The webcam is perched high atop the roof of the Playacar Palace Resort in Playa del Carmen. Take in views of the soft sun baked sand, a beautifully designed swimming pool and of course the blue of the Caribbean sea.

I know, you want to be there right now, sipping cold Corona and salty margaritas as the hot sun bathes the beach in its stress melting rays. You practice your Spanish by saying things like, uno mas cervesa por favor and Yo nunca quiere salir. You ask the bartender if there’s a guy named Jose selling freshly caught snapper down by the beach, because he just may hold the secret on how to live “The Life”.

Yes, a Playa del Carmen escape is long over due.

Hotel Playacar Palace Playa del Carmen

Playa del Carmen

Playa del Carmen, or just “Playa” as it is colloquially referred to, is the center of the Riviera Maya concept, which runs from south of Cancún to Tulum and the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve. Playa is a stop for several cruise ships which dock at the nearby Calica quarry docks, about six miles south of the city.

Tourist activity in Playa del Carmen centers on Quinta Avenida, or Fifth Avenue, stretching from Calle 1 norte until Calle 40, a pedestrian walkway located just one or two blocks inland from the beach. Fifth Avenue is lined with hundreds of shops, bars and restaurants. There are many small boutique hotels on Fifth Avenue as well as just off Fifth Avenue and on the beach, such as Luna Blue Hotel & Bar, Fusion Beach Hotel Bar & Grill, Deseo, Basico, Casa Ticul, Barrio Latino, La Tortuga and many others. (info from wikipedia)

Enjoy the live view of the beautiful Playa del Carmen beach. Let me know if you’ve had the pleasure of staying in Playa del Carmen and what you thought.

Cheers Castaways!
RumShopRyan

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The people over at Mad Gringo have put together quite the sweepstakes. They are giving away a free one weeks stay in the Riviera Maya plus a tidal wave of other freebies to take with you on your trip. Things like free clothing from Mad Gringo and Team Cocktail, free scuba lessons, free food and someone named RumShopRyan will have a bottle of yum yum juice sitting on your pillow waiting for you.

I’m sure you’re wanting to know how to win. It’s super easy. All you have to do is click the “Enter To Win” link below, fill out your contact information, like the Mad Gringo page (you’ll love it, he’s a crazy guy!) and you’re entered. It’s that easy.

ENTER TO WIN

Wait until you see all the photos of the place you’ll be staying, it’s a Mexican paradise. It’s called The Casa del Corazon beach bungalows and it could be your home for a week.

Casa Del Corazon

Casa Del Corazon

Casa Del Corazon

Here are the prize details. I hope one of you Castaways wins this. Have fun!

Prize Details

The Grand Prize in the Mad Gringo Riviera Maya Sweepstakes is a week’s stay at the amazing Casa del Corazon in Soliman Bay, Mexico courtesy of Casa del Corazon and Locogringo.com. A $1300 value!

That’s not all. When you reach your destination, you will find a $50 gift certificate to the Turtle Bay Cafe in Akumal Mexico!

To work up your appetite you will take a Discover Scuba class from the Akumal Dive Shop! (weather permitting)

To wind down after a hard morning of beach walking, our buddy RumShopRyan is advising us on what bottle of something should be left on your pillow. (purposely vague, lo siento)

I know, I know. You’re thinking, “Man, I’d love to win this but I don’t have the wardrobe.” Well, guess what!?!

Mad Gringo is throwing in a $250 worth of apparel for the trip! (that’s at least a week’s worth of duds) AND Team Cocktail will be adding another $100 in apparel from their website! Awesome fun stuff.

ENTER TO WIN HERE

Prize Eligibility – Only persons who are at least 18 years of age can enter.

Sweepstakes Starts – April 20, 2011 @ 08:00 am (CDT)

Sweepstakes Ends – April 27, 2011 @ 08:00 pm (CDT)

Need more Details? – Read the Official Rules

Cheers,
RumShopRyan

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Have you ever been to Tulum? What did you think?

Photo Friday

I thought I’d start another series and call it Photo Friday. Every Friday I’ll try and find a truly amazing photo of a Caribbean paradise. Something so beautiful you’ll want to climb through your computer monitor and right into the photo.

If you have any spectacular photos you’d like me to feature on RumShopRyan’s Photo Friday, please email them to

Have a great weekend Castaways and don’t forget to order your Castaway Koozies!

Cheers,
RumShopRyan

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The Riviera Maya, part of Mexican Caribbean, begins 20 kilometers south of the Cancun International Airport and stretches all the way to the ancient Mayan city of Tulum, more than 70 miles of sandy beaches flanked by tropical landscapes and the turquoise ocean. In the heart of the Riviera Maya lies the charming town of Playa del Carmen.

Playa del Carmen is widely considered the heart of the Riviera Maya. It is geographically located in the center and has maintained a true Caribbean atmosphere even as the town has grown dramatically in recent years. Playa del Carmen has a welcoming and relaxed atmosphere where everything is at walking distance. The focus of Playa del Carmen, apart from its beach of course, is 5th Avenue and its adjacent streets.

Playa Del Carmen Beach Webcam

This view is of the Beach at the Playa Palms Resort.

Playa Palms Resort is located in the heart of Playa del Carmen, and their guests have one foot buried in the Caribbean sand and the other ready to take just a few steps to visit the broad array of shops, restaurants and bars on and around the bustling 5th Avenue.

Have a great week Castaways.

Cheers,
RumShopRyan

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But half way down Mexico’s Caribbean strip is a must-see attraction. The gem of the Tulum real estate market: the ruins of the old Mayan city, with the highest building, El Castillo dominating the skyline on a breathtaking cliff overlooking the Caribbean Sea.

