We grabbed a flight on our new favourite airline, Volaris, to Cancun from Oaxana. For the first time our flight was late, it left at 5.45 when it was meant to leave at 5. What was hilarious is that the flight was ‘on time’ until 5 min before departure time at which point departure was changed to 5.39 and the flight remained ‘on time’. Cancun airport was very modern and it was not long before we were at our Flexicar rental to pick up our 2 week rental for a mere US$170. Car rentals in Mexico are ridiculously cheap. It was past 9pm before we headed into town – the place certainly had more of a Surfers / Miami feel than anyplace we had been in Mexico so far. Our hostel – Nomads Hostel & Bar – was really cool. We checked into our massive room and then joined the festivities on the rooftop bar to devour a chicken burger each and an ice cold Corona. It started raining as we went to bed and did not stop for most of the night. It was torrential.
It was still raining the next morning when we started our journey to Playa Del Carmen. On the way out we drove along the Zona Hotelera – a thin strip of land with water on both sides that basically ran from the centre of town out towards the airport. It was hideous – back to back massive hotels full of overweight tourists. The road from Cancun to Carmen was lined with these massive resorts, all trying to outdo each other with the most opulent entrance way. It was pretty tacky. We stopped at the small seaside town of Puerto Morelos. The weather was still average so it was a brief stop, might have been pleasant in nice weather but wasn’t the best in the rain. It took us another 40 min to reach Playa Del Carmen. It was a smaller version of Cancun with a slightly more chilled vibe. We had booked ourself into a nice hotel called Antera Hotel & Residences for a night. While very flash it was still only US$72 pn. We couldn’t check in so had to kill some time wondering around the town. It was packed with American tourist and the prices of everything reflected that fact. We did manage to find a restaurant that had a special of tacos and Cervesa for a mere 120 pesos each ($A10).
Deryn went to meander around town while I went to talk to a local salesmen about his tequila shop. I ended up buying a US$100 bottle, sort of as a favour to him. I met Deryn back at the hotel, headed up to the roof for a swim and then walked the 6 blocks to the local Walmart store to buy some provisions. The store was immense. I grabbed some nibbles,2 bottlers of Merlot for Dits and some Ron for me. We had a couple of pre’s before heading down to the beach to take advantage of the 2 or 1 specials. A couple of mojitos followed by some Pisco Sours for old times sake. The place was certainly starting to come alive which made for an entertaining walk home. The cops had set up a roadblock outside our hotel, with dogs, and were searching anyone walking past. A lot of guns!
We played a few games of cards upstairs on the roof before escaping to our air-conditioned room. Breakfast the next morning was part of the package in a funky cafe called Yum Yum and it certainly was. We headed to Walmart on our way out to do a ‘big’ shop for our AirBnb which we had booked down in Tulum. It was quite enjoyable cruising around a well stocked supermarket shopping for goodies. It was then an 1 hour drive south to Tulum and our beach home. Once again the road was lined with huge, grandiose resorts. God knows how they fill them. We turned just before Tulum to head down to Tulum beach, the first 4 kms was fine but then it became a crawl along a tiny road crowed with cars. The ocean side of the road was again back to back resorts, such that you could not see the ocean. Our AirBnB Coyote at Loco Tulum was actually a hotel room with a massive window that opened onto the mangrove swamp. Magic once you got used to the sulphur smell.
We got access to the ocean through a resort – in peak season you pay to enter and pay (via ordering in the restaurant) to use the beachside loungers. This is pretty much the only way to access the beaches as the whole beach front is side by side resorts. And no public access. The beach looked pretty average due to the murky, choppy and seaweed inundated water. No calm, incredibly coloured water you see in the brochures. We ate our breakfast food for dinner as we found our package included breakfast at Loco Tulum, can’t turn down a free meal. We watched a couple more episodes of Unbelievable before turning in for an early night post our rather boozy one the night before.
