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Vintage Ventures - Yucatán 2018
February 2018
Journey to Tulum
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VINTAGE VENTURES: This February 2018 trip to Mexico's Yucatán was the first month-long adventure we set up on our own utilizing Airbnb and public transportation.
I write my travel journals to look back and remember our journeys. A secondary reason is to allow me to organize all my trip photos. I have thousands of photos. Organizing them into a cohesive story makes sense.
FUTURE VENTURES: We just booked our flight to Europe. We leave on August 31st. The trip will involve Germany, Spain, Turkey, Central Europe, and many other places still in the planning stage. And then there is summer. Hmm, we have plans. Stay tuned.
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Ironically, we first traveled north into a blizzard and below-zero temperatures to go south to Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. My band had a gig at the St. Croix Casino in Danbury, Wisconsin, near Lake Superior. | |
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DAY 1 – Saturday, February 3, 2018
LEAVING HOME FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY
After spending a couple of weeks organizing and packing, the big day arrived. We finished cleaning the house, lowered the thermostat, turned off the hot water heater and the water pump, packed the car, and said goodbye to Bandit, the cat. Bandit has a chip implanted in his neck that operates an electronic door. He comes and goes as he pleases. His electronic food and water dispensers are inside, and he toilets outside, somewhere. Our wonderful neighbor, Frank, looks in on him occasionally.
Ironically, our snowbird vacation starts by going way up north to the St. Croix Casino in Danbury, Wisconsin, a small town not too far from Lake Superior. We have a band gig up there. Although it was chilly with bright sunshine when we left at 1 pm, the weather deteriorated on the way. We arrived in a snowstorm and 10 degrees below zero.
The gig was a blast. The casino had its own sound system and an awesome light show, along with a sound guy to run it all. It was Super Bowl Eve, and the place was pretty crowded for such an awful night - Danburians are a hardy lot.
We ended at 12:30 and quickly packed (no sound system or lights to pack). Then it was off to our comped rooms and some sleep. Tomorrow will be a long drive to Chicago to catch our early Monday morning flight to Cancun.
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DAY 2 – Sunday, February 4, 2018
OFF TO CHICAGO
BACKGROUND: Wanda is a flight attendant for American Airlines. Through her American Airlines health insurance, Wanda can get free immunizations. After some research, she signed us up for a hepatitis shot, typhoid vaccine, and anti-malaria pills. The malaria pills require starting one pill per day, three days in advance, then all the way through our trip, and four days after the trip. Today is our second day. She is expecting hordes of mosquitos.
MORE BACKGROUND: I wanted to have some pesos for when we arrived in Mexico. The exchange rate was hovering between 18.40 to 18.80 pesos per dollar. My bank would only give me 16.89 pesos and then wanted to charge me an extra $8 service fee to boot. I only changed $100.
The best way is to charge everything on a charge card. You get the full official exchange rate with no fees that way. The problem is that not many places in Mexico take credit cards, and even if they do, the system is often down. Using a debit card at an ATM gives you the current rate, but all the fees bring you back down to around 16.80 pesos. Going to a Mexican bank or a private exchange on the streets is often the best, but you have to shop around. I have seen exchange rates vary from 16.90 to 17.70 pesos per dollar, all within a couple of blocks of each other. Of course, they can vary from day to day as the official rate fluctuates.
(SPOILER ALERT: This exchange rate information was the case in 2018. Currently, in 2023, the best way to get pesos in Mexico is to open a Charles Schwab bank account. Their ATM debit card does not charge to use ATM machines and does not charge to exchange currency. In fact, if the local ATM machine charges a user fee, Charles Schwab will reimburse you for that fee. Consequently, you get the official exchange rate and no fees.)
We were up at 7 am and on the road by 8 am. Google Maps indicated a 6 1/2 hour drive to the Quality Inn just a stone's throw from Chicago's O’Hare Airport, but that is without any potty, food, or gas stops. Our first stop was at a Kwik Trip for milk and a banana. We are supposed to take our malaria pills with dairy products and a little food.
The drive was long and boring, but the sky was clear, and the roads were plowed. It was minus 18 degrees when we started. It reached a whopping 10 above when we reached Quality Inn at 4 pm. We checked in, and Wanda drove to the American Airlines employee parking lot to drop off the car for the month that we would be away. I’m not allowed in the parking lot, so I nestled in to watch the Super Bowl. Wanda picked up some weird but delicious quinoa 'salad-thing' from Burrito Beach, a restaurant in O’Hare, and rode the hotel shuttle back.
