Tulum, Mexico

Monday (12 February) following the expensive taxi from the airport to the hotel, this morning we got an Uber about the same distance for less than an eighth of the price!! Ubers are not allowed to pick up at the airport.

So we collected a hire car, surprising the staff with Nic’s exploding water bottle, after she filled it with sparkling water, put the lid on then forgot. As she went to take a drink, the bottle cap flew through the air, missed one of the staff and hit the ceiling, falling to earth in 2 irreparable pieces! Ah well, it had served a Nic well, after we found it lying in a field during a walk when we were spending time on the canals in 2021.

Hire car all organised we then drove south to Tulum, an interesting journey for our first time on Mexican roads. The road was OK, the odd large pothole, armed police visible at checkpoints, lots of huge trucks and beaten up cars, luckily ours was not pristine either! In order to deal with the traffic conditions, we coined the phrase ‘drive like a Mexican’, it is being used frequently now! 5 hrs later the car hire company WhatsApp’d Rog to ask for a photo of the key fob so they knew which car they had given us.

We got to the hotel, who thought that we were due to check in on the 18th (not the 12th! ), and were fully booked, after about 15 mins they had come up with a plan for us to have the owners apartment, for either all of our stay, or until 18th when they will have space for us in an upgraded room.

Our original booking was dirt cheap, so much so that Rog emailed the hotel to check the price of the booking (after we’d booked) they are standing by the price. They admitted that their booking system had had a glitch, lucky for us! And that we were the last of 7 bookings who had got an eye watering reduced price!

As it turns out the apartment probably works better for us as we are here for 3 weeks, a little more space a better kitchen, a large pool in the complex and a small pool on the roof terrace. What’s not to like !

When we finally got into the flat, we went shopping, the ‘roads’ around the accommodation are terrible rutted dirt tracks, as there is not any buildings around at the moment, mostly jungle with a fare few building slights.

Tuesday, given all the recent excitement, we decided to have a relaxing day, a dip in the pool, catch a few rays.

Wednesday, we return to Chedraui supermarket for a big shop! It all takes longer than you think to drive to the supermarket, find everything you need, queued up, remember to get your parking ticket scanned in store, load up the car and drive back.

We then spent a couple of hours back at the hotel around their pool before returning to the flat for dinner.

Spoke to some good friends via FaceTime, who were on a much deserved holiday in the Canary Islands.

Thursday, another lazy day, spent a couple of hours at the hotel pool.

Friday, our first big adventure out, we drove an hour to Cenote Taak Bi Ha, a stunning cave cenote. It was a reasonable price compared to some we had researched. It was also reported to be managed by 7 local families, which appealed to us. It was not too busy, so we spent an hour or so there, Nic had a snorkel mask to get a better view of the underwater stalagmites , and small fish. When there were less people around we also saw some sizeable bats flying round, and were able to see where they were roosting.

Saturday, we drove the Tulum beach road south as far as the entrance to the Sian Ki’an national park. After reading reviews of the drive into the national park we decided not to bother as it is up to a 4 hr drive to the interesting stuff, and the road is even worse than the ones we have already driven.

At the public beach in Tulum (a lot of beaches can only be accessed via hotels and beach clubs, who charge a hefty fee), we watched Brown Pelicans fishing at close quarters, really magical to see.

Sunday, we stayed in the flat, it rained a lot!

Monday (19 February), we braved the puddles in the roads and visited the Mayan ruins at Coba, about an hour’s drive from Tulum. A nice site as it is still surrounded by jungle which gave welcome shade.

At Cobá we heard a surprising number of French voices amongst the tourist visitors.

Tuesday, another shopping day, we tried to go to a different supermarket. But as we pulled in to the small car park which was full, the army arrived and started getting animated with some of the cars blocking the car park, so we quickly drove out again, going back to the Chedraui supermarket instead.

Also did some washing. Rog managed to find poles to fashion washing lines on the sun terrace to dry everything.

Washing and shopping – a truly glamorous day!

Wednesday, we walked to a local restaurant, “Chencho” for lunch, lovely tacos and burritos. Our first Mexican meal out.

Thursday we drove south down the main highway as far as a town called “Felipe Carrillo Puerto”, a local Mexican town, had a walk around, not touristy at all.

Friday, we walked to a hotel with an “Art Walk” in its grounds, with statues, murals and unfortunately a lot of insects resulting in a few bites. Coffee at the Nuud cafe on the walk back to the flat.