True to the guidebooks’ promise the little shuttle dropped us at the entry to the ruins of Tulum but we hadn’t caught up to Paula and the rest of our group yet.

We had a new guide who was very considerate and kind. We had some stone stairs to climb before we actually reached the main ruins and he graciously helped some of the older guests as I helped a lady who had somehow attached herself to me. He never rushed anyone and always asked if we were ok.

Finally we saw the site spread out before us. Paula and our group were off the path ahead of us so our guide sent us to rejoin them and he went back for the next tram.

The site spreading out before us was impressive.

Paula was pointing out the various structures and points of interest before turning us lose to explore on our own.

While she was giving us a history an animal ran out from a clump of trees.

Of course I had to interrupt by loudly asking “What’s That?” and pointing.  Paula looked and quickly dismissed  it as being “our raccoon”.

It didn’t look like any raccoon I’d ever seen but before I could get a picture one of the other guests stepped between me and the animal.   According to the internet it’s a coatimundi and it is called the Mexican Raccon.

Finally Paula pointed us in the direction of the beach and told us when we were done to come back to the bus. She gave us a time because we had to get back to the ship or end up staying in Mexico.