Que Onda Hotel Akumal

Got off plane, what the hell was going on? It was cold, it was raining?! Bizarre, quick check, definitely Caribbean coast in Mexico, yep. Visions of me lying on front of boat tanning nicely, heading deep into sea for world class diving with Billy Ocean crooning ¨Caribbean Queen¨ in background fading rapidly and being replaced with choppy vomit inducing boat images. Not to worry, engage plan B with Billy Ocean in tour van heading ...

... tacky Mardi Gras parade), they had to walk the catwalk like a sexy model. Of course, each challenge was properly demonstrated by a capable member of the staff. Finally, each contestant had to sweet-talk a female staff member, in a language other than their own. One spoke in "Arabic", one in "Japanese", and the other 2 in animal noises. It was all too funny. In the end, the contest finished in a tie. The winners get a complimentary T ...

... was scarier than I thought. That's when I decided to jump in and try my luck in catching one from behind. A few minutes later, I found one feeding on the sea grasses. Without a thought, I dove in and grabbed its shell near its neck. As expected, it swam ahead. With a slight tilt, I had it swum straight to the surface. Ha! I thought...this is easy. I soon realise that the turtle was actually half my size, weighing at least a few hundred pounds!! The worse was that the boat ...

... narrow waterways- the pole got stuck in some bushes on one side so I was trying to rescue that, and looked back to see Fidel bent back over the stern trapped by a branch, sitting on the accelerator so the engine was revving like crazy, only to surface brandishing a crocodile in one hand, with huge grin on his face! Bearing in mind that he´s 76, that´s pretty damn impressive! So anyway, having caught the crocs, we weighed and measured them, marked them by ...

... we had security guards 24 hours a day. These guys were GOLD and even raked up our footprints in the sand when we walked around. So for the poor man's Carribbean for US$40 per nite between us, we were laughing and felt like we were in a movie. There were only 12 others staying there. It way exceeded our expectations by a long way. Three hurricanes have smashed this region this season already however, the weather was good for us and only a little debris remained. Dean was the ...

... awards presentation in the main bar. Sumi said the prize would make it worth coming, but at that point the prize isn't what mattered... We went into town and shopped a bit at Super Chomak and the other shops. Then we had dinner at the ABR Mexican restaurant. The service was super and the food was really good. We ordered the tortilla soup, followed by fish and pork pibil. All the appetizers were great too. We went to check out the evening entertainment, a female duo singing ...

... no problem finding his fill of fish for brunch. Do pelican's even have brunch? What to they call it? Hmm. Anyhow, we napped, and read our books, and repeatedly enjoyed the water off of "Our Beach". Eventually we started to get hungry. And since Chris didn't want to run back to civilization and get me a snack, we decided to pack up and begin our trek back north. It sure seemed like a lot more work to walk back on an empty ...

Woke at 7am and had a quick breakfast, so we were on the road by 0740 or so. Drove to Tulum and arrived at 8am promptly. Car park was deserted, and the vendors were just opening shop. We walked through the plaza, fearing that our guide book had misled us. But the Park indeed opened at 8am -- so we walked down the road to the entrance, chatting with a grandmother and granddaughter from Madison, WI as we walked. Nice new entry building to Tulum. When they have those, it ...

In Flores I was able to get a shuttle to Chetumal. Pricey, but the easiest, quickest option. Basically it was being on a microbus with other teenagers - many of them pretentious entitled and whiny. And they were not locals. They made the stereotypical American tourist look good. Because at least American tourists are known for overtipping. It was a torturous ride, but at least it was ...

Kyla wrote: Today we went to a Mayan city called Tulum. We saw temples of all sizes, large, small, medium. We only went to small and medium sizes. Larges were closed off. Bummer! I did tumbles!<br><br>Ardice wrote: Another quiet day. The wind had died down but it was still overcast. Long morning walk on beach &#8230; the soles of my feet are turning raw. Coffee while watching ...