Bienvenidos a México 🇲🇽

I decided to make use of a rainy morning and write my first post about Mexico. Not so bad activity considering that I’m doing all this in a hammock. After an amazing last weekend, leaving party and packing panic I left London with my huge backpack

( will need reducing overtime!!) . Arrived to Cancùn in the evening and made my way to Tulum, it was pretty straightforward, changed buses at Playa del Carmen and arrived to my hostel around 10pm. The place lives up to his name ( Chill Inn), after dropping my bag ( hallelujah) I had the perfect welcome: really yummy fish tacos at a nearby place, Arena bar. Bienvenidos a México 🇲🇽
My ( very little) Spanish was immediately challenged, and realised that my understanding is better than I expected, however as usual speaking requires more confidence. But I’m constantly trying and I will get there eventually.
My bed after being awake for more than 24 hours seemed heaven, so crushed and slept like a baby til 7 in the morning. Suck it jetlag!
My few days in Tulum were a combination of chilled days when I didn’t do much other than relaxed on the beach and walked to a supermarket- Chedraui is my new happy place:) and some eventful days with visiting ruins, pyramids and cenotes. Some parts of the Mexican Caribbean was going through the “big seaweed crisis”, a totally harmless invasion of sargasso, making the crystal clear waters yellow-brownish and the beach smell like ..well rotten plants. I didn’t mind especially because I knew these were not my only beach days and for me the sea is always amazing. But it was said to see how it is affected local businesses. To read more about this natural phenomenon, see this article:
http://akumaldiveshop.com/sargassum-the-what-where-and-why-of-this-seaweed/ .
After one of my newly found friend suggested it I took a trip to Xpu ha on my last day and found almost seaweed free beach:)

Xpu Ha

Chill Inn

Xpu Ha

An alternative to the beaches around the yucatan is the cenotes, natural sinkholes, but I like the historical background as they say the mayans used them to communicate with the gods. And it’s quite true, when you enter a cenote you enter another place and time. An unmissable experience, no excuses (they usually provide life west for non swimmers). And if you arrive early, you only share the experience with a few people. Crystal clear cool water, plenty to see underneath so don’t forget your snorkels or goggles if you have one and if you happen to be a diver there are many cenotes with caves to explore. i had an amazing day swimming and snorkelling in Cristal and Escondido, they are right next to each other, 15 minutes from Tulum centro on a bike and 120 pesos for both. Bargain;) If you decide to visit these two, it’s nice to bring a picnic, because there’s no restaurants, taco stands etc nearby. I had a lovely collection of pastries, fruit and cheese( basically this is what I lived on other than fish and veggie tacos).

Snorkel snap

Escondido

Mermaid

Tulum is also famous for its ruins and mayan pyramids nearby. I dedicated two mornings to explore some of these treasures, with brakes in between so I won’t get “pyramided out”, I wanted to appreciate everything as they deserved it. The key again is the early arrival, we arrived at the ruins for the opening time (8am), this way the tickets are cheaper and the place was free of masses . We saw the intimidating crowds arrive when we were leaving so I was so happy for waking up early, also on Sundays visiting the ruins is free for Mexicans, so if you can choose another day( unless you are Mexican;) But the ruins are beautiful and you can read a lot about the history of Tulum, mayan times and more.

Tulum ruins

Another historic spot I’ve visited was Cobá. It is about 45 min away from Tulum, there is a bus in the morning but we missed that so took a colectivo to get there. Colectivos are minivans taking people to places, and if your stop is on their route they will get you there. They are absolutely safe to use, you can make new friends and they are reasonably cheap. My trip to Coba was 70 pesos and a lovely girl from Argentina and I used this time to have a Spanish -English language exchange:) added bonus!

Coba

The main pyramid from the top

Before climbing

I was ready to move on to new places and adventures, the week in Tulum was nice but probably a bit too long, although it allowed me to have some days adjusting and doing nothing ( much needed) without the pressure of having to do things before I run out of time.

Standard Tulum pic

Mayan calendar

Chedraui😍

So next I will exploring the islands of the area, keep tuned in😉

 

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