We tried to check in for our flight online, but there was a problem with Wanda’s reservation. Somehow the passport number on her reservation was off by one number, and I wasn't on the ‘pre-check’ security list. We are registered in the Global Entry Program, allowing us to bypass the regular security lines on domestic flights and vastly speeding up customs when re-entering the US. We will have to clear this up tomorrow morning at the ticket counter.
As soon as the Eagles beat New England, we turned the lights out.
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DAY 3 – Monday, February 5, 2018
FLIGHT TO CANCUN – BUS TO TULUM
We hopped on the hotel shuttle at 5:50 am. It was a short 10-minute ride to the terminal. We went to the ticket counter first thing. The American Airlines ticket line was short, so we got all our issues straightened out quickly. The pre-check security line also went quickly. That was great because even at this early hour, the regular security line looked daunting.
The plane boarded on time but got stuck at the gate, waiting for a fuel truck to take fuel out. The plane was set up for a much longer flight when it was reassigned to this shorter flight. We had never heard of that excuse for a delay before. Still, the captain said he’d put the pedal to the metal. We arrived a minute or two ahead of schedule at 1:05 pm. They pad the schedule for just such delays.
The customs line was insanely long. It took a full hour to reach the customs booth just to get two quick stamps and be on our way. We walked out the door of terminal 3 to sunshine and 82 degrees. I immediately shed the thin jacket I had on and wished I could have gotten out of my heavy black jeans.
Finding the ADO bus stand was a cinch. It was just past the Margarita stand. We expected to take a bus to Playa del Carmen and then transfer to a bus to Tulum. To our surprise and delight, they had a bus directly to Tulum. I had read that ADO accepted US dollars. Sure enough, I paid the $29 US price for the 80-mile trip to preserve the few pesos I had. The ADO bus line is part of the 1st class express bus system. 1st class buses are all brand new huge comfortable super-buses, mostly Mercedes and Volvo. There are several 2nd class bus lines (Oriente, Mayab, Noreste, etc.) that probably get the ADO hand-me-downs.
Barbara, the Airbnb host of the room we booked in Tulum, provided us with directions from the ADO bus station in Tulum to the room at her Airbnb site. I had previously Google mapped it and checked out the route on Google Street View, so finding the Airbnb was easy. It was a 10-minute walk through the downtown.
The actual town of Tulum, called Tulum Pueblo, is rather small, maybe the size of Waupaca, Wisconsin (15,000). The Airbnb was located on a side street just off the main drag in the hippest 3-block stretch of Tulum. The Airbnb is actually 2 mini-apartments above the El Gourmet Restaurant, which Barb also runs.
Our room was spacious, clean, nicely decorated, and included a good-sized refrigerator that turned out to be handy for keeping water, drinks, and some fruits cold. The bathroom was great, with a walk-in shower. Security was assured with a set of four keys to get through two doors and an iron gate – a little like the old 'Get Smart' TV show, for those of you that are old enough to remember that show.
After organizing our stuff and ourselves, it was 6 pm. It was time to walk around and find a place to eat. Barb had lots of brochures for us. The brochures suggested a number of taco joints. The first one, on the opposite side of town, was abandoned, but two blocks away, we found it reopened in a new location. Unfortunately, by the time we found it, they just closed their gate – drat. The next place was back on the other side of town. It was more upscale, but Barb raved about it. It must have been pushing 8 pm by the time we found it, and there was a 30-minute wait for a table. That must mean the food is good, but we decided to find our own place.
When we were in Puerto Vallarta last April, we had phenomenal success with the little mom-and-pop restaurants, so we set out to find one of those. In a back corner, we found Tropic Taco. It was a colorful well-lit outdoor restaurant with just a roof over red wooden tables and chairs. We ordered a plate of 'Tacos de something-or-other'. In Tulum, tacos are served on a tiny fried corn tortilla with a ton of ingredients piled on top. Ours had shredded chicken and a bunch of other stuff that I can’t remember. What made them good were the four delicious sauces that we mixed and matched. Not being able to fold up the taco shells and dripping with awesome sauces, it was a messy affair. This is when we noticed that Mexican napkins are the tiniest thinnest pieces of napkin imaginable. It is like this everywhere. It takes about 20 napkins per bite.
