Reflections on Tulum

Today was my last day in Tulum. So I think it's appropriate to reflect upon it...

I'm very glad I went there. Mostly, it was super nice to spend time with B2, and to meet their friends Marc and Danielle.  It was also very nice to stay at B2's pretty condo, and enjoy the pool and greenery of the common area.  Did I say "thank you", Brindle???  Maybe a few times!  :)

Sadly, there are some "history & politics" between the condo owners and association that are threatening B2's enjoyment of their condo, which they've rented for a few months.  Lets all send them good karma so it gets resolved!!!

In Tulum several things caught my attention.
Many of the houses are very basic, and sometimes just run down shacks.  But every time I went by one of these shacks, I heard kids laughing, once with a man seeming to have fun with them. Can people be happy in conditions like that?

The town is small, about 10 streets "deep" and 3 km long.  It's mostly surrounded by a "green belt".  But in much of the green belt, there are even more run down/basic tent/shack-like structures.  And signs that tell the government to basically back off/not interfere.  It seems that many of these temporary??? homes belong to people who've come from various parts of Mexico to work on construction.  The town is only about 16 years old.  But growing very very fast.  I kept thinking, how do they bathe?  Go the bathroom?  What about bugs?

There are public announcements painted on many walls in town that promote morality, civic duties, and good health practices.  I think that's pretty cool!

Pictures
1) What fun Christmas decorations!!
2) Trees make great vertical topes (speed bumps)!
3) One of the town shacks.  Most don't have pretty paint like this one.
4) One of the fanciest jungle "houses".  I didn't want to take too many pictures.  These people are not tourist attractions...
5) A public education mural




  

Shopping with the girls in Playa Del Carmen

Today, I embraced my inner "girl" and spent the afternoon shopping with other "girls" in Playa Del Carmen.

Playa del Carmen is a 45 minute drive from Tulum.  It's where I'll be catching a ferry tomorrow to go to Cozumel.  It's also very popular with tourists because it has great beaches, lots of hotels, and the 5th avenue, an increasingly long (it grows every year) pedestrian shopping mall.

I went to Playa with Brindle and her friend Margo.  Margo is very interesting.  She moved to Tulum from the USA to stay and work for a short while.  Ten years later, she's still here, working as a massage therapist.  Sometimes for rock stars who come to perform at resorts here.  Wow!!!

We spent most of our time at a wholesale /store in Playa that supplies merchandise to two fancy imported /Indian goods stores on the 5th Avenue.  The atmosphere was dim and didn't show off the merchandise at all, but the prices were very good!  We also went to the fancy imported goods store itself.  It was amazing how different everything looked with nice displays and lighting! 

We had lunch at a very interesting little taco stand in the non-touristy part of town.  The meat choices for the tacos were on in a grill behind glass so we could see our options.  Thank goodness for "sign language"!  All the meat was pork.  But when we asked the waitress about the cuts, she clearly showed us that some of it was "leg" and some was "tripe" - stomach I think.  I'm sure it would have been good, in it's own way, and a neat cultural experience.  But I wasn't quite ready to be that adventurous with food, so soon after my Aguachiles issue....

Photos
1) The warehouse / store
2) A cute buggy, just made for pictures, in front of a store on 5th avenue in Playa del Carmen
3 and 4)  The girls and the taco stand
5) A "taxi" in a small town between Tulum and Playa del Carmen

Coco y nopal from the backyard

I stayed at B2 all day today, mostly recovering from yesterday.  But I still had a couple of cool experiences!

B2's neighbour, Al, is all about eating produce from his tropical back yard.  Given that he shares his backyard with B2,he shared some of his harvest and knowledge with us.

Cactus was the first item on the menu.  Al was cutting some to fry with scrambled eggs.  When I asked, he told me it's best to use the young and tender leaves and showed me how to cut off the spines, which are soft and cute on the young leaves. He also said you can just chop up cactus and add it to a salad.  I've had marinated cactus before. But today, I ate a chunk pretty much straight from the plant!  It tastes "green". 

The Al got busy harvesting coconuts.  He told us that a young coconut contains mostly water, which converts to the white meat that lines the inside of the nut.  And that the gelly like "meat" is young meat that will harden with time. Wikipedia told me that coconuts take about one year to fully ripen.  Who knew?!!!  Wikipedia also says that the hardened white meat is called "copra", and you can extract coconut oil from that.

Photos
1) Some of the coconuts we harvested
2) A young cactus leaf
3) Boxx, he's such a cutie!!!
4) A VW Beetle that's been converted to a sugar can press.  Look carefully at the tires.  It hasn't moved in a while....
 

Aguachiles, revisited.....

Today started off wonderfully, but is ending a little less fun than yesterday.

