Beach Town Tulum

After several days of being completely rained out in Playa Del Carmen (no photos but lots of lying on the couch and catching up on Game of Thrones) we headed to the small coastal town of Tulum - the forecast was sunshine and we were definitely ready for it. 

One comment I have to make about the buses in Mexico - they are really good! Comfy assigned seats, air conditioning, movies and they always leave right on time - very impressive!

When we arrived in Tulum the sun was out so we were ready to make the most of it and wanted to head straight to the beach. The town of Tulum is structured really strangely, there is Tulum Pueblo (town), which is a small town about 10 minutes (by bike) inland of the beach. It's really small and is filled with small stores and restaurants - this is where we were staying. About 10 minutes away (by bike) is Tulum beach - this is (obviously) the beach but is also where all the fancy beach hotels, restaurants and bars are located and where everyone with money stays. Being on a budget, we stayed in Tulum Town and chose to cycle around instead - which is something that I actually really enjoy doing!

So, moving on from the boring explanation - we jumped straight on bikes and went to the beach! Tulum has really good bike paths as cycling is a really common way to get around - there were lots of locals on bikes as well. 

Our afternoon at the beach started well (top photo) but the storm clouds rolled in pretty fast (bottom photo) and we got absolutely soaked! It doesn't just rain in these tropical areas - it POURS! We got completely drenched on our bike ride home and decided to call it a night!

The following day, the sun was out so we decided we had to make the most of it!

We jumped on the bikes and rode about 5km to Gran Cenote.

I had never heard of a 'cenote' before I came to Mexico - it's basically a naturally formed sink hole that is created when the ceiling of a cave collapses. 

Also, they are filled with cool fresh and are really beautiful!

Michael 'snorkelling' in the Gran Cenote - we bought cheap goggles and a snorkel from the Walmart in Tulum, these only lasted for one excursion!

The fresh blue water, while not only being an absolutely spectuactular colour, was very cool and refreshing - quite a nice change given that most of the beaches in Mexico (at this time of year) are pretty warm.

The Gran Cenote is filled with lots of little fish but most hide away in the dark cave areas so it was difficult to take any pictures. 

Above: looking out from inside one of the caves.

You can also scuba dive further into the caves - that looked pretty scary and the caves were filled with bats!

Another of the caves at the Gran Cenote - you could swim all the way through this one and out the other side - the bats definitely freaked me out a little. 

Just another snorkel shot :-)

Last photo - sorry for the cenote spam!

From here, we got back on our bikes and rode straight past Tulum Town, to Tulum beach!

I had done some reading online about affordable beach clubs in Tulum and picked one for us to spend the afternoon at. 

Welcome to Zazil Kin!

At this beach club it only cost £4 each for a beach chair (for as long as we liked) and during happy hour it was 2 for 1 cocktails - which meant that each mojito we ordered only cost £2 - winning!

We spent the whole afternoon relaxing, swimming, drinking and reading on the beautiful Tulum beach - definitely one of my favourite (and most relaxing) days of this trip so far!

Mojito, kindle and beach - what a fantastic combination!

Beach selfie shot - couldn't resist :-)

The following day there was more sunshine!

We got up and headed straight for the Tulum Ruins - this is one of the smaller ruins sites in Mexico but very popular as it is located in close proximity to the Caribbean Sea, we actually saw more tourists here then we had anywhere else on our trip (with the exception of NYC).

The entrance to the Tulum Ruins - we were there pretty early (before 10am) but it was bloody hot!

These Mayan ruins used to be important in terms of trading with other Mayan communities but were abandoned when the Spanish arrived and begin their occupation of Mexico. 

From memory, I think this ruin was a library - but I can't be sure!

The building on the right is really famous and features on many tourism brochures / postcards about Tulum. It is the largest ruin on this site and is called El Castillo (the castle) and you don't have to guess what it's purpose was!

Another tourist offered to take our photo (in exchange for theirs) so we accepted.

The beautiful coastline along which the ruins are set - the beach / coast lines of southern Mexico are absolutely stunning!

Behind me is pretty much the entire of Tulum ruins - most of it was built to border the Caribbean Sea.

After sweltering in the ruins - the obvious solution was to head back to Tulum beach!

This time we roughed it (not really) and just laid on our towels on the sand.

What can I say about these Mexican beaches!? They are absolutely flawless!

Michael in the water :-)

Beautiful sand! Gorgeous water! Cant' ask for a much better place for a swim!

There are lots of little boats that dock on the sand - they offer tourists snorkeling and boat tours and also make for a post card style photo of the Caribbean Sea!

For a late lunch, we got back on our bikes and headed to a small bear bar that our Airbnb host had recommended: Taqueria Eufemia (I have absolutely no idea what that translates too!).

We grabbed some tacos (definitely my favourite food in Mexico) and drinks (mojitos are definitely my favourite drink in Mexico) and spent the rest of the afternoon people watching. 

On the way home disaster struck - I got a punctured tire!

This resulted in me having to ride home (about 7km) with a completely flat back tire - for those who haven't attempted this, it's really hard and terribly uncomfortable, I wouldn't recommend it!

The following day, since my bike was inoperable, we hired a scooter with plans to check out some beaches and cenotes further from the centre of Tulum. 

Our first stop was the picturesque Playa Xcacel.

We had come here as our Airbnb host had told us there was good snorkeling that was accessible off the beach... well, it turned out that that wasn't really the case but the beach was absolutely gorgeous nonetheless.

