never ask his name, but he says he’ll send me some photos of this amazing show (although too loud by far). With the pyramid/temple as a backdrop, we’re told the story of Kukulkan the flying snake god, the Maya version of Quetzalcoatl, the Nahuatl feathered serpent deity. It’s in Spanish, but I get almost all of it. I don’t understand how they do the 3-D touches, or how an image can appear flat when projected on a very 3-D building of steps, but who cares. The colors pop, the explosions scintillate. It’s a feast for the eyes.
My driver, Josué is just pulling up as I come down the steps. Perfect timing. A short ride home for 160 pesos (about $8), a short talk with the man at the desk, a short walk under the sliver of moon to my Mayan bungalow, and it’s time for bed. 4:30 will come very early.
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