We got up early to try get to Cenote Dos Ojos before the crowds. We arrived at the restaurant at 8am only to be told it did no it open until 830. Just our luck. We sat and read the paper (we had access to their internet) and chilled before enjoying a hearty brekkie of eggs, beans, bread, juice and coffee. It took us about 30 min to reach the Cenote – the drive along Tulum beach took a fraction of what it took the day before. We paid for access to Dos Ojos at the main access gate and then had a confusing 30 min drive past multiple canotes until we found Dos Ojos. All the other Cenote required us to pay additional $, in some cases up to 400p each. We finally found Dos Ojos, paid another 190p for snorkels and a locker and we were off. Dos Ojos was packed with scuba divers but very few snorkels. A cenote is a limestone cave or pit filled (mostly) with water. The Yucatan Peninsular has over 6000. We went to Ojo 1 and was amazed at the colours and depth of water which led to many submerged caves – snorkels were allowed to enter the caves while divers needed a guide. We then headed to Ojo twos which was in a a sort of sunken area. It was a lot longer and if you put your head under water on the east side you could watch the divers making their way down the tunnel from Ojo one. It was beautiful and we basically had the place to ourselves.
We decided to check out Tulum for some lunch and to gauge whether it was worth spending Sun night there. Once we found the Main Street – which was actually the highway through the town, we could feel and see the appeal of Tulum. Still not enough to spend a day there, preferring to head to a Mexican magical town- Bacalar and its freshwater lake of seven colours. The drive back to Tulum beach was a nightmare because of some road works – but far worse for those driving into Tulum. I headed up to the roof kitchen and pool to prepare our early dinner. Turns out the roof area was only for people in the building, we ignored the rule and made ourselves at home. The breeze was lovely (essential for keeping the mossies) at bay, plus the view was amazing for the sunset. Dinner was tostadas with plenty of fresh produce. Yum! Karen, an Aussie from Bondi joined us. She was travelling by herself while her apartment complex was being renovated. She was a freelance travel writer so was helpful in providing tips. We also met a Canadian couple – Matt and Crystal – who helped me make a dent in my very nice bottle of tequila. I got up at 3am to watch the. AB’s get smashed by England in the semifinal.
The next morning we headed down to the beach via a club we had access to and lay on the lounges for 3 or so hours. It was lovely. In the end we had to by two coffees which cost 160p ($A13). The room still hadn’t been made up so we returned to the prohibited roof to lay by the pool and chill some more. We then walked a km or so down the road to visit another cenote. It felt more of a small lake than a cenote but it was still cool. It was very dark because of how deep it was. Very refreshing. On returning to our AirBnB we bumped into Matt and he invited us to join them for dinner on the roof to eat all the fish they had caught that day. Snapper,Tiger fish and Yellow fish. The chef from Loco Tulum was going to cook it. Hell yes! So we had this amazing meal of fresh fish and salad. The Tiger fish was incredibly dense, but delicious. We also polished off the rest of my tequila and a few bottles of wine. It was a fun night.
The next day we headed off around 11 for our 3 hour drive to Bacalar. We stopped in Tulum to grab some pharmaceuticals being offered in a lot of the shadier pharmacies. The drive to Bacalar was a breeze – the roads were incredible and deserted. Our hostel – Yak Lake House– was right on Lake Bacalar and had a very nice vibe to it. Less posy than what we had experience so far but still a lot of very beautiful (and younger) people. Dits and I fitted right in – except we were at least 20 years older than everyone. Ok and not as beautiful. We went for a swim in the lake – it was waist shallow with a bed that your feet sunk into ankle deep. Quite strange. Stunning though. We then went for a walk to find some $ (solo effectivo at Yak) which involved walking back to the motorway. We got caught in a torrential downpour on the way back so dashed into a dodgy cafe for some pretty good ceviche and a beer. When we got back to Yak we found the lakeside bar very cheap (45p for a red wine and 40p for double tequila) so couldn’t resist. We played backgammon and I did a lot more press ups than Deryn.
The next day was a very chilled day – enjoying the lake when the sun was out and then having kip and reading when the inevitable downpour happened. It will be sad to leave this place tomorrow but the ruins of Chichen Itza beckon.
