Playa del Carmen, Tulum, more Snorkelling


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September 30th 2007
Published: September 30th 2007
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Goodbye Caye CaulkerGoodbye Caye CaulkerGoodbye Caye Caulker

Shot from the dock, while waiting for the water-taxi
September 19th started out with heavy rain on Caye Caulker and last preparations for leaving on our part. I exchanged my flipflops (my best friends on my travels!) for my sneakers, which were ruined since the ATM-Cave anyway, put on a raincoat, wrapped my backpack in a garbage bag and stepped out into the rain with my fellow travellers, to catch the water-taxi to Belize City, our first stop on the long stretch to Playa del Carmen / Mexico.
We didn't need to hurry out into the rain, though - it turned out the first water-taxi of the day wasn't running for some mysterious reason, so we had to wait for an extra hour. By then it had stopped raining, though, so most of hung out at the dock, took some last goodbye-pictures of the island and tried to get the hangovers out of our heads.

The water-taxi-ride was nice once more - I always enjoy being on the water, even when it's raining, and in Belize City - after dumping my worn out and drenched sneakers in a bin - we were lucky enough to catch a better bus than planned to the border.
I won't bore you with
Belize City Bus StationBelize City Bus StationBelize City Bus Station

Waiting for the bus to the border.
the details of the travel-day which was to follow, let's just say we'd had our share of busrides by the end of it, and that we arrived in a tired, but hungry, state in our hotel, La Rana Cansada ("The Tired Frog" - yeah, you could say that), in Playa del Carmen. Thus, Wayne, Mori, Hanna and me just dropped our bags in our rooms (which all had hammocks as well as beds!) and set out to explore the city and find ourselves a place to eat.

After the calm of Caye Caulker and the bustling, jovial atmosphere at most of the places we had visited before, Playa del Carmen (soon dubbed Playa del Gringo by most of us) was sort of a tourist's nightmare. 5th Avenue, the one which is nearest to the famous beach, sports endless McDonald's, Starbucks, Häagen Dasz, Burger Kings, etc., next to tourist-shops with stupid T-Shirts, overprized Mayan merchandise and iguanas and monkeys, which tourists can take pictures with. In other words: not exactly a backpackers' dream... We were quite horrified - after all, Playa was supposed to be the cute little beachside-town, yeah, right - and moved on farther into the direction of
Me at TulumMe at TulumMe at Tulum

Inside one of the entrances in the city-wall, actually.
the inner city. Things calm down a little there, although the places stay fairly expensive and tourist-friendly, so finally we decided on a restaurant, in which we coincidentally met Helen and Debbie. Nice Fajitas there, though nothing to write home about. 😉
After that, sleep called, so we retired early and I tried sleeping in a hammock for the first time ever. Actually, it was quite comfy, until I moved in my sleep and woke up with my head hanging over the side. NOT advisable - I had a stiff neck for days and quietly moved into bed instead.

The next day was fairly unspectacular - we spent a big portion of it at the (indeed nice) beach just down the street from our hotel and the rest of the - rather rainy afternoon - at an internet-café, where I finally started updating my blog. Group-dinner (the second to last, sniff) was at a restaurant called "La Revolucíon" with nice food and pictures of famous revolution-leaders - Che and Fidel very prominent, of course - all over the walls. Now, I'm not a big fan of the Che-kult, though I'd consider myself pretty leftist, but I have to admit it was a quite interesting environment with all those photographs - it was certainly hard to get bored at dinner.

September 21st, our last group-day, Bernie, Pia, Hanna and me went to visit Tulum, while the rest, who all were scheduled to leave the very next day, spent their last day at the beach and packing.
Tulum is pretty nice; the ruins of course are nowhere as large nor as impressive as the others we had seen, but they are just an hour's ride from Playa and actually show two interesting particularities. Firstly, they are among the few ruins found directly at the Caribbean coast, and, secondly, they sport a continuous wall all around the remaining stone structures. Other than that, the beach there is definitely worth a swim and there are lots and lots of iguanas and geckos around. All in all, we had a very nice half-day there. On our way back to the bus we got totally drenched once more by one of the usually unexpected showers of rain - well, at least it was the last time on these holidays. 😉