When I woke up this morning, I was so happy to be at B2's I had lots of energy!  I went to my "old" accommodation to get a few things and let Ahmed, my host, know I likely wouldn't be around much for the next few days.  I ran errands then went back to B2s to enjoy the pool and lovely courtyard.

It was a great afternoon!  I swam, knit, and chatted with Brindle.  The only yucky part to the day, so far, was that Bob was ill.  He had food poisoning and had been up all night doing the food poisoning dance.

The Brindle got ill.  Then me.....
We think we figured it out.  Bob, Brindle and I ate the same type of fish taco yesterday.  Bob ate 3 of them.  Brindle and I only ate 1 each.  Which makes sense given that Bob has the worst symptoms.  Thanks Aguachiles restaurant!  You sucked some of the fun out of today.  But it makes a good story!

Pictures:
1) Baron, the 3rd B in B3
2) The swimming pool, lovely!
3 and 4) The taco stand and tacos I had on Jan 2.  Yum!!  And no need for lingering in the washroom....

Happy Birthday to me!

Yesterday was my birthday!  I'm very happy to say it was a lovely day, and I got several great gifts!

I began my day with a walk and sitting in a park to eat my breakfast. The park was nice because it was green, and cool, and quiet.  It was also nice because there was a cute little girl playing there who came to chat with me.  Too cute!

Then off to hang out with B2 and their guests, Marc and Danielle.  It was a really nice day!  We went to lunch, hung out by the pool, ate roasted chicken for dinner, and had a beautiful "tres leche" (three milk) birthday cake!  I might also have drank a couple of glasses of a wonderful tamarindo liqueur!

But two of the best parts of my birthday were receiving "Happy Birthday" emails from friends / family, and.....being invited to stay at B2 for the rest of my time in Tulum!!!  It's a very pretty place with a swimming pool!   Thank you!!!!

 Pictures
1) Walter the rabbit, greeted me 1st thing in the morning!
2) The park
3) A man playing bottles at the restaurant where we had lunch, Aguachiles
4) Marc, Brindle, Danielle, and Bob
5) My tres leches birthday cake!

My Tulum Home

I usually strive to write positive happy things.  Why focus on the bad?  But my accommodation in Tulum is charming and not so charming.

The photos of the place on the Air B&B site were promising.  The little studio has a "vaulted"  ceiling, lots of windows, fun colours, and a cute courtyard.  To my delight, it also has two screen doors that are providing me with a nice cross breeze as I write this post.  All these things are real and lovely.  Yay! 

One of the reviewers mentioned that a nice dog and rabbit live here.  They do.  And more!  I've met Walter the rabbit, Nube and Doce the cats, and Machete and Spok the dogs. Spok is definitely my favourite.  He wants to be my friend.  He shows up at my door regularly and comes to me when I'm outside.  But he's only 6 months old and nervous.  So he only lets me pet him when my hosts, Ahmed and his daughter Naomi, are around.  

The problems with this place are in the details.  It feels run down.  The paint is peeling, only one of the two taps in the kitchen works, the water pump thingy falls off when I use it, the hot plate is on a rickety stand, and the dishes are very few and a mish mash of stuff.  One of the 3 cups looks like it made it through WWII!   It was fun to see a gecko in my kitchenette.  But not so fun to see two bugs that look like roaches.....

Photos
1) Spock!
2) My little front courtyard, the front of my house and Spock!
3) My "bedroom"
4) My backyard
5) My kitchen

Tulum ruins in the distance

Tulum is a small town about 130 km south of Cancun.  It's most well known for it's Mayan ruins, which are perched on a hill facing the Caribbean sea.

Tulum is where I'm going to spend the first 7 days of my 2017 Mexican adventure.   I chose here mostly because some friends, Brindle and Bob (B2) are staying here.  But also, I wanted to explore a different part of Mexico.

Today, I ventured to the beach with B2.  The beach is about a 4 km bike ride from town.  Partly on a main road with a good bike path, partly on a small road, which is parallel to the beach but separated from the beach by trees and shrubs. 

The beach is beautiful!  and very long.  Brindle and I walked far enough to see the Tulum Mayan ruins in the distance.  This was especially interesting because I was on that stretch of beach about 30 years ago.  I was there, camping for one night, with a friend and a dive master from Cozumel.  It was kind of magic.  I hadn't traveled much before or seen many things.  We lounged in a hamac with the full moon and Mayan ruins in the distance, alone on the beach that had yet to be "discovered" by tourists. 

We left the beach at about 5 pm.  So did many other tourists.  It was a fun traffic jam on the bike path back.  A parade of beach cruiser bikes of every kind!

Photos:
1) The Tulum ruins in the distance.  It's crazy think that 30 years ago, this beach was deserted.
2) A fun sand castle on the beach!
3) De-icing our plane.  Who knew it was such a manual type of job?
4) The first de-icing fluid was white/clear.  The second one was like green Ghost Buster slime!!!!