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Published: February 1st 2016
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Tulum is somewhere in Mexico that I could see myself spending a long time at. It is a little town that is across a highway, with beaches, famous Mayan ruins, and it has such a great hippie vibe. I had came here in November for a weekend with some of the girls I taught with on Isla. We had stayed in a lovely little hostel with our own bungalow, ate delish Thai food and falafel (such a treat getting something different than only Mexican food). The hostel also had free bike hire so we cycled along to the famous Mayan ruins here which were cool. After that trip I ventured back to Tulum, however this time was for mucho fiesta!
Me, Nikki and my man - Mau, came together on the 31st of December and stayed at Mau's friend's apartment which is between Playa Del Carmen and Tulum. We got ourselves ready then headed out to a New Years Eve festival called Maya Hearts! Hands down one of the best new years Iv had yet! The festival was in the jungle at a cenote (large lakes/pools) and was amazing! The music was so good, bit tribal at times and everyone
was having a ball! We were here for the bells and danced away until about 9am; it finished at 2pm! After here we went back to Mau's friends and carried on the party by the pool until later that night.
I had seen online that there was another similar festival the following weekend with some Dj's playing that I really like, and they were looking for volunteers to help get everything ready and organised so I emailed them. On the 3rd of January Nikki and I started helping out for the festival which was called Day Zero! We were so glad that we did this! We spent all week in the jungle helping with the arts and crafts with weaving and painting. I am the most un creative person but was quite proud of some of the things I did. The organisers and team were a great laugh. We got to eat ceviche every day, tunes on and meet great people. The other volunteers were fab and we all became a nice wee group of friends. I even got to hang out in the jungle with one of my favourite DJ's, Damian Lazarus, who was a really
nice guy!
Whilst working here we stayed in a hostel in Tulum which was the hippiest place I have ever stayed. People were camping on the roof or just sleeping in hammocks as there weren't enough beds; everyone was having joints for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. They all just chilled here all day, jamming with guitars, cellos and saxophones. Our room was a 12 bed dorm with no door, one toilet and one light. What a hoot! Again met some characters and made friends. On one of the days we had a day off from weaving in the jungle and went on a drive to the beach with an American dude from the hostel, called Drew, who has Parkinson's and is travelling to South America in search of natural remedies as western medicine is not working. Very interesting guy and hope he finds what he needs. We had a day out driving to the beach which was lovely driving along seeing all the boutique shops, hotels, campsites, restaurants - just absolutely love it here!!
For the day of the festival - 8th of January - Nikki and I moved all our things to
a dudes house in Playa Del Carmen. Long story but I had met two girls on Isla Mujeres no few days before who Mau knew, and they were from Spain; we then bumped into them New Years Eve at Maya Hearts; I told them about volunteering at Day Zero which they then did with us; they were couch surfing with a guy called Paulo who stays in Playa; Paulo then volunteered at Day Zero also; got chatting to him and he said that me and Nikki could also couch surf at his place. Love how things like this happen! Paulo had 6 of us chicas staying with him - what a lad! He's getting the most out of being a couch surfing host! The other girls were the two Spanish girls - Nuria and Lette, a French girl Louise and an American girl, plus us two. Was a bit of a squeeze but we didn't mind and we weren't planning on sleeping much as we had the festival! I definitely out did myself with the partying anyways, as always.
So we headed to Day Zero for about 10pm. It was so weird seeing it all complete as
we had spent all week here. Proud of us as it looked absolutely brilliant. All our hard worked had earned us free entry, drinks tokens (yass) and being able to go backstage/VIP. It was very Mayan themed, there were arts and crafts stalls, dancers/acrobats, one main stage and all in the heart of the jungle. I also did this spiritual experience thing that he had there, where a guy firstly burned some bark/incencse over us then a small group of us chanted and danced around a fire. Sounds a bit mental but I felt like Pocahontas, new woman! Don't know how it would go down trying this out with people when I get back home!
We then danced, laughed and had a ball until it finished at midday. Damian Lazarus played for sunrise which was probably one of the best sets iv heard for a while, then a guy called Acid Pauli played from 9am until the end and he was brilliant aswell. Then some Mayan dancers in full attire closed the festival. Literally could not stop dancing, and I carried this onto the after party. I hitchhiked, with some of the hippy characters from my hostel
(they had came to the festival aswell) in the back of a scuba diving truck along the road out of the jungle, then we had to get a little minivan (called a collectivo) to the centre of Tulum. On the collectivo I got chatting to 3 girls who had been at a cenote and heard about the festival. I told them to come to the after party as it was free. I headed there with another volunteer - a guy called Hagan, as I had lost the girls. The after party was at a beach club called Villa Pecadores which was quite posh but reminded me slightly of being in Ibiza. Love this place! Eventually the two Spanish girls arrived but the others had gone home, and the girls that I had met on the collectivo came aswell! Another great day, great music and eventually called a night about 9pm.
Smashing week, was gutted for it to be all over but also need recovery time. Cannot handle all this anymore! We had thought about trying to work for BPM Festival in Playa but to be honest Playa Del Carmen is pretty crap ; not as scenic, beach
isn't great and so touristy! So gave it a miss. It wouldn't have been able to top Maya Hearts and Day Zero anyways! January does seem to be festival/party month for this part of a Mexico and Tulum is the best place to go!
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