That evening was our last group-dinner, at "100%!N(MISSING)atural". The place is definitely worth the hype - the food was great and more than enough, since almost nobody could finish their plates.
Other than that, we had another great time together and shared a lot of laughs about Tiago trying to say "Kürbiskernöl" (which Pia and Bernhard gave him as a thank you, along with his tip), Wayne frowning at lots of green food, Mori recalling that ONE GREAT Burrito at Mérida which was to be his favorite vacation-memory, Helen and Debbie telling schottish jokes, Hanna complaining that the table was to small for her and lots of similiar inside-jokes. A few of us shared a couple of beers at a beachside-bar after dinner, but somehow the evening ended fairly early for all of us.

Next morning, it was time to say our goodbyes to the rest of the group (except Pia and Bernhard, who, like us, had booked a couple of extra nights), amidst pouring rain. Let me tell you, Playa is no fun at all when it's raining, so we hugged Mori, Helen and Debbie goodbye, had some breakfast with Wayne, went off to the internet-café, hugged Wayne goodbye as well, had lunch, read our books at the hotel and
PalacePalacePalace

Tulum
shared a final couple of laughs and a hug with Tiago, who left in the late afternoon as well. Luckily, by then the weather had cleared at least a little, so Hanna and I roamed the city (not half as much fun as Caye Caulker, which all of us missed already at that point!), spent some more time on the internet and had some streetfood for dinner.

September 23rd was Hanna's and my last full day in Mexico. We had some breakfast and then went off into different directions, roaming the city (and the beach of course) on our own.
By sheer luck, while having a walk at the once-again sunny beach, I ran into a guy who offered me a snorkelling-trip for 200 pesos (roundabout 20 USD), an ideal activity for our last day, I decided. By another stroke of luck I met Pia and Bernhard on my way back to the hotel, where we changed and got Hanna.
Half an hour later, all four of us got into the boat and drove out to the riff, with three nice mexican guides. There, we had a lovely snorkel of almost two hours. The riff itself, of course, is
Gecko. Cute, huh?Gecko. Cute, huh?Gecko. Cute, huh?

Also at Tulum.
nowhere near as impressive as it is in front of Caye Caulker, since the corals are all-too-often destroyed and dead, but we saw a lot of nice fish, mussels, sea-urchins and the trip was absoultely worth it. Other than that, the swim in itself was great as well, since it was one of the rare afternoons in Playa where there are actual waves, which made for a nice change.

In the evening we had dinner together with Pia and Bernhard at Yaxche, another famous place, where they serve very nice Mayan food, which I truly enjoyed, so if you're in the area, check that place out! It might look overly fancy, but actually it's not more expensive than the rest of Playa and you get great food and service.
Afterwards, we had some goodbye-cervezas and talked for a couple of hours, before Hanna and me decided that we should really get back and go to sleep.
Luckily, our plane left at 6pm the next day, so we had another half-day in Playa, which we spent with packing, buying last-minute gifts and souvenirs for ourselves, having our last quesadillas and saying goodbye to Bernhard and Pia of course.

Well,
Tulum and the beachTulum and the beachTulum and the beach

Nice enough for any travel-catalogue!
and that's it, really. We caught our plane without a problem (thanks to the hourly ADO-buses from Playa), got even more leg-room on the flight back, had some very nice and funny stewards, spent some time in Amsterdam and got back to Osnabrueck jet-lagged and tired, but otherwise without trouble.

What to say for closure?
Well, we had a truly great vacation and would like to thank our entire group as well as all the great people we met on the way.
Other than that, I'm still jet-lagged, miss Caye Caulker, and can't wait to get on the road again. I'll leave this blog online and maybe add to that next time; I'll let you know. 😉

Thanks for reading!



(And, of course, feedback is very much welcome and WILL be read and answered, hehe.)


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Wayne in a hammockWayne in a hammock
Wayne in a hammock

At La Rana Cansada
Last group picture at 100% Natural.Last group picture at 100% Natural.
Last group picture at 100% Natural.

Sniff. F.l.t.r.: Helen (sitting), Wayne, Mori, Debbie, Hanna (sitting), Tiago, me, Pia (sitting), Bernhard.


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