Tulum again
Trip Start
Nov 20, 2006
1
6
9
Trip End
Jan 22, 2007
13 days in,
Mexico
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
I did some overdue washing at a laundromat the next morning and walked around town for a bit before packing up and walking a few blocks to check in at the place that Suse had reserved for us, less than 20m from the beach
01 Jus and Suse, sunset at Playa del Carmen
. My cabin was fantastic with a comfy bed and new bathroom. The cabin also had another bed in the loft but after my last loft related incident I didn't even set foot on the ladder. Not long after I checked in, Jus and Suse arrived looking very tired from all of their flights, so we had a lazy day having a few coldies at the beach. We spent three nights in Playa Del Carmen soaking up the sun, eating tacos, tortillas, and enchiladas washed down by icy cold beer on the beach. On Christmas day we treated ourselves to some delicious lobster and several many salubrious beers.
On Boxing Day it was time to move on so we caught the ferry for 40 mins to the island of Cozumel and checked in for two nights. Cozumel gets 30 million visitors a year (but we couldn't see the attraction), mostly from huge cruise liners that queue up to dock for the day and disgorge their human cargo. The main town is swamped by the sort of sunburnt package tourists that you will do your best to avoid.
We hired some mopeds and did a circuit of the island, stopping for lunch at a ghastly forgettable restaurant by the beach then rode on a little more to find a peaceful stretch of sand for the afternoon. Unfortunately it wasn't really that peaceful as a bunch of American turkeys had bogged their Off Road buggy and couldn't get it off the beach. It was funny to watch this huge guy trying to push his buggy up a 2m high 45 degree sand slope whilst having his hand firmly planted on the accelerator - it would have been a Darwin Award moment if the buggy gripped and took off running over the buffoon but alas our wishes did not come true
02 The beach at Playa del Carmen
. We went for a swim and Jus and Suse had a snorkel. After some sun it was time to ride around the rest of the island. We came across a fatal scooter accident that shook us up a bit so that evening was quite subdued. The next day we wanted to do some diving at one of Cozumel's supposed world class dive sites but unfortunately the harbour was closed for the two days we were there due to high winds so that wasn't an option. Looking for something to do, we visited the information booth and decided to catch a taxi to one of the resorts about 15km away. We selected a resort that was $12 entry but it included free use of the watersports equipment including Hobie cats and kayaks so we thought that a sail and a paddle would be good fun. We arrived at this plastic resort only to be told that none of the watersports equipment could be used as it was too windy, but they still wanted $12 entry. We thought stuff that and Jus and Suse walked in without paying the entry fee. I followed them in a few minutes later and no one challenged us. The resort was even worse on the inside with day trippers from the cruise ships all line up in deck chairs on the beach looking like fat lobsters.
We decided to walk a few hundred metres down the beach and found a lovely isolated spot in front of an empty restaurant. We spent an hour or two here enjoying the solitude and having a run and a swim. As we were about to go for lunch the guy from the restaurant kindly asked us if we could move on as a tour group was about to arrive for an all inclusive boozy lunch which was fine with us
03 Guards with AK47s on the beach
. Then a heavily overloaded sailing catamaran cruised up and rammed into the beach disgorging more than 100 pissed day trippers so that was our signal to walk further down the beach and have a pleasant lunch. We caught a taxi back to our hotel and had another quiet night with Jus needing to do more work stuff whilst Suse and I went shopping for diamonds. The next morning after a somewhat disappointing two days we caught the ferry back to Playa del Carmen and jumped in a colectivo to Tulum, about and hour further south down the coast. Tulum is a little odd with the town a long way from the beach and the nearby Mayan ruins. After being turned away from the hostel and about six hotels we finally found a room to crash for the night in the hotel / restaurant / bar. It wasn't much but by that stage we were pretty desperate and jack of lugging our gear around town.
