Mexico - Tulum - We´ll steal your heart and liver!

Alright, now for those of you who know me, you´re well aware that it´s somewhat difficult for me to lie around on a beach for a whole week straight. Partly because of the health hazards I´m vulnerable to such as sunburns and heat exhaustion, but partly due to boredom as well. Thus far, I´ve managed to pull a couple of beach days in a row, thanks to oodles of sunscreen, a hat-long sleeved shirt-skirt outfit, plenty of snacks and water and the occasional shade break or swim.

To break up the monotony of our remaining five days in Playa del Carmen, we decided to have a look around Tulum, a nearby ruins site with some snorkeling and other activities. Armando took the day to spend some time with family friends from Venezuela in Xel-ha, but cheap misers that Carly, Mick and I are, we opted for the under 20 dollars option and hopped into a colectivo (shuttle van) to Tulum.

The ruins were of course quite similar to Chichen Itza but far smaller, and while it was a bit repetitive, the site was more accessible, had fewer tourists and was on one of the prettiest stretches of beach coastline I´ve seen. About twenty minutes into our wander around the ruins site, we unanimously agreed on moving on to find the beach we could see from one of the cliffs on the site. There was a nice little bit of beach to swim right at the ruins, but it was full of people so we went for the more adventurous choice of wandering down the road and hoping to stumble across the beach in the distance.

One mystery road later, we walked onto the perfect beach for us. Far wider, less crowded and with better swimming than Playa del Carmen. Mick even managed to find the 2 other Australians in this neck of the woods to play beach cricket. While Carly and I were invited to join in, memories of my atrocious skills at softball came back to haunt me. The coach of my team when I was a kid consistently placed me in right field where I could do the least damage, being unable to really catch or throw the ball. Did I mention that coach was my own father? That should give you a frame of reference as to how bad I am. I opted to swim all day instead.



In fact the beach there was so nice we went again the next day! We never even bothered with any activities because the beach was so nice. Like the sign for the sidewalk bar in Tulum said: we´ll steal your heart and liver!




Funny side story about food: we´ve been rocking the street meat cafes for dinner because they´re super cheap (10 pesos for a mini taco and 3 of them will fill you for the night) but the night before last we decided to change it up and went to an actual restaurant that had come recommended by a few people. We order the special - a massive platter of beef, chicken, pork, and veggies on a mini pot of embers with cheese, guacamole, salsa and all other types of toppings imaginable. We were pretty hungry so we dove right in. In the time it took Carly to have one bite and Mick and I to wolf down two tacos, we came to the all-too-late realization that they had amped up the spice on something. Now, I´m no wuss about spices... I´m not saying I´d chow down on a jalapeno or anything but I can usually manage a fair amount of heat in my food. This was HOT. Mick´s face swelled up like a tomato and he and Carly had some serious watery eyes going on. I felt like someone was holding a torch to my lips.

The best part was that none of us was sure which part of dinner was the source. Was it the rice? The salsa? So they used me as a guinea pig to sort it out. My amazing detective skills determined that it was one of the meats, so from that point out, we had to cautiously select what made it into the tacos. Pretty sure that´s a game the staff there like to play on all the tourists - we got more than a few stares and cackles of laughter from neighbouring tables. Whatever - it was delicious and I´d probably eat it again. But with a big side of yogourt.

I´ve got two days to go in Playa more or less - Armando leaves today and Mick and I fly to Mexico city to stay with him tomorrow. Carly flies out on Tuesday back to Ottawa to work on that law degree of hers - she´ll be missed for sure. I tried to sell her on staying on for longer with promises that we could follow DJ Marvin, Latin America´s self-proclaimed greatest hip hop DJ, on his tour around the Yucatan peninsula (we´re huge fans), but apparently school is kind of a big deal. Alas.