Cave Diving & Paradise Beach

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Tulum, Mexico. We were all thankful to leave Americana Nirvana behind as we headed up on a blissful 1hr bus ride up the coastline to Tulum. Tulum is known for three things, its Mayan ruins right on the headland of the cliffs, diving in Cenotes (caves) and the beach. I am ruined-out so couldn´t be bothered to go to the ruins, so we spent two days on the beach!

First we checked into the "Weary Traveller Inn" which is the backpacker haven in this area, we had to slum it a bit by going in the dorms but at least they had a/c, it was the most sociable hostel I have ever had the pleasure of! The main area is a long long table that everyone sits along at night throwing back stupidly cheap beer (5 USD for 6 bottles of Sol, or 5.50 USD for a whole bottle of rum) whilst grillling on the communal BBQ. Everyone just chats to anyone, so conversation was topical and fun! Soooo any people from Israel, we have met more of them than any other nation (this is sometimes good and sometimes not so good...very diplomatic of me eh?).

Kez and Nick had been recommended to dive here and I am incredibly glad we did. We did two dives in freshwater caves!!!!! It was incredibly beautiful because we were looking at 3000+yr old stalactites/mites underwater, the sunlight did reach down to these depths so the water turned the colour of turquoise and lapis lazuli, we had torches for the deeper darker sections, that was where the anxiety and claustraphobia could set in. We were even lucky enough to pop up in an airpocket where the whole ceiling of the underwater cave was covered with bats....guess what the cave was called? 😉

The rest of the day and the next we spent lounging on the beach, tough life, though we did all appreciate we were fortunate and wished our nearest and dearest could see it with us too. The rainy season is starting up and on the last day we watched as a huge weatherfront came in off the ocean and hit us with a torrent of rain, we were forced to decamp to the beach bar and wait it out with beer.....

Things that make you say WTF?! Coordination without cellphones!! How did we do it in the pre-cellphone era? Today we have two backup meeting points, long wait intervals and lots of patience.
What I learned today. The phrase "She was such a ´Ho-bag." Useful.
Hurray Beaches, rainstorms and sunsets
Argh Mozz bites, argharghargh. My ankles are ALWAYS on fire, so....irksome!!

BTW - Happy Birthday Andrea!!

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