We dumped our stuff, got changed and caught a taxi to see the ruins at the north end of Tulum beach. After seeing the grandeur of Machu Pichu, the towering pyramids of Tikal and the intricate carvings at Copan I wasn't expected to be blown away but still keen to check them out. The ruins themselves were OK but paled into insignificance against the other ruins I had seen on the trip. The big issue was that it was completely swamped with day tripping tourists. We queued for more than 20 mins to get in and it was a complete sh*tfight walking around the ruins. It was quite difficult to soak up the atmosphere here as the number of tourists really spoiled it
04 Gorgeous torquise water
. Maybe it would have been much better first thing in the morning. We left the ruins and walked south along a glorious beach, more than 2km long with restaurants, cabanas and small hotels scattered unobtrusively in the sandhills behind the beach. After having another swim and a bake in the sun we decided to walk back to the hotel. We arrived 1 ½ hours later with sore feet as we had misjudged the distances somewhat. That night we visited an Argentinian Parillia and Jus and I had a grilled meat feast and a bottle of red - a fantastic meal.
The next morning, after a quick swim at the beach at El Paraiso at Tulum, Jus and Suse headed off to continue their journey through Belize and Guatemala. I changed hostels and moved into dorm room further down the road to save some scarce pennies.
On 30th Dec I caught colectivo mini van from Tulum to Playa del Carmen, then another colectivo to near the Cancun airport where I was due to meet James Faddy. I was walking towards the airport when a nice guy stops his car and offers me a free lift for the last 2km. James arrived from New York looking a bit shabby and we caught a ride to our budget hostel in downtown Cancun. Cancun is more than a little odd as there is a 20km long hotel strip on a thin sand spit surrounding a large lagoon with all of the hotels fronting the ocean (a bit similar to the beach at Surfer's Paradise, Australia). There is also the main town of Cancun which is more than 10km from the heart of the 'strip'
05 Looking relaxed
. We had no firm plans other than spending the first two nights in Cancun then getting out of there as fast as possible. We wanted to go exploring places new and ideally wanted to sail to Belize. After an endless search of travel agents we were forced to abandon the idea of sailing the Caribbean as the only reasonably priced sailing trips were day trips. We had a quiet night in downtown and discussed plan B. We decided to rent a car and drive to Belize and see some of Mexico while we were at it. So after some searching around, we hired a Jeep Wrangler for 8 days then went exploring the hotel zone. After a few hours on the beach we headed back for a fantastic dinner and a kip as tonight was New Years Eve.
We arrived in the centre of the hotel zone before 11pm and were astounded by the numbers of people queued up outside the nightclubs. We had paid a small deposit for some tickets to the Coco Bongo nightclub but we found out that they were not valid on NYE which was a bummer. As it was $145USD entry fee for Coco Bongo we thought that we would have a few beers at a place that had free entry and see how the night panned out. After several many beers we were enjoying watching the huge queues of people who had paid megabucks for their night club tickets. Some people who queued for more than two hours and many did not get inside before midnight so our chosen dodgy bar was looking ok in comparison.
At about 1.30am the queue to Coco Bongo had disappeared so we decided to se if we could get in
06 Check out the size of the cocktail!
. We bargained with the guy at the ticket booth and ended up getting in for $30USD each, including all you could drink - great stuff! This night club was amazing as it was part night club, part auditorium and mostly a Vegas acrobatic type show. Lots of glitz 'n glam with tiers and tiers of people having a wild time. James' highlight of the night had to be taking a piss with Rod Stewart who was drunker than ten men. After getting well and truly boozed we left about 4.30am and had a feed of something neither of us can remember before making it home safely before the sun rose. The next morning was a little hazy but after checking out a little late we took the roof off the Jeep, threw our gear in the back and cruised down the highway in the glorious sunshine to Playa del Carmen. We stayed here for two nights soaking up the sun, enjoying the food, having a swim and a beer or three. We also went for two scuba dives to see some turtles grazing on the ocean floor and some impressive walls covered in coral - a safe introduction back into diving after a long absence for both of us.
