Helaman Tours

One of my regrets from the cruise was having to choose between Xcaret and Tulum, so Tulum was obviously a priority for this trip. However, realizing that Chichen Itza was in the area made that site an obvious priority as well.

We could have devoted two days to Mayan ruins, and considered that, but some sites indicated that you could do both. The other point of consideration was that we had some friends go and they had an LDS guide who explained how the ruins related to the Book of Mormon, and said that it was really good. Based on that, my searches led me to Helaman Tours. That ended up working out really well.

We got an unexpected taste of how it could have been. When we originally booked the tour, we had been open to being combined with another group to save money, but there were none available. Helaman found one the night before, so he called us and asked if that would be all right. That was fine. The only issue is that they were staying in Cancun, and we were in Playa del Carmen. He arranged for a taxi to pick us up (at his expense) and take us to a rendezvous point.

While we were there, there was also a broken down bus of Russian tourists. They were all standing around frowning and smoking, and no one seemed to know what was going on, including the bus driver, though some of that could have been the language barrier. The bus looked pretty worn down, with the replacement that finally came not being much better. We were relieved that this was not our group.

Next our van arrived. It was clean and running well and air conditioned. Our tour guide and driver had smiles for us. They handed us fresh bottles of water at every stop. Everything was clearly and easily communicated. This was already a good start.

Beyond that, there was so much information! We were expecting a combination of scripture and history, and we got that, but there was so much there. He had tide charts and language maps and he could explain things about how some of the traditions carried through with the people today. He not only told us about the history of the buildings, as much as they were known, but he could also explain when the sites were found, and the history of archeological study there, and the concentrations of other sites and how they were run and really, he just knew a lot of stuff.

So that was wonderful. It made the experience informative, but it was also spiritual, and everything was deeper. Obviously, that is of greater interest if you are LDS, but even if not I would recommend him, and he will gear the tour to your interests, and chances are that whatever your interest is he will be able to tell you something about it.

I will write separate posts about Chichen Itza and Tulum, but I will say that seeing them on the same day is good, because it allows you to compare and contrast. They are from different time periods, so Chichen Itza is all about the stone carvings, but Tulum came later, and they had moved more into painting on plaster.

We started at Chichen Itza and we started early. This was good, because it gets very crowded and very hot. You could see it really filling us as we were getting ready to leave. We then went to a lunch buffet at a nearby former hacienda. The food was really good, and we were also entertained by dancers. (Lunch was included in the tour price.)

After lunch, we went to Tulum. This continued to make sense, because although as the day gets later it gets hotter, Tulum has the advantage of being cooled by ocean breezes. Actually, we had some clouds coming in too, though it was still sunny, so that was pretty nice.

Afterwards, he dropped us back at the hotel. We got there around four, after leaving at about seven, so really that was quite a bit covered in the time allotted. I recommend the tour company and the sites. The other site that we did not go see, but which I have heard recommended, is Coba, and Helaman goes there too.

http://www.helamantours.com/
http://helamantours.blogspot.mx/