Tulum Hostel

... before heading down to Tulum but in the end I decided to sack it off and just went straight to Tulum. Having seen Acapulco I had a pretty good idea what Cancun would be like, just on a bigger scale and not the sort of place that does anything for me.
I left Tulum today after 4 nights there. Its basically a beach resort that has a few other things to do but having been moving around at quite a fast pace for the weeks leading up to that ...

... Water was a bit chilly but a welcome relief. Crystal cleat with stalactites hanging down. We watched some scuba divers head down into the caving system - I wish I had bought my scuba ticket with me!

Our snorkels arrived so we hopped out and went to another cave to start our swim. It was so good!! We snorkeled around and under stalactites that were hanging so low you could barely fit your snorkel under...so cool ...

... into the dark caves again. The water was fresh so the visibility was 100; it was like being in a cave without water. Towards the end of the dive we had to ascend over a small ridge. I didn't dump the air out of my BCD and rose straight up to the cave roof. I had to deflate to get unstuck, and while doing this our instructor kept swimming on. The other diver stopped to help me, but once we got going again our instructor had disappeared. We followed the way ...

... one night was definitely enough and was looking forward kicking back on the beach in Tulum for my last few days in Mexico. Going to Tulum meant going back to authentic Mexico. It is home to the only Maya ruins by the sea and quite an important outpost for the empire. It served as a port to Coba and when lit up one of its buildings shows the perfect path through the reef towards land. I stayed in fantastic wood log cabins out of town ...

... building there. I have since then, on my 2 later visits to the area, twice visited both Chichén Itzá and Tulúm as well as several other archaeological sites within Mexico, Tulúm remaining at the top of my list of favorites. What could be more thrilling to this Archaeologist Wannabe than an ancient city nestled in the Mayan jungle on top of a limestone cliff, with a magnificent view of the blues and greens of the Caribbean below? So, I decided one fine ...

... German guy infront of me got the red light. I hit the button and it was green, thank you very much. I waited for my German buddy to be ´searched´. it took all of 5 seconds, they looked at him and said yeah good enough, go on through. The bus was waiting on the other side and we jumped in an continued our journey towards Tulum. The bus pulled into a really nice terminal, with signs everywhere and no stench of human filth. This was all the reassurance i needed ...

... in the history of the site there s still plenty to do and see over there. The beach is also fantastic. White sand and lots of iguanas patiently waiting for some cookies or any other snacks that you might have. The view of the cliffs and some of the ancient buildings from down there is also amazing. It's so convenient as when you get tired of walking and ...

... resting and chatting. Woke up this morning pretty late according to all the people I could already see in the sea, adn went to see the ruins of Tulum, of of the main places for religious Mayan rituals and trade. Happy to ahve got there once again before the mass of tourists! The ruins have nothing to compare to its bigger brother Chichen Itza, but the beauty of this site is that these are the only ruins in the whole Mayan world to have been built on the coast, directly ...

The time has come to say goodbye to the group and head off with my sis in the opposite direction to those folks who'd become firm and valued friends over the last 12 days ... bit gutted to say the least as I waved goodbye to Lynda, Dougie and charlotte plus the rest of the group ... boo to goodbyes. So then there were three and me ...

... We hadn´t spent more than about 1-2 nights at any location at this point and were starting to burn out from all the bag throwing and packing-unpacking. A week on the beach sounded fabulous so we went on into caye caulker and san pedro-ambergriss islands in belize. Unfortuanately the high season started november 19 the day that we arrived and priced went up about 5 times as much as before. a yucky room with fan and questionable flushing toilet went from 39 ...