February 29, 2016 - Tulum, Mexico

Happy Leap Day - and a happy birthday to those of you who only get to celebrate every four years!

This was our last full day in Mexico and the weather was fantastic! We were at the beach by 11 this morning and enjoyed calm waters and lots of sunshine.

The water was warm and we had fun floating on the waves. We saw our first sailboat today! Tobey chatted with the two guys that operate the boat – one is from Italy, the other from Argentina. We didn’t take much money with us so we were out of luck for going out. I guess we will just have to come back to Tulum!

Hanging out on the beach was easy today and we sure hated calling it a day, but the bus only runs at certain times, so we headed back to town and walked back to the apartment from the Chedraui grocery store – one more time!

We went to El Camellos for dinner again tonight. Tobey had ceviche again, and I had the grilled fish. We both savored every last bite – it was delicious!! We had some music while we ate tonight, also, which made it fun.

Most everything is packed now and our taxi arranged for 10:30 in the morning to take us to the bus station. It will be good to be back in the US, but sad to leave this beautiful paradise!

February 27-28, 2016 - Tulum, Mexico

Beach days! Seems like the thing to do since our time in Tulum is quickly coming to a close and we won’t be near this beautiful beach for some time! We caught the collectivo out to the beach, walked, enjoyed the sunshine and water (a little), relaxed, then caught the bus back to town.

On Saturday we figured we walked almost 7 miles. It rained in the evening, then Tobey went to check out the carnival. I hung out reading so both had fun.

Today was fairly cloudy, but we still spent time on the sand. We are amazed at how quickly they are rebuilding La Zebra – the hotel and restaurant that burned.

We wanted to have “gringas” so we stopped on our way home for a late lunch today. Gringas are made on the grill. She puts cheese inside a flour tortilla, puts it on the grill and melts the cheese, then adds chopped, grilled meat. We added a little salsa and they were delicious. An order is 3 gringas was $35 pesos (about $2US).

Preparing the grill

Cooking the meat

They also serve tacos “al-pastor.” Al pastor is a spit-grilled meat. They weren’t ready yet because they were just marinating the meat and loading the raw pork onto the spit which they will grill. It was fun watching them prepare the meat!After lunch we continued home and I shot a few pictures of buildings and walls along our walk.



The weather forecast is for sunny and warm again tomorrow, so it looks like another beach day!

February 26, 2016 - Tulum, Mexico

It was cool and windy today, so we opted to stay in town today and not go to the beach. We stopped at a small food stand for lunch on our way to the market. Tobey had three tacos and I had a sandwich. They were okay, but not the best, but it was only $50 pesos (less than $3US) so not bad.

We ran into Joanna and her friend, Michael, further along Main Street, so we stopped to chat for almost an hour! She is renting one of the other apartments at Villa Clarita and we have enjoyed getting to know her.

After our grocery shopping we headed home. Many of the buildings in Tulum have become backdrops for beautiful art murals. This one is new in the last couple of days - the artist was still painting when we went by. This is on the building where the electrical was being worked on a couple days ago!

This picture is closer to our apartment. Much nicer than graffiti.

We pass these houses almost every day, also. Notice where they hang their laundry – on the roof!

I hope to take more pictures of the art on the buildings in the next couple of days.

Hasta mañana.

February 24–25, 2016 - Tulum, Mexico

We have had a couple of quiet days in Tulum as our time is winding down. A little beach time, RAIN, a little shopping for souvenirs for some friends, and eating some yummy tamales for dinner tonight.

My underwater camera’s seal doesn’t seem to be quite right because it fogged up after our trip to Akumal, so it is in a ziplock bag with a silica pack, hoping it will be okay.

We were surprised at the construction at La Zebra – the restaurant that burned a couple weeks ago.

Beach-side, the restaurant/kitchen area is framed and they were putting the roofing palms on.

Street-side, you can see the timbers ready to be used for palapa construction. They also had the four or five cabanas torn down which had burned and were getting things cleared and ready to put up some new construction.

Some areas of the beach get seaweed washed up and there are workers from the different hotels that rake the sand and they wheel-barrow it out everyday!

Tomorrow will be a beach day as long as the weather is sunny and lunch at Canek Restaurant.

February 23, 2016 - Akumal, Mexico

Even though it was partly cloudy and windy this morning we decided to go ahead and go to Akumal. We caught a collectivo and it dropped us off on the road to the beach. The ride from Tulum is about 25km and the cost is only $30 pesos per person (about $1.50US).

The beach was really crowded! If you don’t have your own snorkel gear, you can rent it and a guide. They put you in these huge groups with one guide to take you out and direct your “tour” – all for about $20US per person!


Fortunately, we have our own equipment, so we were able to go on our own. Most of these people have never snorkeled before and they thrash around with their fins and churn up the sand, making visibility terrible. They are also not very careful and one guy went zipping by and kicked me in the face. Tobey and I didn’t even wear fins!


We spotted about 7 turtles within about 45 minutes. They hang out in the fairly shallow waters where the grasses are.

Further out, there are some small coral formations and fish were hanging out there.

Tobey spotted one little fish that liked my tummy – he kept swimming along with me!