Off to Tulum the next day for lunch at the beach to discuss the rest of the trip. On the drive there we were discussing the possibility of doing a scuba dive in a cenote which is a limestone sinkhole. We pulled up at a place called Hidden Worlds and about 20 minutes later we were suited up and trundling down a dirt road in the back of a jalopy that was some type of truck in a previous life
07 Christmas Day with the Mexican musicians
. We stared down the hole in the ground to see crystal clear water 10m below. We climbed down the rickety ladder into a glorious underground limestone cavern. The cavern was amazing with stunning limestone stalactites and stalagmites. We donned our scuba gear and enter the startling clear fresh water of the bat cave cenote. The first few minutes of the dive were absolutely breathtaking and it was a constant WOW for the whole dive. It was like being in a movie - like nothing we had ever experienced before. The actually filmed the cave diving sequences for an IMAX movie at the same dive site. There were small fish in the water and they seemed suspended in space as they cruised past us. We swam through several long tunnels and between limestone pillars that had formed over millions of years. Words can't do this dive justice but it was clearly the best dive of my life!
After the exhilaration of the cenote dive we got back I the Jeep and headed for the Nuddy Bar at El Paraiso club which a perfect place to kick back on the beach. As we pulled up at the traffic lights at the edge of Tulum a tout handed us a card for a NYE full moon recovery party on that night at the El Paraiso club (my liver hurt as I read that the party was that night). As fate should have it we waited 2 hours for some breaky (which finally arrived at 4.30pm!) whilst I went on a fruitless search for accommodation so we could stay the night. We scored a new Cabana about 600m down the beach and were set for the party, though our livers were protesting
08 This guy was great fun
. We had another kip at arrived back at the beach club at 9.30pm. The music was good and it was excellent chilling out on the lounges on the sand listening to the surf with a few icy cold ones. The place slowly filled up with those on various substances dancing to the beat but after a few more hours we decided to call it an early night and left everyone to party for a few more hours. In the morning we drove the 250km from Tulum towards the Mexican border then got hopelessly lost for almost 3 hours. We drove around and around looking for any signs to Belize or the border. There were absolutely none so we got totally lost in two different towns. We asked more than ten people for directions... '?Donde esta la frontera Belize' but it was really frustrating the crap out of us. After doubling back about five times we keep driving north on the road to Cancun, back where we had come from. Seriously, we think it is a Mexican government ploy to not let any Mexicans leave their country by hiding the signs. We eventually found the turn off near some road works that we had already driven past 4 times. It seems that they hadn't put the signs up for Belize yet. Without any definite plan we parked the Jeep outside the Police station on the Mexican side of the border as our rental agreement would not allow the car to cross the boarder. We hoisted our packs and walked though the border OK and crossed into Belize.
Mexico - the 2nd time
After three enjoyable days in Belize, James and I crossed the border back into Mexico, found the Jeep unmolested, took the roof off again and drove to Coba
09 One, two, three....TEQUILLA!
. The plan was to get to Coba find some accommodation and see the Mayan ruins early the next morning then drive to the airport to fly out. After some nice Domino's pizza in a nameless town we made it to Coba and pulled into the ruins at 4.30pm. We hired some dodgy old mountain bikes and pedalled furiously around the ruins. We climbed the highest pyramid some 42m high and were blessed with spectacular commanding view of the forest canopy far far below. We walked out of the ruins just as they closed an hour later and went around the corner to check in to a Club Med. This place was spiffy indeed but bizarrely it was completely empty. After some left-over pizza for dinner James and I played twenty games of pool, he won 14-6 but I was leading 4-2 at one stage so I should have called it an early night. The next morning it was a two hour drive to drop James off at Cancun airport, drop the Jeep off and take a short flight to Havana to rest my liver on the next chapter in this fabulous journey. 