Tulum was a powerful Mayan trading post and acted as a port for Coba. It was the only Mayan City on the coast. Tulum was thriving during the 13-15th century, peaking around the 14th century and still inhabited by Mayans when the Spanish invaded in the 16th century. By the turn of the 16th century Tulum was no longer inhabited. Certain theories suggest there was a plague or crop failure.

Tulum is the Mayan word for fence, wall or trench, but originally the city of Tulum may have been called Zama, meaning dawn. One of the first mentions of the city of Tulum was made by Juan Diaz who was on Juan de Grijalva’s expedition in 1518. He wrote that they sighted a city or town so large that Seville would not have appeared bigger or better. A very tall tower was seen there too – surely a reference to El Castillo.

In 1579, in the writing of Juan de Reigosa’s Las Relaciones de Yucatán, Zama is mentioned as a walled site with stone buildings, one looked like a fortress. Another book, Informe Contra Idolorum Cultores del Obispado de Yucatán, written in Madrid in 1639 by Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar, tells the story of shipwrecked Spaniards on the coast of Zama. The first detailed description of the ruins with detailed sketches was published by John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood in 1843 in their popular book, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan.

Sylvanus Morley and George P. Howe continued the archaeological work started at Tulum in 1913. Following this, work was continued by the Carnegie Institution from 1916 to 1922; Samuel Lothrop mapped the site in 1924 and continued work until late 1920′s. Miguel Angel Fernandez worked the site in the late 1930s and early 1940s, then William Sanders in 1955, and later was Arthur Miller in the 1970s.

Jorge, my Facebook friend who lives and works in the Riviera Maya took this photo. Love the Iguana!

Today, for the fee of 40 pesos, roughly $4, you can walk around this ancient Mayan spiritual ground, taking in the stunning buildings and admiring original Mayan artwork.

The most significant ruins have information plaques explaining what they are and the significance to the site, these are in Spanish, English and Mayan.

El Castillo (The Castle) – this ancient Tulum real estate was undoubtedly the most recognisable and imposing building, and the most important facing the Caribbean Sea. Perched on the cliff top, this castle also acted as a lighthouse.

El Castillo

You can still see remains of the masked sculptures carved into the castle. The doorway to the temple has columns in the shape of rattlesnakes, with the tails supporting the roof and their heads adjoining the floor.

The ground level has two small temples, these are where offerings would have been placed to the Mayan god Kukulcan on the site’s highest point. Kukulcan was the wind god, also known as the feathered serpent god.

Some theories say Mayan people believed Kukulcan would one day return from the east to mark the beginning of a new and prosperous era. With Tulum’s location as far east on the Yucatan mainland as possible this would be a great lofty place to keep a watchful eye for the royal return.

On two of the fortress’ corners there are towers that served as temples, called El Torreón. Archaeologists do not believe that the towers played a roll of defence in the city and, judging by the alter along the back wall, this building probably served as a place for sacrificial offerings.

Templo del Dios Descendente (Temple of the Descending God) – is one of the most beautiful temples in Tulum. Tulum has scripts and drawings relating to the descending god throughout many of its ruins and they can also be seen in the ruins at the ruins of Coba, located around 30 miles (50km) to the west.

The temple gets its name from a sculpture located there that represents a God in human form wearing a headdress, descending from the heavens, holding an object of some kind.

Temple of the Frescoes or Templo de las Pinturas (Temple of Paintings) – this two level building is the best preserved in Tulum. The colored murals on one of its inner walls gives the name. The upper level temple is decorated with red hand prints. The lower level is comprised of two temples built one inside the other. The inner temple is decorated with murals. The outer temple boasts sculptures and carved masks of Chac, who is presumed to be the creator god or god of rain.

The outer temple has many sculptures, including one of the descending god. The reason for the murals being painted in three levels was the representation of the dark underworld of the deceased, the middle order of the living, and the home of the creator and rain gods.

El Palacio (The Palace) – was a residence for Tulum’s most important inhabitants. You can still see benches around the walls that were used as seats and probably also as beds. At the back of the building is an area where the family held religious ceremonies.

Templo de la Estela (Temple of the Initial Series) – archaeologists were puzzled when they came across fragments of a stele – a stone monument – inscribed with the Mayan date of 564 A.D inside this temple, since most buildings in Tulum dated between the 11th and 14th century. Research points to the stele being brought to Tulum from Tankah, a settlement about 3 miles (4 km) to the north. The stele is now located in the British Museum in London.

Passing the temples heading towards the ocean, you encounter another relatively small building called La Casa del Cenote translating as The Well House. Built on a cenote – a natural well or sinkhole – religious ceremonies were held here.

Other ruins of interest are The House of the Columns or La Casa de las Columnas. This was used by the Halach Uinic, or king, to do businesses with those holding lower rank, such as a lord.

Tulum has a series of small scale reproductions of temples called Templos Miniatura as they are so small researchers believe they were used for shrines with sacrificial offerings inside.

Before you enter the actual site of the ruins don’t miss the voladores. Five men in costume recreate a ceremonial ritual first started by the Totonac Indians from Veracruz, probably a fertility ritual.

The flying men begin by climbing a tall pole, then four of the men place a foot into a loop at the end of a rope wound around the top of the pole. The fifth man performs a special dance upon the top of the pole while playing a flute to each of the four cardinal directions.

At just the right moment, the four flying men release themselves from the small cap on the pole and fall to earth, circling around the pole in expanding circles as the rope unwinds, amazingly eventually touching ground. This is truly spectacular but don’t try this at home!

These incredible ruins are just one of the many reasons more and more non-Mexicans are buying Tulum real estate, a market offering a wide range of attractions and a great investment opportunity.

Article by Amy Hughes for Investment Properties Mexico, experts in Mexico investment property and living in Mexico.

Visit the author’s website for more about Tulum real estate

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=A._Hughes

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