Day 1:

We woke up early on Friday, still in Mexico City, to prepare for our trip to Tulum (via Cancun). We packed, ate breakfast and ordered the taxi through the hotel (which we could conveniently charged to the room when we checked out). We were both happy with our interesting stay in Mexico City but were excited to see how the more rural Mexico will look like. The taxi arrived who appeared to be a buddy of the hotel staff (we are pretty sure that’s how it works there). We arrived in good time to the airport and proceeded to continue with the usual airport activities that we all so much love (especially security). Luckily nothing happened and the flight left and landed into Cancun airport without any issues.

 

Upon arrival to Cancun we were immediately hit by the humidity of the place. The airport appeared to be more spacious and modern than that of Mexico City. We collected our luggage and proceeded to the exit. We had pre-arranged a rental car with SIXT but we could not find any signs or representative from the company. It was about this time it started to rain (this rain continued nearly non-stop for the entire duration of our stay in Cancun & Tulum). We asked around about where we can find SIXT, we were told to look for a man with an orange shirt which we eventually found standing randomly in the crowd. This was about the time that Izaskun was getting angry with me as it appeared I had ordered a really bad company. We asked him about our car which we explained to us (in a very much non caring or expressive manner) that the car hire is not in the airport premises and we will need to wait 5 minutes for a shuttle to transport us. After waiting a good 15 minutes, holding our +10kg back packs and in the humid rain, Izaskun enquired about the card, the car is coming he said. Another 15 minutes pass and we move to a better location. Izaskun managed to have a chat with the guy who said that SIXT had only been operating at Cancun airport for the past 3 years or so and that they were not allowed to advertise inside the airport until one of the existing larger companies leave (eg: AVIS or HERTZ). Eventually the shuttle arrives and we get in. The shuttle roars past recklessly into traffic, the first taste of the traffic to come in the area.

 

We arrive at an open field with a fitted trailer office. I present my papers for the pre-arranged vehicle. We go over the formalities but the agent (who I might add had extremely large fingernails) then informs me that if I would like Collision Waiver Insurance I will need to pay extra. I informed him that I have already have this included in the booking, he disagrees. I show him the papers, which clearly marks yes (luckily I had printed it all out). He needs to check with head office on what has happened, which takes an extra 15 minutes. Ok, everything checks out. I pay for the GPS unit, which turned out to be a waste of time and money, that I ordered and we are shown the card. We have a white Chevy with missing bolts from the wheels, various scraps on the chassis and no fuel in the tank.

 

Finally we are ready to go, the road ahead looks daunting, as I will need to join the highway immediately and ensure I don’t get hit by one of the weaving and speeding cars. All goes well and the next mission is to find fuel. It was about this time that we discovered that the window wipers do not quiet work properly. We pull in the petrol station and fill up with $500 (Pesos) worth of petrol. The petrol is called Magna (not sure why exactly). We discover that only the driver side window wiper is not working properly so Izaskun has the good idea to simply swap wiper blades. Ok, so all is fine to continue. We drive for about an hour along the highway until Playa Del Carmen, which has a reputation as being a beautiful natural reserve and beach. We enter the gates, which appear to be private so we decide to drive around, this was the first time we see how some people live in Mexico. As we drove down the same road we noticed that it moves progressively from bad (i.e. Slums) to good (i.e. exclusive resorts and apartments) all on the same road.

 

We drive around looking to get a bite to eat and decide that we would like to settle on a supermarket. We eventually find one and decide on buying some basic such as cheese, a roast chicken, ham and bars. We were starving so we ate in the car, this was probably our mistake which I will elaborate later.

We continue the drive along the highway, it starts getting dark and the weather is not co-operating with us by providing us with a continuous of source of rain and massive ptoholes. We get lost in town for a bit, even thou there is only one main road in the town and of course the GPS is not working, but in the end we arrived and checked-in. Around 11pm Izaskun starts feeling ill, the beginning of the end for us. About an hour later she was throwing up in the toilet. About an hour after that I start throwing up. This continues throughout the night with the two of us throwing up and not being able to sleep due to a fever and of course just not feeling well. We suspect to this day that it was the chicken.

