Tulum, probably one of the cities you might have heard the most of is actually one of the ones I planned to skip completely. Basically, Tulum is known as a vacation destination because of its nice beaches and many parties. This is actually the case, but that results in high prices, less authenticity, and maaaaany tourists. To go to the beach you need to get an expensive taxi, rent a scooter or take a collectivo and then decide if you'd like to spend between 25 to 50€ (used for food and drinks) for a chair on the beach or find the fewer places of free beach only with your towel.
That's why the receptionist welcomed me with the words "So nice that you already spent two months in Mexico and really experienced it, so welcome now to Not-Mexico" - quite sad to be honest. But well, still I spent one day and night there to pick up Samantha again to continue our trip, so I'll share my experience about it.
Arrived at the ADO bus station which is really central, I made my way to my hostel, dropped my bags, and jumped on the next collectivo to get closer to Tulum tower to walk from there to the archeological site (Zona Arqueológica) holding the ruins that you might have already seen on some brochures or advertisements about Tulum or the Yucatán Peninsula. Collectivos drive all along the main road and have even proper bus stops along the way, where they wait, which is quite uncommon in Mexico. After getting dropped off, I walked less than ten minutes to the entrance and surprisingly found Dino in the line, who is an Italian which I met in Mérida at the airport already and made my way with him to the city there. So we walked together through the ruins, enjoyed the views from up the cliffs down into the beautiful bays, and watched plenty of iguanas climbing the stone buildings, houses and temples. We had amazing weather which made the site and the walks between palm trees even more attractive to see.
Afterwards, I walked one hour along the free beach in front of the archeological site passing Playa Las Palmas (good to reach with the scooter) and then one hour back to the city, because there was no collectivo at all running along Avenua Coba or I was to dumb to stop them. No one knows if I was the problem here.
After I checked into my hostel, Sam picked me up with her rented Vespa and took me for a short ride around the town. Afterwards, we met Dain, a friend of Samantha she knew from Albania who is traveling a lot also and operates a pretty nice YouTube channel and has an Instagram account that will make you crave for travels, so decide wisely if you wanna have a look. We went to a vegetarian restaurant, enjoyed Quesadillas and Tacos, and added some Churros at a street food place afterwards. Which also gives me the chance to ask to make my own churro. So I got the dough to put it in the machine to afterwards press it through it to form the churro.
We got a drink at Calypso which is located at a big food court that is really cozy and holds a huge stage with live music. To end the day, we rode on the Vespa all along the western beach strip for two hours, passing all the chic beach clubs and restaurants up to the entrance of the Sian Ka'an Bioreserve, which might be worth a visit if you got more time and rent a Jeep to go in there. It was interesting to see how Tulum grew in the last years and how many kilometers of beachside are now plastered with buildings to attract tourists. After this, we went to bed and after dropping the scooter in the morning, we left to go to Bacalar.
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