February 8, 2016 - Tulum, Mexico

It was little cloudy and windy this morning but we decided to go to the beach anyway. By the time we got there, most of the clouds had burned off and it was warming up – YEAH!!

This beach is SO beautiful, and so easy to walk. The water was a bit cool today, so we only got our feet wet.

We were looking for a taco place that Barbara and Chris had recommended. Not sure if we found it, but we were disappointed with the food. It was okay, but not nearly as good as the tacos we had a couple days ago.

This picture is for our friend, Phil. We haven’t seen as many topless women so far on this trip, but this young lady was taking a stroll down the beach. Her scarf kept blowing, but she wasn’t shy about showing her stuff!

We caught the 3pm bus back to town and will have a quiet evening. Not sure if I will let Tobey beat me at rummy again or not …

February 7, 2016 - Tulum, Mexico

It’s SuperBowl Sunday and we are happy campers!!!!!  We were hoping to hear the game in English, as well as watch the game, but it was not to be. That’s okay – the Mexican commentators knew which team to cheer for!

We are so proud of our team – and Peyton Manning. He has so much class and always has. 24-10 – GO BRONCOS!!!

February 5, 2016 - Tulum, Mexico

Weather was overcast, windy, and cool today. The beauty of staying in one place for a month is you don’t HAVE to do anything – so we didn’t.

We spent the day reading, napping, and reading some more! This evening we went into town to have dinner at Tacos al Pastor. We each had 3 tacos and a drink and it came to $70 pesos – less than $4USD.


We picked up bananas and tomatoes for tomorrow before heading home. A movie and chilling are the order of the evening!

February 4, 2016 - Tulum beach

We headed out this morning for the collectivo to the beach. It is a pretty good haul – at least a 30 minute walk at a good clip – to the stop. We just missed the 10:30 so waited and got the 11:00 am to the beach. It is $10 pesos per person – about 55cents – to the beach.

We got out near La Zebra Hotel and walked back north on the beach almost to the Maya Tulum Hotel – 3 km! We went back the other direction then out to the street to get some lunch. We saw a group doing a photo shoot.

No product – just a pretty girl, three lawn chairs and one “palm” tree!

Barbara and Chris told us about a place that was supposed to have great tacos, but we couldn’t find it. We ended up getting shrimp and fish tacos at the hotel next to La Zebra and they were pretty good. After lunch we headed back to the water and cooled off in the water. I found an empty mat to dry out on while Tobey took one more stroll on the beach before catching a bus back into town. Time to relax before dinner.

February 3, 2016 - Tulum, Mexico

We decided to take a short trip to the grocery store this morning and Tobey spotted a couple beautiful birds shortly after our start. Not sure what they are, but will try to investigate further.

We have noticed several changes to Tulum since we were here two years ago. The biggest change is the streets all seemed to be paved which makes walking much easier – and not so dusty. The are also street name markers – something totally new.

Lots of construction is happening in town, as well. We aren’t sure what this will end up being – besides big – but we have walked past what had been an open field many times. We will have to come back to see what it ends up as.


We located the collectivo stand so we can get to the beach tomorrow, so life is good.

After the grocery store we headed back and stopped to get street tacos for lunch. We each had a taco with pollo and one with chicken fajita mix – four tacos for $52 pesos (about $2.85US). Stomachs happily satisfied we came home to relax by the pool.

February 1-2, 2016 - Costa Rica to Mexico

4:30 am wake up call for us today since our shuttle from the airport to the airport was at 5:15 this morning. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Liberia which is the only hotel we could find that offered a free-shuttle service. All the other hotels were at least $30 or more, so we figured we pay the extra for the nicer hotel. It was actually was a bit of a waste. You would think for $170 you would get hot water in the shower, but it was lukewarm, at best! The bed was the LEAST comfortable of all we slept on and it was the noisest air conditioner! Okay, I think I am done complaining!

We arrived at the airport and got checked in and through security with almost 2 hours to spare before our flight. Then, the flight was delayed – only 15 minutes, so not bad. Easy flight and getting throught customs in Miami was easy, also. Lunch at the airport before our 2:30 flight to Cancun. We had Chinese food and LOVED Tobey’s fortune!We arrived Cancun about 5pm, took an hour to clear customs and headed outside to catch the Ado bus. Lucky for us, the bus was leaving in less than 30 minutes. It was $10 US per person from Cancun to Playa del Carmen where we bought a second ticket for $3.50 US to continue on to Tulum. Again, we only had to wait about 30 minutes before continuing the journey. We arrived in Tulum  shortly after 9pm and got a taxi to the apartment.

