Cenote Scuba Diving - January 31, 2014

You might remember, Tobey and I went to a timeshare presentation last week. The incentive was we received two – 2-tank cenote dives as a gift for listening to their presentation. Today we got to do the dives.

“Cenotes” are huge sinkholes in the limestone where water runs through underground caves. There are thousands of these openings to the water table that dot the Yucatan Peninsula, and hundreds are located between Cancun and Tulum. Since the 1980's, hundreds of these cenotes have been explored and mapped by cave divers. Although there are so many, only a few cenotes have large enough cavern areas to provide room for cavern diving.

Diving in a cenote is similar to doing a night dive where you need flashlights, except that in some areas there are openings where the sunlight shines down into the cavern. Today was overcast, so we didn’t get to experience as much light coming in illuminating the water, but it was still really cool to see the different shades of blues reflecting in the openings. The underwater flashlights were necessary for most of the dive.

We were booked with a company called Dive Space Tulum – very small, and fairly new in the Tulum area, but we had a great experience. Our dive guide was Roxy. Our group was Roxy, one of her students, Peter, a 13-year old boy from Connecticut, and us. He is working on his Advanced Open Water dive certification! I have some “dive anxiety” – especially when it comes to something totally different – but she did a fantastic job at explaining the entire dive, keeping an eye on buoyancy, and making sure we were all comfortable.

We left the dive shop in Tulum and drove north to the KuKulKan Cenote where we geared up. The access to the cenote is through a beautiful pond at one end of the cenote.

At approximately a 30-foot depth, we entered the halocline zone – the point where salt and fresh water meet. It creates a hazy water where it is clear above, then halocline, then clear again below the halocline. The halocline causes reflections projected on the walls of the cavern. We were really lucky to dive in these cenotes, because not all of them have haloclines and it was really a unique experience! We passed through a huge cavern that surrounds the cenote. So you don’t get lost in the caverns, the routes are marked with ropes the entire way.

We did not have an underwater camera, but there are lots of cool pictures online and a video at http://www.aluxdivers.com/video-gallery/ if you want to check it out. This video gives you an idea what it is like. On our first dive, we were below an iguana near the surface that had fallen in the water and was swimming like crazy trying to find a spot to get out of the water! It was really wild to see. We saw lots of stalactites and stalagmites. In one area it almost looked like lots of bones on the bottom! Our deepest depth was about 15 meters. We passed by this sign warning divers not to continue in this direction, but to follow the route lines.

When we came up after the first dive, it was raining. Guess if it is raining, you might as well be diving! After we changed out our scuba tanks, we had a sandwich then headed to our second dive, Chac-Mool, which is located next to KuKulKan.

There are two entrances to Chac-Mool and we went in at the one called “Little Brother”. We went through the underground river and started through a relatively large first “room” that had quite a bit of light entering from the opening.

In the second room there was a dome with a large air pocket where we were able to surface inside the cave. It was pretty dark, but we could see tree roots and branches from underneath the dome that reached down into the water. There is also a halocline in this cenote. It is really hard to describe what looking through the halocline is like, but it is beautiful and eerie at the same time! The depth in Chac Mool is about 14 meters. 

The yellow lines on the maps are the routes you follow underwater.

After our second dive, the rain had stopped. We stopped for a taco lunch before heading back to Tulum. We got to the dive shop and dropped off our gear before walking back to our apartment. It was starting to sprinkle again so we walked fast – but not fast enough! Before we had gone three blocks from the dive shop, the rain intensified, so I pulled one of  our towels out of the bag to hold over our heads. It helped a little, but we had at least 10 blocks to go – and the rain came down harder and harder. We looked like drowned rats by the time we got back home!

After hot showers and spreading our stuff all over to dry, we plan to stay in tonight. I will be cooking dinner and we will probably watch a movie and hope for sunshine tomorrow!