Satiated, we walked around a little more and retired early. We have a big day planned for tomorrow.
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DAY 4 – Tuesday, February 6, 2018
TULUM RUINAS AND PLAYAS
Our first full day in Mexico started with a lazy morning of showering and packing a small backpack for touring ruins, snorkeling, and swimming. We felt how intense the sun was yesterday, so we gooped up with Wanda’s 70+ Neutrogena sunblock and ventured out. First, we found a bakery for Mexican sweet bread and a coffee-flavored leche (milk) to take our anti-malarial pill. So far, I have seen only one mosquito, but Wanda promises me billions.
Next, we needed to locate a colectivo stand to take a colectivo to the Tulum ruins. The actual town of Tulum Pueblo is 3 kilometers inland from the coast and about 4 kilometers from the ruins, which are on the far north end of the Tulum beaches. The transportation options are walking, taxi, or colectivo. Colectivos are a great transportation system.
Apparently, anyone with a passenger van, no matter how beat up, can get approved to run a specific route. They wait at a colectivo stand for passengers heading to their destination or somewhere along their route. As soon as the van is packed to the gills, they leave. Colectivos are ridiculously cheap, and once on the road, they are fast and efficient.
There are three different colectivo stands in Tulum, all in different areas of the town, and each one goes to a different destination:
1. TULUM BEACH COMMUNITY. This colectivo is mainly for the workers to go to and from their hotel jobs on the long stretch of the south beach dominated by these upscale hotels. These are not Miami-style high-rise hotels. They are tiny micro hotels that blend in nicely as the jungle meets the ocean. But they are swanky and expensive. If you know where to get off, you can take this colectivo within walking distance (about ¾ km) of the Playa Publico (public beach).
2. COBA RUINS. This colectivo runs 30 miles northwest of Tulum to the tiny town of Coba, where a vast former Mayan city was located.
3. PLAYA DE CARMEN. This Colectivo runs up to Playa de Carmen. The Tulum ruins, just 4 kilometers away, are on this route. This is the colectivo we needed to find. Barb left a great map of the area in our room, and sure enough, all the colectivo stands were shown, so finding it was easy.
BACKGROUND: There are 1.6 kilometers per mile. Mexico, as does most of the World, uses the metric system, which is far superior to our silly measurement system. But since I am so used to our system, I sometimes slip back and forth between kilometers and miles. Please bear with me.
We jumped in the 15-passenger van, and it quickly filled to 18 passengers. Off we went. We were let out near the ruins about 3 minutes later. The ride cost 20 pesos ($1.10 US) each. We followed a small stream of tourists to the ticket office. The admission price was 70 pesos each ($3.85 US). Being on the coast, this small Mayan city, home to some 1,600 inhabitants, was an important trading city.
The ruins show a well-laid-out city center surrounded by a wall. Apparently, the wall was more to keep out the commoners than any enemy, as the homes of the commoners were outside of the wall. The commoners’ houses were built with more perishable materials than stone, and none survived. The main building, El Castillo, is perched on a cliff overlooking the scrumptious Caribbean Sea.
|  | The Tulum Ruins revealed a well-laid-out city overlooking the ocean. | |
Above and below: A family of lazy iguanas sunning themselves. | |
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Below El Castillo is a small but beautiful beach. The day was heating up, and as soon as we completed touring the ruins, we went straight for the stairway to the beach. We have never seen such sugar white sand contrasting with the dark cliffs and boulders and the sparkling turquoise to deep blue clear water. We jumped in with little hesitation.
The waves were a good size but seemed gentler than those we experienced at Puerto Vallarta last spring. Still, we picked our waves well and could body surf to shore. The water was cool at first but felt good in the hot sun. As we quickly got used to the temperature, the water felt wonderful. Swimming in February is a treat.
| The small beach below the ruins. | The Tulum Ruins overlooking the small beach. | |
Above and below: The beach is just a small spit of white sand. | |
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The Tulum area has two northern beaches, the Tulum Ruinas Beach and Playa Publico. There are several southern beaches, but they are nearly impossible to reach due to how the hotels dominate that area. After exiting the Tulum Ruinas area, we looked for the next beach south. Following another stream of people, we stumbled onto what turned out to be Playa Publico, just what we were looking for.