He wasn’t sure where Villa Clarita was located, but we knew and gave him directions. He told us it would be $100 pesos (about $5US). Because it was so much closer than he thought, when we got here, he only charged us $50 pesos ($2.50). How many taxi drivers would really charge LESS than they quoted you? Pretty nice. Chris (one of the owners) met us at the gate and got us settled in our apartment then we walked back to the main street to get some dinner.

Our first choice for dinner, Tacos al Pastor, was already closed, so we ate at another small restaurant we have enjoyed before.Two tostatas, one horache, and one horchata to drink and we were “home”!!! Cost was $71 pesos – just over $4US.

Today we slept in, then walked to have breakfast since we hadn’t been to the grocery store. The new restaurant we wanted to try was closed on Tuesdays – aaarrrggg!!! We continued to MotMot bakery and had some pastry and milk before going on to Chadraui for groceries. It is about 3km one way, so we didnt’ think we could get too many supplies on this trip.

map from apartment to grocery

Lucky for us, Barbara, our landlady, arrived there just as we did and she offered us a ride home! We were able to stock up on more stuff – yeah!

Back at the apartment, we hung out by the pool and visited with Joanna – a woman that rented here 2 years ago when we did. She arrived yesterday also.

I cooked dinner tonight and we are chilling with a movie. It is so easy being here in Tulum. We have no plans for tomorrow and will see what happens!

Driving in Costa Rica - 101

Driving in Costa Rica is challenging. You may have heard that the Costa Ricans are pretty crazy and don’t follow the rules, like no passing on double yellow. That’s true. Passing on curves doesn’t seem to be a problem for most Ticos. Stopping on the highway to take selfies or even have a picnic on the dam bridge, sure it happens! Yielding at one lane bridges? Yes, they do. You will also see motorcylists wearing helmets AND reflector strips - it’s the law. Every car must also carry vest protectors in case they are in an accident. They also have to carry an emergency kit in every vehicle – and they can be stopped and inspected, so they do follow THOSE rules!

You may remember that we picked up our car on our fourth day in the country and planned to drive about 175 km to Manuel Antonio. The drive should have taken about 3 hours. We had to detour because the road out of the city, Highway 27, which connect to the Pan American Highway #1, was closed. We later learned that they close it on Sundays sometimes for no apparent reason! We ended up on this road which took us across the mountain – gravel most of the way. It ended up taking about 5 hours. Needless to say, there were no highway signs indicating we were on the correct road and we have certainly learned that Googlemaps isn’t always right.

https://goo.gl/maps/MsygN9P7E4P2

Our second big drive was from Manuel Antonio to Monteverde. We stopped at Carara National Park and had paved road until we turned off Highway 1 onto Hwy 606. Once on Highway 606, it was only 38km to Monteverde – estimated at 1 hour 8 minutes. Maybe, if you are a Tico! For us Gringos, it was much longer … closer to 2 hours!

https://goo.gl/maps/YruCWJMtLck

From Monteverde to Nuevo Arenal it is only 62 km and estimated drive time is 1 hour 42 minutes. It took us over 3 hours.

https://goo.gl/maps/2v3ZyJWZigG2

The drive from Nuevo Arenal to Tamarindo was the easiest, by far, even though it was 175 km. The slowest part of the trip was from Nuevo Arenal to Tilaran.

While paved, the road is narrow, a series of switchback curves and one lane bridges … oh and thoses dreaded potholes! Once we left Tilaran, the road had lots of construction, but was like a super highway! Google estimates 3 hours, 47 minutes and our actual drive time was probably abour 4-1/2 hours, so pretty close.

https://goo.gl/maps/Z3AkxGjyjNL2

Our drive from Tamarindo back to the airport in Liberia was an easy drive – over a road we have already driven. It’s about 65km and took less than 1-1/2 hours, depending on traffic.

https://goo.gl/maps/e4qHi2jrCJF2

Would we recommend driving in Costa Rica? It is totally do-able if you have an adventous spirit.

We rented a small, 4x4 with high clearance, and had no problems. The Costa Rican government REQUIRES that you pay for liability insurance which adds about $11 per day to the rental cost, but what can you do? It’s the law. If your credit card company offers CDW coverage, you have to have a letter stating that to present at the counter. You also have a $2000 hold put on your card during your rental. Lots of options to consider. We also discovered that when we were trying to get rental car prices, we got 3 or 4 different prices for the same company – and have them hold it if it sounds good.