Tulum - Shopping - January 30, 2014

One of the things I love about traveling is that we get to experience things that are different than home. I thought I would share a few things we have experienced while we have been here in Tulum.
This morning we needed to pick up some things at the supermarket and  we spotted this man with a washing machine in his bicycle cart.  Lots of people use these 3-wheeled bikes – sometimes carrying large objects like this washing machine, sometimes family members, and others use them for delivery/sales. The bread guys often have those little squeaker horns they use to get your attention as they ride through the neighborhood.  Fresh fruit cups are also a popular item sold from the carts.

The Chedraui Supermarket is a huge chain here in Mexico. Many “Norte-Americanos” shop here because they have a large variety of items and are probably most similar to home. The Chedraui is like a “super” store. It carries clothes, housewares, appliances, bikes, and has a pharmacy. There are lots of things we aren’t used to seeing, as well, like the huge varieties of chilies in the produce department. Everything is sold in kilograms, so we have to use a little different mindset in that area, too!

We are used to buying our milk from a refrigerator case at home. Here, the milk is super-pasteurized, and it is not necessary to refrigerate until it is opened. It is sold in 1-liter boxes. We found that we like the taste of the semidescremada Lala brand the best. It is $16.10 pesos ($1.20 USD) per liter. So, a quick little math lesson – 3.78 liters per gallon – currency conversion is approximately 13 pesos per dollar – one gallon of milk here cost $4.68 USD – NOT CHEAP! The price is discounted to $15.30 if you buy a case at a time – still expensive.

We are used to having our eggs in the cooled dairy case at home, as well. Not here. Most are sold in bundles of 25 – 30 eggs!

One of my favorite departments is the Panaderia – the bakery! When you get here, you pick up a large pan – similar to a pizza pan, and a pair of tongs. All of the items are out. You just go around and pick what you want,  then go to a central station and your choices are priced and bagged.

Near the bakery is the cheese station. They also have hot dogs and some sausages in this area. The workers all wear hair nets and masks over their mouths, as well as plastic gloves, so they are as concerned about health and safety as we are in the U.S.

That was our adventure today! Tomorrow, diving in cenotes.

January 29, 2014 - Tulum

It rained last night during the night – for a long time. I was sure it would be dreary today, but when we got up,the sun was out and looked like it would be a great beach day.

We stopped at the post office to mail a couple cards and made it to the colectivo stand by 10 am. The van was full by 10:15, so off we went, 15 minutes early – sorry if you arrived later! We spent time walking on the beach and swimming a bit before heading back to town. Again, today, the 1:25 return colectivo was full and passed us by, so we caught a taxi for $70 pesos.

We stopped for lunch at a place we pass almost every day when we walk into town. We split an order of ribs which were served with rice, spaghetti, salad, and tortillas and soft drinks for only $75 pesos. The ribs had a wonderful flavor, despite being small and bony.

Back home, naps, and hanging out will be the order of the evening!

January 28, 2014 - Tulum Monkey Sanctuary

We read about the Tulum Monkey Sanctuary on Tripadvisor.com and it looked pretty interesting, so after looking at the Sanctuary’s website, we made our reservation and went there today. These are a couple links about the Monkey Sanctuary. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g150813-d3726750-Reviews-Tulum_Monkey_Sanctuary-Tulum_Yucatan_Peninsula.html
http://www.tulummonkeysanctuary.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=2&lang=en

We negotiated our taxi to take us there, then return at 12:30 to come back and pick us up for $120 pesos ($9 USD). It isn’t far from town – about 6km, so it was a fair price for both of us.

The Sanctuary was started about 20 years ago as a place for rescued spider monkeys. Many people have kept them as pets then when they get older, they become aggressive and they no longer want them. The sanctuary now serves as an educational, ecological preserve, as well. In addition to the spider monkeys, they have four rescue horses, a donkey, several rescue parakeets, and rescued street dogs.

Our tour began at 9 am with history of the place, goals, and information about the spider monkeys. The cost was $45USD per person for the tour, but a good chunk of the money goes toward animal food and upkeep of the sanctuary.

 
John Cavanaugh runs the sanctuary and he gave a history of the sanctuary and information about what the future plans are. He then took us to one of the first enclosures where Mimi, a 6 year old female, and Pancho, a one-armed male spider monkey are being housed. Both Mimi and Pancho are quite enamored with John,but he brought her out of her enclosure and let us sit next to him and pet her.
What a sweet face!