 

Day 2:

The next morning we woke up around 11am feeling awful. We didn’t want ruin our limited days in Tulum so we decided start off slow but grabbing some food from the supermarket. We move to the beach to sit down and have a mini picnic. After parking the car about 5 minutes from the beach we walk to the beach and we were already feeling exhausted. We stay at the beach for a while but head back to the hotel to rest. The rest of the day was not too eventful due to us sleeping and just trying to recover.

 

Day 3:

The next morning was Sunday where we feel a lot better, we were still not quite feeling super but we were able to walk 5 metres without feeling sick or tired. We needed to catch up on some sightseeing but it is not easy as it has not stopped raining since we arrived. We decided to drive to Chichen Itza. We ask the reception downstairs on some information about Chichen Itza they informed us that it costs $70(Pesos) to get in and should take us about 1 hour or 1 hour and 30 minutes to drive. We get ready and start the drive. There are 3 directions that we can take from Tulum so luckily it is not too difficult to figure out which road to take. We drive for about 3 hours and finally arrive (double of what we were told originally), we were surprised about a little advertising or marketing was made available along the way and when we actually arrived. As we entered we bought two ponchos from a street vendor as the rain had progressed into torrents of rain. We pay our entrance fee of $70 (Pesos), an umbrella (to protect our cameras) and walk to the entrance. The guard informs us that we are required need to buy another pass as we are not local, this got us started on how we are starting to perceive South America. Nothing seems straightforward or clear. We start thinking that things are not efficient, is it perhaps just us or there is some truth behind this. Anyways, we wait in a different line (we still to this day cannot figure out why they cannot combine the ticket purchases into one booth) and pay an extra $100 (Pesos) each. Finally we are ready to go to see the famous ruins.

 

 

We walk out into the pouring rain up the narrow dirt road that being washed away in front of us. At the end of the path is an open field with the “El Castillo” in the middle, and impressive first sight of the ruins to come. We try to take some photos but it was really hard with the constant downpour, flooded ground while trying to avoid people and hawkers.

We walk around the various ruins, which have a relatively light explanation on what each building’s purposes was. We saw an impressive courtyard with two hoops sticking out the walls, which we later found in the guidebook was the largest “Ball Game” court in the Americas. The “Ball Game” was apparently a game where a leather ball was thrown through the hoop. The losing team would be killed after the game. Different times.

After the ruins we drove home another 3 hours in the rain, but which luckily had calmed down a bit but we had almost used up our daylight quote for the day so we decided to head over to the beach to swim a little and drink some sun downers. We were impressed with some of the beachfront bungalows and small resorts only 5 metres from the water’s edge. It also roughly the time that we learnt that the reason why we have been having this non-stop rain was due to a hurricane which was on the other side of the country but still creates lots of rain everywhere in the country and a tropical storm that was hitting the Riviera Maya.

 

After a relaxing drink we headed back to the hotel to rest for an hour or so before heading into town, for it was Mexico’s Independence Day this evening and the next day was a public holiday, which meant that the locals were out in full force despite the non-stop rainfall. We ate some food at an “Italian” type restaurant which was nice but clearly aimed at tourists, the food was good and we ensured we stayed away from anything looking like it could get us sick again. After dinner we moved into town which literally across the road where a stage and some lights were set up in celebration of Independence Day. As mentioned it was still pouring so most things were very wet. We listened to some of the music and activities but did not really understand much of it, especially me. There appeared to be more talking than any music but perhaps that was just me. After standing in the rain for a while we headed home to rest for tomorrow.

 

Day 4:

 

Our last day, Monday, was probably the most luck we had with the weather or at least only for the morning. We woke up and headed to the “Gran Zenote” which is a somewhat underwater cave which is formed from water rising up from the limestone ground, which erodes the ground to form caves and other interesting shapes. We arrived and were unsure whether the place was legit as it had only a small handmade sign to indicate what the place was. We spoke to the guard, paid the entry fee and entered. The place was a bit strange at first as it just appeared to be a random field with some domestic chickens running around, we then walked further and saw it. A large hole in the ground with what looked like a little lake, we walked down and hired some snorkel equipment, $70 (Pesos) each which was a bit steep but since we are here.

