Monday, January 23, 2012

Snorkeling at Akumal Beach

Here's how I got to Akumal. A short 4 minute walk from the hostel, is where the collectivos load up. There's basically church vans that run up the down highway 307. You can head as south as Tulum from Playa for 35 pesos.


Just tell the driver Akumal, and they drop you off on the side of the highway. Just cross the highway using the walk way...


...and continue heading towards the beach. It's all of a 5 minute walk.


Find a nice spot under a palm, and relax. :)





The rules:


The locals:


I brought with me my Gopro, and decided to use it to see what sort of pictures and videos I could get. Here's a couple good videos of the local sea turtles:





...and a couple pictures from the day.





























After I was done snorkeling, I head towards the left hand side of the beach, so a rocky shore line a half mile or so away.







Here's the walk back towards the highway.



...and just about there.

Friday, January 20, 2012

A visit to the ruins at Tulum

A true vacation includes some adventure.

I'm sitting in the common area of the hostel when I say "hi" to a couple I spoke with the night before. He was born and raised in Sweden, but is currently studying abroad in Mexico City. His girlfriend is from Mexico. She is a flight attendant, and scored them free tickets to Playa del Carmen. They were checking out of the hostel, and heading south to Tulum. They invited me, but I wanted to make a full day of it, and it was already 4pm. They said not to worry and that they had no plans on where to stay in Tulum, but would find something cheap once they got there. Then they wanted to visit the ruins the following morning. He spoke fluent English as well as fluent Spanish. She obviously spoke Spanish, but also some acceptable English. This seemed like an adventure, so why not? I packed a day bag, and we were off.

Let me quickly toss out the fact that it's about 13 pesos for a dollar, but I got a crappy rate of about 10 to 1.

For 35 pesos, we took a bus into the city outside of Tulum. We walked a couple blocks till we found an internet cafe, and paid 7 pesos to google some sleeping options. We skipped that idea, and hailed a cab for 50 pesos. We told him to take us somewhere nice but cheap. We ended up here:




Google says they are wel known via backpackers for many years. Here is what you get for 350 pesos. It has two scary looking beds, a table, and two chairs. Electricity is only on from noon till 6pm. We got there just after 6pm. We were handed sheets, pillow cases, TP, and a candle.





In the am, we were greeted outside by el gatos.


Literally a 25 foot walk from the cabana is this view:

The below cabana serves as a bar/restaurant at night.


Another 25 feet towards the beach, and looking to the left.


Straght out.


...and to the left.


Ah, no one in site for miles.



After a short walk on the beach, we headed down the road to the ruins. Here's a view of the walk.

We were there within 5-10 minutes. Here's a small scale model out front before you go it. Admission was 57 pesos.


Barely past the admission, this guy fall from a tree, onto the ground about 10 feet from me. Welcome to nature.

Once in, we walked around the ruins.


The Mayans may be gone, but I think they left these guys in charge. They were everywhere.



Ah, the famous picture everyone takes...

Something about me and taking pics on cliffs.


What's right behind me?


Ah, a beach!


Looking back at the stairs that take you down to it.

We relaxed, and went for a swim for a half hour or so. While they dried off, I went walking along the small private beach area, and snapped a couple nice pics. Me by the cliffs...




Once dried, we left the ruins, as the tour buses with the Americans from Cancun, along with their cheesy joke making tour guides had arrived.

We walked a mile into town, and got to the main street, with it's sidewalk project not yet complete.


After a mile of the sidewalk, we came to a 7-11. OH YEAH!!!


Then another mile of walking along streets like this got us into the downtown area.


LOL at the web address:


Being I had some fluent spanish speakers along side, we ventured about 2 blocks off the main road away from the tourists to find a real restaurant. Ah, this looks perfect. The restaurant is the blue building.


Hmmm, what sounds good? Ah yes, nachos con pollo!!!


That, along with an agua de Jamica(berry flavored water), and I was full.



They were staying in Tulum a couple more days, so they got me on the right bus, and 35 pesos later, I was back in Playa, just 3-4 blocks from the hostel.