John did, however, tell us that spider monkeys have razor-sharp teeth and can rip a person apart in no time, if they feel threatened. Video of Mimi, a spider monkey http://youtu.be/Q3lLIaY9b0M The sanctuary has areas with enclosures they use when the get new monkeys and are in the assessment stage of where they will fit into the groups of monkeys. The next two pictures are of the “gordos”, or fat monkeys. They got four monkeys in at one time – two fat, two skinny – from the same family. They have them in separate enclosures trying to regulate their diets to fatten up the skinny ones and reduce the weight of the gordos.


They also have a “monkey island” which is an area enclosed with a low-voltage electric fence. The goal is to release the monkeys to the island where they can be more-or-less in a “wild” setting. Most of the monkey stay within the island, but a few have figured out how to swing a couple of the tree branches so they can launch themselves over the fence and get out! Sometimes they leave the sanctuary, but they come back because they are dependent upon the food provided by the sanctuary.
The Sanctuary relies heavily upon volunteers – most come and stay between three weeks to three months. They are not paid, but given room and board and do everything from animal care to construction and tour guiding. After we spent time with John and Mimi, one of the volunteers from Great Britain, Andy, took us around other sections of the sanctuary.

There are two cenotes located in the sanctuary. A cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole resulting from the collapse of the limestone bedrock that exposes the groundwater underneath. Most of the Yucatan Peninsula is limestone and there are many cenotes throughout the region. Cenotes were sometimes used by the ancient Maya for sacrificial offerings, but they did not live near them because they were thought to be associated with the underworld. At the first cenote, he explained that at some point, people introduced tilapia into the cenotes (not indigenous) and they have migrated throughout several cenotes that are connected through the underground river system.
There was a crocodile in this cenote and it went after some of the tilapia – pretty cool!Crocodile Video http://youtu.be/oNVIwQmPaRA
There were a few turtles in the cenote, but the crocodile doesn’t go after them – not when fish and ducks are much easier prey!



 

Andy did a great job explaining some Mayan legend Chechen and Chacah - two brothers and a princess and how the Chechen and Chacah trees came to be. There is a tree called the Chechen or Black Poisonwood and the black tar-like sap can cause terrible rashes. The bark from the Chacah tree is boiled into a tea or paste and is the only know antidote to the poison. The legend tells the story of how the bitterness / fighting between the brothers over the princess caused the destruction of the world.They were both destroyed and came back as trees to help rebuild the world. The trees always grow near each other! The Chechen is in the front right of picture, the Chacah is the red tree. You can read more about the legend here: http://en.blogxelha.com/natural-wonder/mayan-love-legends-in-xel-ha-riviera-maya/

We came to a second cenote in which we could swim. It was a bit eerie swimming in it – we went into the cave-like area and there were bats flying around. Freaked me out!

The tour was over at 12:30 and our taxi was there to take us back to town. We found a little restaurant for lunch.

We had an empanada; ours had pork and veggies inside a fried dough, topped with cabbage, red onion and cheese.

We also had a salbute - a puffed deep fried tortilla that was topped with chopped cabbage, carne asada, tomato, pickled red onion, avocado, and lettuce.

Our last item was a panucho which is a refried tortilla that was smothered with refried black beans and topped with chopped lettuce, pulled chicken, tomato, pickled red onion, and avocado.

Including drinks, our lunch came to $60 pesos ($4.50 USD). Everything was really good – including a slightly spicy guacamole sauce. The guacamole here is very thin and more like a sauce than a dip that we are used to in the US.

 
We stopped to pick up fruit and veggies on the way home, then hung out by the pool before cleaning up to go to dinner.

We walked back into town and looked at menus at lots of restaurants before deciding on Restaurant Bar y Mariscos Caribbe Mexicano. We split the “happy hour” special – the fish filet served with rice, salad, mixed vegetables, and a cerveza. Neither of us drink beer, so we substituted a coke! The fish was cooked with garlic and was quite tasty. With tip, dinner came to $135 pesos ($10.25 USD).
Today was another great day! We are looking forward to seeing what adventures tomorrow will bring!

