Exploring Tulum

Sat 7th Oct: Well it wouldn't be a tropical paradise without tropical rain, and that is what greeted as when the alarm went off at 7 am. We were going to the Tulum Mayan Ruins this morning, and wanted an early start to beat the heat and crowds. They were only 2.2 kms away so we decided to walk even though it was very wet. Once we got to the entrance we did take shelter for 10 or so minutes waiting for another big downpour to pass. We then found out that you have to go to the ticket booth at the entrance and pay the National Park fee of 58 pesos (~NZ $5.80), once you have the wristband you can pass the guards and walk 500 m down the road, where you can go right towards the beach, or left where you pay another entry fee of MX$90 to visit the ruins. Once we got that sussed, we then wandered around the ruins for about 15 minutes before the rain stopped. I think we enjoyed finally seeing the beautiful coastline and animals such as the Yucatan Squirrel and iguanas more than the ruins, maybe we should had got a guide to give us a better understanding of them. Once we had seen them all - wasn't a very big site, but pleased we went early because it was certainly getting busy, we headed for the beach. It really was what you would expect from a carribbean beach, blue clear water, white sand, we just weren't expecting the water to be as warm as it was - apparently 30.5°C at the moment. As we were walking along the beach back towards town, we were approached to see if we wanted to do a snorkeling trip out to the reef, about 1 km from the shoreline. We just keep saying no thanks until I thought we should at least find out abit more, so as we went to go pass a boat getting loaded with some guests we found out it was MX$250 for about 1 hour, and good chance of seeing stingrays and turtles. We thought what the heck let's do it, so we joined the 4 others on the boat. After a short ride we first stopped below the Ruins for a photo, then out at the reef where we immediately saw 3 rays swimming around the boat. With mask and snorkel on, in we went. Wasn't alot of reef or fish, but we did see a turtle, who at times swam so close to us, unfortunately Fiona's old waterproof camera that she gave me wasn't so waterproof and had stopped working at this stage. Back at the beach we continued walking towards town, until Playa Paraiso or Paradise Beach where we stopped under a palm tree and each took a turn at having a swim. Soon after here, the sandy beach turned into a rocky shoreline so we headed up to the road to continue our walk back to our hotel, passing a snake on the way, which Doug tried to shoo off the road before it got ran over by the approaching truck. Once back it was immediately into the pool to rinse of the salt. Then to the supermarket to get some bread for lunch and we slipped in a pre-mix Pina Colada as the cocktails in the bars and restaurants are so expensive, about NZ$15 - 20 each. Our 1 litre costed $9. After lunch and with the sky still overcasted, but the bugs biting in full force we retired to our a/c room - Doug for a siesta and me to type up this. Headed back to the main street where we found a street vendor last night selling 7 tacos for $5, the vendor next to him was 5 tacos for $5, his queue waiting was alot smaller but 2 extra tacos is worth the wait.Read more