Oh Tulum. I can still hear the way the natives say it. Tooloom. Because in Spanish the vowels make the sound of their name. One of a few handy facts that I learned from Senior Todd. ;)
Tulum was fantastic. It has gotten more and more touristy over the last couple of years but we must have been there at the right time of year. Not too crowded and the weather was totally bearable!
You know that cheap transportation that I mentioned in my last post? It's called ADO. They have buses (tour buses) that go all over the peninsula. We got tickets to head towards Tulum first thing in the morning.
Before we made it to downtown Tulum though we stopped at the ruins and saw some fun touristy stuff.
Like these guys. One of them had a whistle and a drum and while he played they took turns climbing to the top, strapping themselves in, and then flinging themselves backwards, spinning around upside down until they landed on the ground.
And this guy. I don't remember his name but he didn't pee on me so that was cool.
We made it into the ruins and they were really neat!
It was definitely one of the more humid days of our trip. I couldn't believe how sweaty I was. But the ruins were right against the ocean and man that breeze off the water was fan-tas-tic.
This is the back of the main ruin, right on the edge of the cliff by the water.
All in all it was quite cool... in a sticky humid kind of way. Oh and did I mention the iguanas? They were everywhere and some of them were biiig. We kept our distance but they didn't seem to mind all of the people up in their space. There were also a ton of selfie sticks. Like bros... alone... trying 20 different poses to get the perfect instagram worthy shot of them #yolo-ing. I digress.
Our first Tulum meal was ceviche and camerones a la diabla. And that awesome lime drink. Mine hadn't been made yet then I saw the bartender walk out of the back room with an armful of limes. Yuuuum!
After lunch we checked into our hotel "The Secret Garden." Simply put... it was perfect. As you can tell it wasn't a hotel. They were little bungalows side by side in a fenced off garden. No one we talked to knew where it was so it really was a secret! I loved it. So much.
After checking in and getting the rundown of Tulum we hopped on our bikes (that we forfeited our drivers licenses to rent) and biked out to the beach. The ride was lovely and the beach was even lovelier.
I know what you just thought... "Woah, they're white." Either that or, "Wait, didn't she just make fun of people for taking selfies?"
You're right, we are. And yes, I did.
Along the water was a little more pricey with fancy shmanzy resorts. We rode our bikes up and down the stretch and went to a restaurant called Casa Banana. Todd ate a baby pig. I had duck. It was an incredibly delicious meal.
By the time we were finished the sun had set and we were about four miles from our bungalow. Fortunately there is a bike path the whole way. It was the first moment that I was like, "What did we get ourselves into??" Haha but we made it back totally fine.
Day 2
Our second day in Tulum started with fresh juice and homemade bread and a bike ride out to some cenotes.
Isn't this place perfect?
Cenotes are like sinkholes filled with super clear water. I know, that's the best scientific description I could think of haha. They were very refreshing after swimming in the warm salty ocean water.
And of course there was a platform.
Do me a favor and don't zoom into that picture. My face has pure terror/I'm-about-to-puke-my-small-intestine all over it. Basically I hate the feeling of falling.
To get to the cenotes, Crystal and Escondido, we basically had to ride our bikes down the highway and turn onto a dirt jungle road.
Lunch was amazing. Sopes, tortas, and horchata at something something Rincon. The best horchata of the trip by a landslide.
After lunch we hopped on a collectivo (the other cheap way of getting around) and went to Akumel to swim with the sea turtles! We were too cheap to get an underwater camera but believe me... it was really cool! My favorite was when they were munching on the sea greenery right below you then they'd come up for some air. It's illegal to touch them but they were right next to you! It was hard not to reach out and give their cute little bald heads a pat. We also saw stingrays, a barracuda, and a little coral reef.
Dinner that night was cheap (and amazing) tacos at Chapaneca and LOTR in Spanish. Haha the translator's Golum voice was rough.
And then gelato.
I wish I could end every day with gelato...
Read more about the rest of our trip here!
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