We hung out on the beach for a while then had a late lunch before catching the collectivo back to Tulum. It was a fun day and we are both ready for a quiet evening!

February 22, 2016 - Tulum, Mexico

We had planned to go to Akumal today, but slept in after being awake half the night with the end of Carnaval celebrations going on. It was also raining when we work up, so we opted to stay here today.

It cleared off late morning and we wanted to go have tamales at a place we saw last night. Turns out, they are not open during the day! We stopped at Antojitos Las Flores instead.
I had a huarache which was more than enough.

Tobey started with a tostado and a taco, then added a panucho. Everything was very tasty, and the four items, plus one drink was only $51 pesos (about $3 US).

We had to wait for a table when we arrived because they were so busy. They didn’t have any Coke Light, but they sent their young son down the street to the store and came back with one. Talk about good service!!

This is their tiny kitchen where the food is prepared.

On the way back we noticed a building was having new electric meters installed to change from a 1-meter system to individual meters for each tenant. We aren’t sure if they intend to put anything in front of these wires, but most buildings have the meters and wires uncovered. Can you imagine this in the US??


I hung out in the hammock reading most of the afternoon while Tobey also caught up on some of his reading. It has been raining off and on all evening, so we will see what tomorrow brings!

February 21, 2016 - Tulum, Mexico

Today was the last day of Carnaval in Tulum. After a quiet day we decided to go watch the last parade.

The parade was smaller tonight and they utilize the same floats, but many had different groups riding on them. The crowds were still large and everyone seemed to enjoy the festivities.


Parade video https://youtu.be/JwIikETBNdA

We wanted to have a crepe so we headed to the midway area. It was still fun to see the different kinds of booths that are set up in a Mexican carnival.

We watched this roulette-type of game. There are 48 pictures on two boards.
People place their one peso bet and the operator shakes a box holding 8, 6-sided die then opens the box. If you were lucky enough to place your peso on one of the pictures, you are paid 5 pesos; otherwise he keeps your bet. It was fast and furious for a while.

There were also games where you could toss a coin and if it lands on the plate floating in the bucket of water, you would win a live bunny or guinea pig.
Elotes – corn on the cob
French fries, hot dogs, churros, chips

Shrimp on a stick

Drinks – just about any combination!

We have fun looking at all the different types of food stands than we have in the US. You can get corn on the cob – but they put mayonnaise, not butter on it. Then some people add grated cheese, others a hot salsa!

We finally found our crepes stand and watched as he made our perfect crepe – then added Nutella and cajeta. Served hot and delicious for 35 pesos.

We enjoyed every bite!We got home by about 9:30, but the last night of Carnaval continued until well past 3:00 am! We are happy we got to be here for the event, but are looking forward to a quiet night on Monday!

February 20, 2016 - Tulum

Today was a repeat of yesterday – mostly!

First we went to the beach where we enjoyed the sun and walking on the beach. We see these beautiful yellow birds all over, but this one posed for us! The water was really warm today so we decided to swim. Unfortunately, a large wave slammed into me and I re-injured my leg that had the cracked tibia this summer. It really jarred it so I was walking a bit carefully the rest of the day. It should be fine by tomorrow, it was just frustrating!

We caught a taxi back to town and rested before the Carnaval activities in the evening. I had a craving for seafood, so we had dinner at El Camellos tonight and it was delicious! El Camellos, Jr. Restaurant has been open in Tulum for a long time and is a favorite with the locals, as well as tourists. They serve chips and frijoles to get you started. Tobey had a SMALL shrimp ceviche and I had garlic grilled fish and with drinks it was only $235 pesos (about $13US)!! We were both stuffed!

We sauntered our way downtown after dinner and caught tonight’s parade. Many of the floats were the same, but there were some different dancers – many of them children.




These Jester dancers were fun to watch. Jesters video: https://youtu.be/3Jo1n1w32xI

We also enjoyed seeing the Minions who played a pretty big role in the parade. The kids went crazy for them!

Again, we headed to the fairgrounds to see the entertainment. At this game, you pay for 10 of the rings and you have to land it over the duck’s entire head in order to win. We saw one guy win and it is a big deal. They pick a HUGE stuffed animal, then the game worker parades around the game showing it off to everyone else to encourage them to play.

The dance troupe performed for almost 2 hours! The first performance was a tribute to the United States and Mexico’s friendship.


The troupe had several costume changes, but because there are so many dancers, not all were in each performance. We noticed that the Mexican people embrace everyone and not all the dancers are thin as a rail – many of them are what we would call “full-bodied”, but they could sure dance!

After the professional dance troupe, the children’s groups were on stage.

We watched for a while then decided to grab some churros with cajeta for our snack. A churro is a fried-dough pastry snack. They are fried until they become crunchy, and then sprinkled with sugar. We had ours with cajeta. Cajeta is a Mexican confection of thickened syrup usually made of sweetened caramelised goat's milk. It reminds us a little of carmel, but not. The stand where we got our churros also sells French fries and hot dog chunks!

We decided to head home about 11pm after another busy day. Sunday will be a laid-back day so we can recoup!