Tulum

We arrived in Tulum bright and early at 7 this morning, having slept a little on the bus on the way. We were offered accommodation immediately that we stepped out of the bus station, and we accepted, sharing a cab with to other english folk that we'd met during the various military searches of our bus the previous night. The other two weren't too impressed with the sand-floored huts of Papaya Playa, and soon set off in search of another place to stay, but we persisted, and even managed to bag a hut with a real floor. Who cares if there's only electricity between sunset and 11 at night?

We had even arrived early enough to book ourselves on to a tour of the nearby biosphere, Sian'Kan. This is essentially a huge nature reserve, where nothing that will harm or change the environment is allowed. The local population are allowed to stay, obviously, and there's a small fishing village at the far end, but there are parts that it's difficult even to get permission to enter. With this booked for one thirty, we soon settled in to the hammocks, or swinging beds, and spent the first half of the day recovering from our pretty sleep free night.

At half one we boarded a minibus with other tourists, and headed off towards the biosphere reserve. After a quick cool off snorkeling in a cenote (a pool caused by limestone erosion and collapse), we were off to the lodge. The lodge was fantastic, with everything you could want, and views all around, but somehow completely unobtrusive, and not seeming at all out of place. After a slight delay, which was spent perfectly pleasurably chatting to all the other day-trippers, we were off, to a little jetty with two very fast-looking motor boats. The two captains were father and son, and both had the same name. Very confusing.

We set off at break-neck speed through the swamps and lakes, and saw some amazing things, from crocodiles to the deep blue sea at the mouth of this half freshwater half seawater ecosystem. After skimming around for a while on the boats, and being told a few interesting things about the wildlife, we arrived at a small temple. It wasn't on the scale we were used to, but it was still quite pretty, and more so since you could still see the carvings of crocodiles (it was a temple to the crocodile gods) on the front. Then was what was by far the best bit of the trip. We donned life-jackets and floated down the stream to where the boats were waiting. Floating on the gentle current through this clear blue water was one of the most relaxing experiences of my life. Everyone was sad when it ended after about twenty minutes.

When we arrived back at the lodge, dinner was ready for us (this was by far the most luxurious and touristy thing we have done) and we decided, along with a Swiss film maker and his woman. We all agreed that sitting inside, downstairs was something that could quite easily be done back in Europe, and that wasn't why we were here in this amazing environment at sunset. Good company, good views, and decent food made for a pleasant evening, and we finally arrived back at our hut at about eight. After sitting and chatting with some pretty friendly people in the bar for about an hour, we retired for an early bath. At about one in the morning Nicky scared the hell out of both of us by sneaking around the cabin and undoing my mosquito-net, which in turn caused me to grab him fairly sharply and yell “Who the hell is that?”. It turns out he was sleepwalking after dreaming about being in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Liability.

Related posts:

1. Tulum – Chitchen Itza
2. In Transit
3. Oaxaca — ? : ? km
4. Almost Famous
5. Oaxaca – Veracruz : Dodge Dynasty Delight