 

The Zenote had a central area with two side tunnels to either side. The left side was dark and looked pretty intimidating especially as it ended with a dead end. The other side had a less dark tunnel which ended in an open area where you can sit or even walk a little. All over there were signs of life from small bats in the tunnels, turtles resting on the various trees growing from the Zenote and of course fish in the Zenote itself. This was the first time Izaskun had been snorkelling in many years, with the last time not being an enjoyable experience so it took a bit of time for her to enjoy the experience but in the end she was swimming down the darker tunnel. For those going to Tulum I would recommend swimming in a Zenote or two, they are very cool.

 

After a refreshing swim it was the perfect time to leave as it started to fill up with more people. We left to get some food, we had not eaten yet so we were starting to get a bit of an appetite again, which affected by our lovely food poisoning experience. We ate and decided to head over to Cancun, which we realised we had hardly seen. It started to rain along the way in where we arrived to Cancun central in about 2 hours drive. The 2 hours was not due to distance but due to the constant stopping for “police filters”, which I still do not get why they have them as they create traffic jams on the highways where the police do not ever seem to be looking at the cars or asking people for their papers. Another mystery.

 

The centre was not too impressive if I am honest, there were pot holes everywhere which makes it very hard to drive with the crazy driving of the locals, the hard rain and dodging huge holes in the road. It was strange that there were more potholes in the centre than out in Tulum. We were confused as Cancun has a reputation of being an exclusive and pretty American attraction but what we saw did not appear to be that at all. It turns out that there is an old and new Cancun. We were in the older part. The brief history of Cancun was that in the 1960s the government decided to start transforming it from a 100 person-fishing village into a money making tourist attraction. We drove further and saw that slightly to the right of the city was the new Cancun with the very much Americanised standards of huge buildings, large cars and restaurant chains. The roads were instantly better too. We thought it was pretty sad that it appears that the major hotels and resorts do not appear to contribute to the overall town but only towards their immediate strip, perhaps this is a weakness in government or potentially corruption has a hand here too but the difference between the two area which is only a 5 minute drive away was significant.

 

After browsing the “strip” which is actually a peninsula we stopped at a beach called “Playa Marlin” to see how the beaches were like. The beaches in Cancun, and Tulum too, are amazing. The water is warm, clean and there were no people around but it was raining. It was still nice to take a dig and walk around even with the weather. After this we started heading home arriving in Tulum in the evening. After a 2 hour drive I accidentally ran over a crab that had decided to cross the road, it was impressive how large it was. It was the first of a few crabs that we saw along the way. We stopped at a beach front restaurant which again was probably touristy but overall had excellent food. The food was a bit spicy but I suppose that is a sign of authenticity even if they tuned down the spice for us “gringos”. Thus was the end of another day in Mexico, tomorrow we were to fly out to Panama City in the early afternoon and we still needed to return the car which mean an early start, something we do not like due to our sloth like nature.

 

Day 5:

We woke up early, 6am, and started to prepare the trip ahead. We were thinking about trying to fit in the Tulum Ruins on the way but we figured we will be rushing to get to Cancun to drop off the car and get a shuttle to the airport. It was again raining but this time it was a bit windy too. After driving the 1.5 / 2 hour trip to Cancun we dropped off the car. All was fine but things do take a while in Mexico to progress. We were eventually dropped off at the airport, along the way there was a barricade of police officers and cars. I attempted, in my crude Spanish, to ask why there were so many police here today. Apparently there was a protest planned for that day and they were planning to arrive to the airport, so the police were there in force as a proactive measure. Likely we were leaving too early for them to be arriving.

 

Nothing eventful happened at the airport and we boarded the plane for the next leg of the trip, Panama City. We will keep you posted.