Tulum

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I arrived in Tulum on Friday 16th of March at around 3PM. It was a 10 minutes walk to my hostel and I had some difficulties finding it, since there was no mark on the door saying « Chill Inn Hostel ». Fortunately, there was a person in the street nice enough to help me. First, he told me it was about 4 blocks back, but - thank God! - he was just kidding and it was just a few doors down.

My first impression of this hostel wasn’t good : the receptionist was high (I guess), there were no nice sitting areas outside, or at least it didn’t look very cosy, and the kitchen didn’t look very clean. So I rented a bike from the hostel and went to the beach, fleeing my hostel and complaining to Lorenzo how bad it is.

Of course - what else could you expect - I took a wrong turn and went to a different beach, on a much longer way. I was pretty hungry and felt kind of weak, so when I finally found a public beach, I only stayed like an hour or so and went back. It was also an hour earlier there than in Valladolid and so sun was already setting when I arrived at the beach. Fortunately, there was an Oxxo on the way where I could buy some cookies that helped me get back to the hostel. My bike wasn’t the best either, but it was ok for Mexico, I guess. :-)

Back at the hostel, I took a shower, trying to get rid of the sand (sand at this beach sticks everywhere, incredible!) and then I went out to meet Lorenzo. On my way out, I had the impression that all people in the hostel were either high already or smoking and talking about drugs. It seems like a very common thing in Tulum to smoke Marihuana and to be high, I even saw a bar advertising « grass here! » ! o_o

Lorenzo and I had planned to meet at the Cancha Maya, that should be like a nice fair or regional people and products, but that turned out to be more of a carnival. It took us a while to find each other in the crowd, but finally we made it. We stayed for while and then we went to a restaurant for dinner. They had very good food and I took a quinoa-risotto with mushrooms and spinach and Lorenzo took a veggi-burger. At some point, 10PM I think, they closed and we walked around for a bit until finding a nice place in the center to sit and talk. Without a surprise, we talked until 1AM about everything and nothing and had a good time. :-)

I was thinking about moving to his hostel the next day, because his seemed to be better than mine, but the next day, it turned out that mine was pretty cool actually and his not so much. Always these first impressions....



The next morning, I discovered that my hostel had really good breakfast and I met a few nice people. There were mostly Mexicans and somehow I had the feeling they all kind of worked or helped out there. ^_^

I was up early and my plan was to rent a bike from the hostel, go to the ruins and maybe later - in the afternoon - to the beach or to a cenote. When I rented the bike, the receptionist, Pako, turned out to be a very nice guy and suggested me to make a boat tour on the beach with snorkeling on a riff included for 250$. The price seemed fair and so I accepted. At the beach, they sell this tour for min. 300$, so I had made a good deal. :-)

Instead of going to the ruins first, which I should have done to avoid the masses of tourists that were there later, I went directly to the beach. I had to wait 30 minutes before the first tour started and it was only me and a couple from Italy that took the tour, to it was quite nice. The guy on the boat was nice and, like many Mexicans, a bit overfriendly, inviting me to come back to see him on my next visit ^^ The snorkeling was amazing, I saw many different kinds of beautiful, shiny fishes and 2 sea-turtles, one big turtle and a baby one. Too cute! :-D And it was better seing them in their natural environment, swimming, far from tourist crowds, than on the beach surrounded by people like many other people do.

This tour was absolutely worth it and only took an hour. I can only recommend it!



From there, I went to the ruins and walked around there for about an hour before I left, fleeing the heat and the crowds of people. There I learned that Tulum had been an important city for the Maya who used it as a port for their trading business via seaside. Since they had no boats but only canoes, they couldn’t go deep in the sea and had to stick close to the beach. So they started from Tulum to trade in Guatemala, etc.

The ruins were actually buit as a fortress, with a huge stone wall around them to keep ennemies from coming in. In 1850 or so, there was a movement called « holy cross » I think and they took over the city and installed themselves in the fortress. It took the Spanish a long time to recover this territory.



Afterwards, I had a nice salad with grilled chicken for lunch and sparkling water with lemon and mint. Lorenzo decided in the meantime to join me at the beach and so I stayed there. I looked around the shops close to the beach and found a nice, colourful new bikini and a (Strandtuch?). I really needed a new bikini, mine was already like 10 years old and much too large since I had lost a bit a weight in the last years and days.

Then I went back to the beach to wait for Lorenzo and I waited ... and waited... Fortunately I had something to read and had found a nice place in the shade. When Lorenzo finally came, he was exhausted. He hadn’t been able to find a bike to rent and some Mexican had sent him in the wrong direction, taking the way I had taken the day before, which was way longer to the beach where I was waiting. Poor guy, but well, he had told me he didn’t to anything in the morning and wanted to walk in the afternoon ^_^

We spent a few hours at the beach, but then went back to our hostels to take a shower and to get recommendations for dinner. Of course, it took us quite some time to decide on a place where to eat, Lorenzo not being someone who likes to make decisions. But I have to say, he has become better at deciding things during the time I spent with him ^_^

We went for dinner to an Italian place and he was happy to have someone there to speak in Italian too :-) We had a delicious pizza - also not a good idea for my stomach, but I had been feeling much much better the last day, so why not - and afterwards we went again to the same park where we had been the night before, talking until 1AM, again. On the way, we bought bus tickets for the next day : Lorenzo was to go to Cancún and me to Chetumal, but our busses left both at 1PM.

We had a beautiful last night together and I’m sorry it was our last night... I almost changed my plans to go to Holbox with him for a few days, but I had already booked my hostels in Chetumal and Flores, so I decided to stick to my plan anyway.



The next morning, I didn’t do much, relaxing, eating and at 1PM, Lorenzo and I met again at the bus station before leaving in different directions. I had had a wonderful time with him, he was so easy to talk to, funny and quite sarcastic, thing I appreciate a lot. :-) Well, we’ll stay in touch and meet again somewhere, you meet always twice in life. ;-)





Tulum was a quite ok city, but nothing compared to the other places where I have been to in Mexico. The beach is 10-15 minutes from town, by bike, and there is a lot of seaweed. The atmosphere in this town is nice though and food is good as well. If you go there, I guess 1 or 2 days are enough.

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