Playa Publico is a world-class beach. We have now experienced several beautiful beaches. Granada’s beaches were Class A; the Spanish beaches looked terrific even though it was too cold to swim (we did see a small handful of hardy swimmers); Puerto Vallarta beaches were terrific; I remember a long time ago we swam at a beautiful beach at the British Virgin Islands and it was great with a colorful reef just off the shoreline; the beaches around San Diego (again, too cold to swim when we were there) looked good; Hawaii was excellent; and several Floridian beaches that we tried were also fun.
But Tulum’s beaches were hands down the most incredible beaches we have seen. I only wished we could have experienced the beaches at Cozumel. Tulum beaches are not just beautiful to look at, but the texture of the sand was perfect; it was super clean, the water crystal clear, and the waves packed a nice punch.
We had heard that snorkeling opportunities could be had at this beach but didn’t know where the reefs were. Not to worry, just as we stepped out from the jungle road to the white sand expanse, we were hustled by boaters that took snorkelers to the reef about 200 yards offshore.
We haggled one boater down from what turned out to be the standard price of 200 pesos ($11 US) per person to 125 pesos. My haggling technique was honestly saying I didn’t have many pesos on me, which was true, as I hadn’t changed any dollars to pesos yet. Anyway, as soon he snagged a boatload of snorkelers, we got in the boat, and off we went. First, he took us to the Tulum Ruinas to get photos of the ruins from the water. These photos turned out well.
Then we tied up at a buoy at a pre-selected section of the reef. This particular reef is the second largest in the world, second only to the Great Barrier Reef off Australia. The boat captain jumped in the water and led the group around the reef.
The reef was beautiful. We saw coral, colorful fish, an eel, and four Leatherneck turtles that hung around us, going up and down, getting air, and then diving to the bottom. Swimming with the Leathernecks – pretty nice. We have diving masks with our eyesight prescription built in. They work great. The reef lit up with color and clarity when we put our faces in the water. We also have these high-tech snorkels that don't fill up with water when you dive down, allowing us to breathe normally upon returning to the surface.
|  | Tour boats lined up, waiting for snorkelers. Notice the Mayan building in the distant background. | Taking our boat ride out to the reef to snorkel. | El Castillo is seen from the boat. | |
After that, we rented an umbrella and chairs for the rest of the afternoon (100 pesos). We swam, heated up, swam, heated up, swam, etc. I saw four women run around topless, which would have been a treat, except they were not exactly the Playboy bunny type. I say this knowing I am not a good candidate to wear a Speedo swimsuit. There were, however, plenty of cute ladies in thongs. And yes, Wanda looked as beautiful as any other woman there.
Another thing that made this beach so remarkable is that it is known as the ‘hippy beach'. It is lined with funky tiki bars and cabana and tent rentals. One place had ten 16’ square wooden platforms about a foot off the ground topped with white canvas safari tents. A communal bathroom and shower area and a little restaurant and bar were under a thatched roof. The whole place was under a jungle canopy and very eco’ish. All the rentals blended well with the jungle with tons of chaise lounge chairs and umbrellas in front of the jungle on the beach, all trying to be eco’ish with various shades of funkiness.
|  | Grass umbrellas and chairs for rent on the beach. Just look at that sugar-white sand contrasting with the turquoise and blue water. | |
Pancho Villa is one of the many cabana rentals. | |
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As the sun was getting ready to set, we walked back to Tulum Pueblo for supper. This was an easy four-kilometer walk. The ground was flat around here, and the sun’s direct heat was fading.
The road to the beach was clogged with cars, trucks, and what had to have been 1000s of little white taxicabs – Chevy Sparks seemed to be the most prevalent. The sidewalk next to the road was clogged with bicyclists all riding these rickety one-speed bikes – obviously bike rentals. As we approached Tulum Pueblo, we saw Chedraui, a large retail box store like Walmart, and filed that away for the future.
Again we went to the highly recommended (by Barbara) mom-and-pop taco stand only to find it just closing. That is odd, as most eateries don’t get going until early evening. We found another interesting taco place, Taqueria El Nero, a little down the street.
Once again, we ordered a bunch of different tacos that we had little idea what they were. Many of the stands and eateries have a large rotating pork roast, like Gyro restaurants. Some of our tacos came with meat carved from that. The three different sauces were terrific, and the napkins were of the usual pathetic variety. Satiated, we walked around a bit more and then retired.
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