An Ode to Tulum - it's Love.

 Oh, Tulum. I really, really love you.

This place is stunning. I wish I took more photos, or maybe took a little more care in taking the ones I did take. Many of my photos ended up slightly blurry or crooked or rushed. I think part of it was just due to the fact that I was totally intoxicated by my surroundings.  This place, at this time, was exactly what I needed.

 We stayed at this fantastic little place, Playa Mambo. Like many of the hotels in Tulum, it is a little property of cabañas right on the sand. Each one has thatched roofs, screened windows without glass, and simple concrete floors. The entire hotel zone of Tulum is off the grid, so every property has electricity via solar, wind, or generator power. Many places don't offer 24 hour electricity, but Playa Mambo does. Its in the form of one little outlet per cabaña, conveniently fitted with plugs that work with US appliances - perfect for phone charging.

Playa Mambo is a simple, comfortable place. The accommodations are basic, but we always had what we needed and felt welcomed and at home. One thing to note - as you can guess from their website, Spanish is exclusively spoken here. I took it as an opportunity to practice speaking Spanish and really enjoyed it. The staff is wonderful and kind and will make sure you have what you need. Apparently there is WIFI here, but we never received a signal. We just used the WIFI at Mateo's down the road. It was a great excuse to stay away from our phones.

{This was what we had to look forward to every morning. Delicious breakfast, right on the beach.}

Speaking of the beach - what a beach it was. The water is such a bright turquoise and the sand is so soft and white, its glorious. 

We rented a car from EasyWay near the Cancun airport, which we were really happy about. 

One day we drove to the Coba ruins, which were a bit disappointing. Except for the awesome iguanas. 

Oh, and then there was this: 

Amazingly hilarious, weird little face. I was a big fan of him. 

 One day, when we were feeling very adventurous, we tried scuba diving here, at Casa Cenote:

 Yes, the water really is this color. Isn't that amazing? Luckily it did not occur to me at the time that there may or may not have been crocodiles in the water with us. I was worried enough about all the possible ways to drown while scuba diving.

{I sincerely appreciated my afternoon tea on that day}

The next day, we snorkeled here:

Dos Ojos Cenote. This place was unbelievable. After scuba, it felt so freeing to snorkel. We hired a guide for cheap and visited a cave full of bats, which was amazing. We were given flashlights to help us navigate, and ducked under stalactites and around stalagmites to get in. Once inside the cave, we quickly noticed that almost every possible crevice was full of bats. So awesome.

On our last day in Mexico, we decided to head up the coast to Akumal to snorkel. We had heard it is the best place in the area to see wild Sea Turtles. Sadly for us, the water was rough thanks to rain from the day before, and we were not allowed to snorkel with the beach red-flagged. We decided to embrace the day and just lie on the beach and swim.

{Amazingly, after slathering on SPF 50 multiple times and lying in the shade almost exclusively, I managed to achieve an attractive deep red burn. This skin of mine. You'd think I'd know by now}

Later that day, we visited the Tulum ruins on the way back to our hotel. Just the Ocean view is well worth the visit to this gorgeous place.

Before we knew it, it was time to leave. We spent our last morning soaking up every possible ounce of refreshing ocean energy, in an attempt to store it somehow and bring it back with us. 

If only that were possible. 

Thank you, Tulum, for being amazing in every way. I'll be back. 

Love, 

Caitlin