Tulum: Tacos, Tortugas and Cenotes

Last Sunday I arrived in Tulum and met up with my sister, Emily, and her friend Hannah for a week of exploring the city and all it has to offer. I mostly focused on tacos, because I like to do things that make me happy. 

We spent our first day there checking out the Tulum ruins, which are the remains of the old Mayan walled city that was built about 800 years ago, when Tulum served as a trading hub for the empire. They were much larger than I expected and pretty cool, but it was also very hot and we didn’t have a guide, so after seeing the main castle and temples, the rest pretty much just looked like more old rocks. I actually thought I negotiated a deal that included a guide, skipping the line at the ruins and a boat tour afterwards, but mi espanol es no bueno and it didn’t include a guide. 

After checking out the ruins, we headed to the beach for a boat tour and snorkeling with sting rays and sea turtles, which was much cooler than expected. I’ve probably gone snorkeling like 5 times in my life and this was the first time I actually saw anything more than just small fish and coral. There were a few sea turtles that swam right up to us and we probably saw 50 sting rays, they were everywhere. Unfortunately I left my go pro in my room like an idiot, so no good tortuga photos, but we got some pictures from the surface. 

The next day we rented a car to go check out some cenotes. Cenotes are underground chambers or caves that contain fresh water and there are more of them in the Yucatan than anywhere else in the world. It has something to do with the asteroid that hit the Yucatan and killed all the dinosaurs and formed the cenotes. Doesn’t exactly seem like a fair trade, but the cenotes were really cool and the visibility in the water was incredible. We saw 4 cenotes in total, with the last 3 being cave cenotes deep underground. Unfortunately, on the 2nd to last one, they had a diving platform and I jumped in and lost both my contacts, rendering myself legally blind and ending my sightseeing for the day. 

Day 3 was spent on the beach, straight chillin. Unfortunately it is sargassum season in Tulum, meaning the ocean and beach is covered in sargassum (seaweed). On the beach clubs they have people who clean it up, but it rolls in just about as fast as they can rake it up, which is why there are not a lot of tourists in Tulum during the summer months. It had zero impact on the taste of my mezcalitas however, so we managed. 

From there, I pretty much spent the rest of the week just enjoying life in Tulum. Lots of walking, reading and tacos. I also stumbled upon a local watch party for the Mexican futbol league semifinal, which was a lot of fun. I was the only gringo in attendance and they very much appreciated how much noise I can make when a GGOOOOLLLLLLLLL is scored 😂. Overall, Tulum was a great first leg of the adventure. Stay tuned for my next post, dedicated to the tacos of Tulum.