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Published: November 18th 2006
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Back in Mexico after our wonderful weeks in the somewhat chillier but beautiful Guatemala and the super laidback lifestyle of Belize. Our last night in Caye Caulker had been spent in the local dive "Oceanside Bar" where a local band (which means they were actually two old guys from the US who have settled in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye) It had become a late night (about 2am, which is pretty crazy over here) so our initial plan of taking the 8.30am ferry back to Belize City had failed. The 10am would have to do. And that left at about 10.30 so we were off to a slow start. Next we took a very old looking bus to the border city of Chetumal, and thinking this would be a very short trip (not often the case but we stay optimistic) we finally got to the border at about 4pm!! We then got our bus to Tulum and after stopping about every 200m to pick up more people we got to Tulum at 10pm. Phew. The hostel we wanted to stay at was full (what?! it's low season) but we found a nice little hostel/cabanas further down the main street. The dorm
looked a little dodgy and we were tired so we opted for the more expensive option, a very nice cabana with hammock and porch. And slept like babies for the next 12 hours.
The next day we walked through town (one road with lots of little taquerias and souvenir shops) and then got a collectivo (a local minibus) to the ruins. They were the smallest ruins we've seen so far, we only needed about an hour to walk around, including the little stop at the beach where I refreshed in the beautiful turqoise sea. But the site is impressive because the main temple, El Castillo, is located on the clifftop overlooking the Caribbean sea. The next day we moved to a cheaper hostel (we very much liked the other hostel but it was not within our budget) and they had a free shuttle going to the beach so we decided to check it out. The beach is very wide and very quiet so we spent all day relaxing (we are running out of things to write because we are relaxing a lot these days!!) and went to the beachside cabanas for lunch. We notice that as we are heading
towards Cancun again, prices are rising and rising....Even Belize was a more economic option!!
The next day we decided to splurge and check out Xel-Ha, a natural waterpark located 15 minutes from Tulum. Our hostel manager had told us we would be able to see manatees and turtles, which we have been wanting to see all along. We noticed the other people in the park were mostly from the "all-inclusive crowd", i.e. cruise passengers. While these were very loud and slightly annoying at times (due to the all-inclusive package they got here too, all food and drinks), we found ourselves a quiet spot on the water and watched the fishes swim by. We then went on a tour of the park, cycling, attempting to walk across a rope bridge, tubing down a river (not much movement but fun anyway). However by the end of the day, no turtles or manatees and when we asked one of the staff they said they don't have them there at all, but we should check out Xcaret (another touristy park). Argh! Still, a great day.
Back at the hostel we "confronted" the hostel manager and he acted very surprised but had another
Xel Ha
as if we were true americans.... tip for us, we should check out Akumal (Place of the Turtles). We didn't trust him much anymore but decided to go anyway, after all there was a nice beach there. A very quiet resorty beach, and we found ourselves a nice little spot under the palm trees. Someone passed us saying they saw a turtle while out snorkeling...and we realised we had very little money on us and no snorkeling gear. We spoke to a local and got ourselves a little deal on masks and went into the water. Due to the wind, the visibility wasn't great but after about 15 minutes of watching seagrass, Krista spotted a pretty big turtle. We followed it for a bit and were mesmerised by it as it ate some grass, came up for air and crawled about. Apart from that the snorkeling was pretty hopeless, a few fishes and about 4 coral rocks. We've been pretty spoilt by our previous snorkeling outings so we really can't complain!!
We then headed back and cooked ourselves another classic Flora and Krista dinner in the hostel (pasta of course with a chile and some Mexican salsa, ham and lots of plastic cheese). Next stop
was Playa del Carmen where we are at the moment. Little time to go!!
Hasta Luego..
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Maggie lacsny-jones
non-member comment
Keep enjoying!
What a wonderfully exciting time you are having - I am really green! Austria remains wonderful but in comparison, life here seems just a tad restrained - might be my age too! Don't forget to let me know if you eventually head back this way, I would love to see the photos and hear about the memories.