Xcacel is also home to a turtle sanctuary and while we were there a bunch of turtle eggs hatched!!!!!

There were tiny newly hatched turtles roaming all over the beach and, together with a handful of other beach goers, we helped to collect the little turtles and put them back into a quickly made nest / hole in the sand.

How cute is the baby turtle!

All the baby turtles in their quickly dug nest!

After we had caught them all and put them back in, one of the conservationists came along on his four wheeler and took them all away - I presume they raise them until they are old enough to be released into the wild.

Pretty cool (and very random) experience to have on the beach!

We spent a few hours here swimming in the beautiful, clear water - how could we not!?

Michael having a really stressful time :-)

After a while here, we decided to head to Akumal - there are blogs all over the internet that talk about how this is a must-visit beach in order to swim with the 'Akumal turtles.'

Once again, this didn't happen! There was not a turtle in sight! Fortunately, there was another picturesque beach so it was a pretty easy let down.

Yet another BEAUTIFUL Mexican beach!

Just chilling in the Caribbean Sea at Akumal

Overall the day had not really turned out to be what we had expected, there was no turtles and no snorkeling BUT we got to swim in beautiful beaches and see baby turtles hatch - really can't complain :-)

The weather had been so great and the sun continued to shine - we capitalised on this by heading back to Zazil Kin to spend another lazy day by the beach!

Slight drinks miscommunication - I have have accidentally ordered two drinks each, instead of just two drinks. Oh, well, can't go wrong with a stunning beach and table full of mojitos!

Finally, in the interests of saving the best for last, we saved our last day in Tulum for a DIY trip to Chichen Itza. We bought bus tickets to and from Chichen Itza and packed our own lunch - it was surprisingly easy to DIY, I am suprised that more people don't do it! The bus literally dropped us out the front of the site, we bought tickets  and we were good to go!

Chichen Itza is one of the Seven Wonders of the World and one of the greatest Mayan sites on the Yacutan Penisula.

The first settlement of people at Chichen Itza occurred in roughly 400BC, however, it was re-settled and re-built twice more after this. It was then abandoned in the 15th Century (I'm not sure why) and when discovered and excavated it was restored and preserved (I believe this happened roughly 100 years ago).

As soon as you walk into Chichen Itza, the first pyramid you see is El Castillo and it's really impressive. It's the only pyramid in this area and is surrounded by open space - making it appear quite imposing. 

This is a really iconic structure -  this four sided pyramid it features on lots of blogs, websites and tourist information sites when you google Chicen Itza or Mexico.

You can no longer climb it - but I did hear some older tourists talking about how they had climbed it around 10 years ago.

Snake carvings at the base of the staircase of El Castillo in Chichen Itza.

While we were wandering around El Castillo, we noticed that every tour group that came past would clap repeatedly - we originally just thought that they were listening for echoes and maybe the pyramid was hollow. However, upon googling this I learned that, apparently, if you stand in front of the pyramid and clap the sound of a bird is supposed to echo from inside the pyramid.

Another really amazing ruin was the Templo de los Guerreros (the temple of the warriors), which is behind Michael. There is a large staircase in the middle and lots of pillars surround and 'guard' this.

This ruin gets its name from the pillars the surround it - each displays 'relief carvings' of warriors (taken directly from one of the signs at Chichen Itza)

Above: El Mercado (the market).

We overheard a tour guide talking about how this entire area used to be a covered marketplace where people would come to buy and sell goods. 

By the time we had gotten to this section of Chichen Itza we were definetly on the road less traveled - the reason I took this photo was because it was really quite and peaceful with nobody else around. However, there were also no signs or explanation as to what any of these ruins were.

Above: the Caracol (snail), this was thought to be an observatory. I thought this was particularly interesting as the design is relatively similar to a lot of modern designs - especially in Europe.

Also a great shot of the dark clouds that began to roll in. We did get pretty lucky, there were a lot of dark clouds and thunder but not too much rain.

Left: Tumba del Gran Sacerdote (tomb of the high priests). Apparently, upon excavation, seven tombs were found in this building. This whole area was focused on religion - there was also a church and a nunnery.

After we had wandered around this whole section, we had to pass back past El Castillo - they definitely designed it to be the centre of attention and it works!

The ball courts - build for ritual ball games (there was a lot more clapping and echoing happening here with all the tour groups). 

According to my research 'the gave involved hitting a hard rubber ball through stone rings using only the elbow, hip or knee. Meanwhile, the ball, representing the sun, wasn't allowed to touch the ground, lest its symbolic course be interrupted. Anyone who broke the rules could have been ritually scarified.'

Those are pretty high stakes. 

The only draw back to making our own way to and from Chichen Itza was that there is only one bus home - this meant that we were here for a little over four hours. After roughly three hours, we had walked everywhere and seen everything, which meant that we spent a fair time people watching (very amusing when it started to rain and people freaked out) and taking some pictures. 

Our final last meal in Mexico - tacos! Mexican tacos are really different to the ones we make (westernised tacos?) - they are really small and only come served with meat, you then add add sauces, guacomole, lime, onion or herbs that you want on them. I actually LOVE them! Mexican food, when bought at a local, rather than touristy, restaurant, are incredibly cheap - we got these four tacos, a torta (bun) and sope (tortilla), as well as drinks, for less than £5 - amazing value!

Well, that's all for our time in Mexio - I have absolutely loved the pristine beaches and deliciously affordable (but spicy) Mexican food!

Now, onto our next stop - our first Central American country: Belize.

xxx