January 27, 2014 - Tulum Beach

Another beach day today! We arrived at the colectivo station about 10:25 for the 10:30 departure and there was no colectivo. There were only two people waiting … and so we waited, also. And waited … and waited! One guy hailed a taxi and left, the woman continued to wait. She decided to call a taxi after it was 15 minutes late. We asked her how far she was going and asked if we could share her taxi and split the cost, and she agreed. It got us almost to the beach road and cost $35 pesos, then we walked the rest of the way. We think that perhaps the colectivo was actually full (overflowing) early,and left ahead of the 10:30 departure time!

We walked the beach, then stopped at lunch at the OM Restaurant. We split a pizza and had soft drinks. It came to $214 pesos with tip – kind of pricey for lunch, but it was pretty good. ($16 USD) One of the things about this beach that has caught Tobey’s eye is how many of the women go topless. We had quite a show when one topless woman was learning how to ride a SUP (stand up paddle board) just beyond our restaurant.

There are several yoga spas along this beach also – and many of the classes are topless, as well! Tobey does yoga, but he didn’t think he would have fit with their groups since he doesn’t have the same “attributes”! We also passed this massage stand on our walks and I decided to have a massage on the beach today.
They charged $45 USD for an hour massage. Although Guillermo did an okay massage, when you have a really good massage therapist at home, it is never as good!

Tobey hung out on the beach while I was getting my massage, then we headed out to catch the 3pm colectivo back to town. It was full (and believe me, it has to be REALLY full for them to keep going) and did not stop! We stopped a taxi and negotiated a $70 peso ride back to the supermarket in town. We picked up some groceries and walked back to the apartment, arriving at 5 pm! We had dinner in and are planning to go to the Monkey Sanctuary tomorrow.

LATE ADDITION: Tried to post this and our internet was down. Last night there was a loud boom outside, but we didn’t think too much about it. Barbara (the owner) came and brought us candles and told us that the electricity was out in many areas of Tulum and didn’t know how long we would have power. The apartments next door and all around are dark! We never lost power, just internet until Tuesday afternoon.

Tulum, Mexico - January26, 2014

I swore that I would never attend another time share presentation in my life after our last trip to Mexico … For some reason, Tobey seems to enjoy the challenge of these things, (what they will offer, how many times you have to say no, etc.) so we went to one today. (Only this was not “timeshare”, they call it a “private vacation club.”)
The taxi driver picked us up in Tulum at 8 am and took us to Playa del Carmen and on to the first resort. Ooops, we were staying too long in Mexico to qualify for the gifts they were promising us, so they shuffled us off to a different resort down the road for their presentation. (They added a bottle of Kahlua and 2 tee shirts to the offer for our trouble.) We got checked in, were given part of the presentation, then they finally took us to the breakfast about 10:30 am. The food was delicious and our sales person was nice.  After breakfast, we were off to see the rest of the property then listen to the pricing information. OMG – talk about sticker shock! They started at $68,900 for two weeks in a 2-bedroom unit. Three hours and three manager levels later, the price was down to $10,000 for eight weeks! We told them, “no, thank you.” It was a nice  place, but not something I want to invest money in at this point of my life. They finally released us to get our “parting gifts” and a shuttle back to Tulum. We didn’t get back until 3pm!
The weather was beautiful and we needed a few groceries, so we walked to Chedraui. We ran into Nori (our apartment neighbor), as well as Barbara’s parents! Jacky and Clara offered us a ride back to the apartment with Nori, so we took them up on the offer.
We’re having a quiet evening in and plan to hit the beach tomorrow.

