Today was our most expensive day of the trip so far! We went to Akumal to go snorkeling with the turtles.
We walked to the main road where we caught a “colectivo” to Akumal. A colectivo is like a shuttle van that seats about 14 passengers and the driver. It cost $35 pesos per person ($1.90 USD for each of us) for the 30km trip. Not bad! From the road it’s about 1/2 km walk to the beach area. The car overpass on the highway is painted with some fun art.
We have been here before and it has definitely changed! It is now required that you pay for a guide and wear life jackets if you want to snorkel with the turtles. The first tour stand wanted $700 pesos per person – we kept walking. Another wanted $600 pesos. The last one wanted $550. Tobey negotiated it to $450 pesos since we had our own masks and snorkels. I hadn’t taken that much cash and all of the ATMs were out of money, so we had to charge it and they added a $45 pesos service fee! SO … $51.10 USD for a one hour snorkel trip with the guide for two people. There were only six people in our group, so that was pretty good. The goal, of course, is to protect the turtles and make sure people are not standing on the reef. We hope this helps keep the area viable for the sealife.
We did see a few turtles, stingrays, small reef fish, and one puffer fish. The guide saw a squid, but we missed it. The guide was wearing flippers, we weren’t. We were the best at keeping up with him! Tobey feels pretty good about that!
Afterwards, we talked the guide into letting us keep the life vests and return them later so we could go out again. Tobey and I went on our own and saw three more turtles – one really large one and two smaller ones. We were cautious to stay in the designated areas. 
I did not take this picture of the turtle, but it gives you an idea of what they look like grazing on the ocean floor.
We returned our life vests and went across the street for lunch. It was recommended by our guide – we figure it must be his brother’s restaurant. 
I had the shrimp tacos and Tobey had the garlic fish filet. They served chips and pico de gallo, also. Lunch with two soft drinks and tip came to $330 pesos. ($17.75USD) It was okay, but definitely not the best we have had!
There were far less people on the beach – and in the water - during our walk after lunch. 
Tobey spotted one mermaid on the beach. I think she has seen better days!
This heron was catching fish along the rocks and these pelicans were hanging out on a boat.
We did a little shopping on our way back to the colectivo stand – important stuff, you know. Coke Zero, ice cream, post card, stamp … another $88 pesos. ($4.75USD) This guy was along the sidewalk on our way back!
Another colectivo fee of $70 pesos ($3.80USD) and we were on our way back to Tulum.
As we walked back to the apartment, we went by a de-construction site. Just yesterday there was a building in that lot! That is the fastest I have seen anything done here. 
So, today we spent almost $81 USD, but had a great day! Dinner was leftovers and we are both tired tonight. A bit of reading and early to bed!
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