Akumal, Mexico - January 25, 2014

Yesterday was a chill day – we read and hung out, then walked into town for dinner. We tried a place that Nori, a woman from Japan who is staying in an apartment here at Villa Clarita told us about, El Capitan. We split the medium Caribbean style ceviche. It was full of fresh fruits, as well as the mixed seafood, and had a coconut flavored sauce. It was very good! Today, the sun was shining and looked like it was going to be a great day, so we gathered our things and headed to the colectivo stand for Akumal. According to TripAdvisor.com, snorkeling with the turtles is the #3 top rated activities to do while in Akumal! http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g499445-d1550349-Reviews-Turtle_Snorkeling_in_Akumal-Akumal_Yucatan_Peninsula.html

Akumal is known as “the Place of the Turtles” in the Mayan language. The town was officially founded in 1958 as a diving destination. It is also the habitat for the endangered green turtles. We went to the free, public beach area and found a shady spot under a palm tree to park our towels, then hit the water. There are areas roped off as a “swim area” where we spotted about 10 green turtles, a couple stingrays and some reef fish.

We have our own snorkel gear, so we could go out on our own, but there were loads of people renting gear and guides to take them out to see the turtles. It was something neither of us would have liked – being in a group of 10-20 people, wearing life jackets, and snorkeling so close together that they were stirring up the sand on the bottom. Not fun. Our way was better!!!

My camera is not waterproof, and I did not want to spend $30 US to rent a camera for 2 hours, so I took a picture of the postcard I bought! We did decide that I need to look into buying a waterproof digital camera for future trips. These are similar to the turtles we saw, however, the water was not this clear because there were so many people snorkeling.
We spent time walking on the beach, grabbed some lunch (which was much more expensive than in town Tulum!), and walking on the beach some more.

There were some very industrious sand sculpture makers on the beach. They made quite the sea creature display!As the clouds formed around 3 pm, we decided to bid farewell to the beach and catch the colectivo back to Tulum. It was $60 pesos per person ($4.50 USD) for the 30km trip (each way) – VERY reasonable!

Another good day in paradise!

January 23, 2014 - Tulum Ruins

The Tulum ruins are set on a 12-meter tall cliff, along the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula on the Caribbean Sea. It was one of the last cities inhabited and built by the Mayas. It was at its height between the 13th and 15th centuries and managed to survive about 70 years after the Spanish began occupying Mexico. Old World diseases brought by the Spanish settlers appear to have been the demise of the city.

Today was overcast and threatening rain, but we decided to go to the ruins anyway. We took a colectivo to the ruins stop, then walked the last half mile. The ride to the ruins cost $20 pesos each (about $1.50 USD).

There was another couple looking to split the cost of a guide so we decided to do that. Admission and a guide for one hour was $398 pesos for the two of us (just under $30 USD). To tour the ruins without a guide is $59 pesos each, but we felt it was worth it to get the history of the area.

As we entered the archaeological site, we immediately saw these two iguanas.
The Maya site is also known by the name Zama, meaning City of Dawn, because it faces the sunrise.
From numerous depictions in murals and other works around the site, Tulum appears to have been an important site for the worship of the Diving or Descending god. If you look closely at the building below, you can see the Descending god in the center of the building.
At its height, Tulum had an estimated population of 1,000 to 1,600 inhabitants. The small window above is where the sun shines through on the winter solstice.
Tulum had access to both land and sea trade routes, making it an important trade hub, especially for obsidian. El Castillo - The Castle - is the tallest building of the archaeological site. It may have functioned as a navigational aid, directing Mayan craft through the break in the reef to the beach. Tulúm is also the Yucatan Mayan word for fence, wall or trench. There is some controversy whether the walls surrounding the site allowed the Tulum fort to be defended against invasions or whether they were to just separate the upper class who resided within the walls from the workers and farmers who lived outside the walls.

Toward the end of the tour and we neared the overlook to the sea, it started to sprinkle and the wind picked up. Had the weather been nicer, we had the option to get in the water and swim just beneath the ruins. We decided we didn’t need to!After our tour of the ruins, we looked around at some of the market stalls on our way back to the colectivo. I love the beautiful colors and artistry in the weavings and dresses!


We stopped for milk and fruit on our way back home and had a late lunch at the apartment. We plan to cook in tonight and just hang out.