roni
7th April 2005, 12:37 PM
This is an old one, from our trip in 2003, but maybe it will get the ball rolling on Tulum trip reports being posted here:
So, after spending Saturday through Tuesday night in Playa, we walked up to the Executive car rental place on 5th Avenue to pick up our VW Beetle. The Beetle can be explained easily. My wife owned one in college. It was the only option. Having satisfied that bit of nostalgia, I doubt that we will ever rent one again. It was a fine car, but as the owner of the AlmaLibre bookstore said ?I think most of the cars I pass are Beetles.?
So we got the car, checked it closely with the Executive car guy, drove it back to the hotel, parked in a no parking zone (assuring a gentleman there that we would be gone in cinco minutos when he asked) checked out and loaded up the car. The most interesting part of the drive was up Juarez to 307 and everything on this website about driving in Playa is true. Once we made the turn onto 307, things were clearer.
Federal highway 307 was a delight. It is new concrete two-lane south of Playa with shoulders on both sides that are the same quality as the lanes--and lanes they are. When someone approaches from behind to pass you, you pull at least half way over onto the shoulder, maintaining your speed, and it becomes three lane. This is more complex near the entrances to the big all inclusives where there are tourists riding bikes on the shoulders, waiting for the colectivo vans and where there are colectivo vans stopped to pick up tourists and workers. You also have to be vigilant to the front so you can make sure to get on the shoulder before hitting an oncoming vehicle driven by someone who just knows that you will pull over to the shoulder when you notice him coming at you in what you thought was your lane but he or she knew was really a passing lane. All in all a stress-free and fun driving experience, especially if you are used to driving in urban areas anywhere in the world.
Our first stop was Paamul, a place I had read about and wanted to see.
On to Tulum
Left Paamul and the RV park in paradise and headed south. Saw lots of names I recognized from my pre-trip research and drove right past them--Barcelo Maya, Akumal, Casa Cenote--no more stops, now I was focused on the Boca Paila beach road and Tulum. Arrived at Los Lirios a little after noon and checked in. Loved the room. I described it in response to a question from Denisea and won?t repeat it here. There are some photos of the buildings on the photo page, so enough about that.
We left Los Lirios and drove to the Pueblo Tulum, or Tulum Pueblo, however it is supposed to be written, after reading the page I had printed on restaurants there. Cruised the city a bit and stopped at La Bohemia internet cafe and restaurant. Kathy had a salad, I ordered a fish dish but they did not have it, so I settled for one of the few menu items they actually had that early afternoon, a beef something. When I arrived, it was a chicken fried steak.
It also turned out that it was a meal with a memory, giving me a short term intestinal interlude that was easily controlled later that afternoon with the appropriate medication. Back to the hotel and to the beach. Laid around in the sun--later took the first of at least twice daily l walks on the beach,except for one day. Ate at Los Lirios restaurant (Los Corales) and had happy hour there (2 for 1 from 5 to 7). Went to bed pretty early.
The next morning we laid around in the sun and took a walk up the beach to Zamas and a rock we called Pelican Rock. Walked back to the hotel along the beach. There are many small cabana places and a few larger places, ranging from very rustic to more upscale. We did not see more than 30 people or so on the beach during this walk. Granted it was not the winter high season, and I do not know how crowded it gets then.
The Tulum beaches were beautiful!! Up towards Zamas and Cabanas Copal there were some rocky segments, but it seemed that sandy parts were not far from the rocks.
Got in the car and drove north on the Boca Paila road. This is on Thursday. Stopped and had lunch at a pretty place on a little bluff. I had a good fish sandwich and Kathy had a chicken sandwich. Drove north a bit and turned around to go back to Los Lirios. Got there about an hour after lunch. Within 30 minutes of arriving Kathy had a bout of projectile vomiting and the tourist trots. What she had, it became apparent, was more than the common tourist intestinal interlude, and she suspects it was food poisoning--bad piece of chicken, I guess. While we all know that temporal sequence alone is not enough to infer causality, the eating event and the getting rid of food event seemed related.
The next 24 hours were pretty rough. Kathy felt well enough that I drove to the Stop n Go at the intersection of 307 and the Boca Paila road and bought some soda, ice, crackers and cheese and resupplied the Immodium. Kathy ran a fever and while she did not vomit anymore, she was pretty unhappy from feeling bad and because it wiped out our plans to do some cenote snorkeling. She is rarely ill, and is not the ideal patient when she does get sick.
I remembered my corpsman training from the Navy and forced fluids down her, have her ibuprofen every few hours, wiped her head, neck and shoulders with a damp cloth and by late that night the fever was gone and she felt better, though the trots did not get totally controlled until later.
Friday, feeling better, Kathy decided we could do a short trip to the ruins, and we did. got some nice photos, saw some really nice Mayan ruins (but then we have nothing to compare them to) and bought a couple of t-shirts for people back home. Given the gastronomic adventures of the previous day, we bought sandwiches at the Subway at the ruins and headed back to the hotel While it was an abbreviated visit, it was nice.
That afternoon we hung out in the room, took a walk on the beach and laid in the sun for awhile. In keeping with the language from another topic, Kathy finished bronzing her boobs, and they look nice in brown.
That evening, feeling a bit better yet, we went to Que Fresco, the restaurant at Zamas for dinner. It is at a lovely setting and the food was good. It is a popular place for a good reason. I had a lime garlic fish fillet and Kathy had seafood pasta. They have a few cabanas in a semicircle to the left of the restaurant (as one faces the sea). They looked pretty nice, but they were all occupied, so my request to see the inside of one went unfulfilled. They also have a couple of house like structures across the road from the beach that were well-hidden by vegetation. That evening we also walked around Cabanas Copal, a larger place with rustic looking grounds, and internet cafe, bar and restaurant. There is a recent trip report from someone who stayed there, and many trip reports on the web from people who stayed at Copal, and I am sure they are more complete than anything I could write about it from a five minute walkabout.
After dinner we returned to the hotel. A very tired Kathy went to sleep (a process that actually started while waiting for la cuenta at Que Fresco), and I read and started packing for our return home the next day.
Saturday morning we woke up, took one last short walk on the beach, finished packing , loaded the car and checked out. On the way back we stopped a Paamul for another cup of coffee, waved at Playa del Carmen as we drove by and made a stop at Puerto Morelos. It was 20 minutes before the AlmaLibre bookstore opened, so we walked around and looked at things. This town, at 9:45 in the morning, seemed like a small, laid back beach town just 20 minutes from the Cancun airport.
After our walk the bookstore was opened and we met Rob, who has posted here on a fairly regular basis. Visited with him for a bit and he was generous in sharing their story of moving to Mexico. Bought a couple of books, one about Yucatan wildlife (the animal variety), and a å cookbook.
Arrived at the airport and had a moment of anxiety when we drove by multiple rental car return places without seeing Executive, but then there it was, around a corner. No problems with the car turn-in, the shuttle ride to the terminal, or the check-in process. If you fly Continental, they had separate lines for the three hubs, Newark, Houston and Cleveland. After learning that than switching the Houston line (which was shorter), it was a breeze.
Had lunch at the airport, did some shopping at a duty-free shop and went to the gate, got on the plane and about 7 hours later we were back in Portland.
We will return. Our intestinal experiences led us to decide to pass up a couple of things we wanted to do, mostly because we wanted to insure that a meal memory deposit station was not too far away . One of those was snorkeling and the other was the expedition to the secret beach--although I have to say, the non-secret ones were very nice and not at all full of people last week.
So, after spending Saturday through Tuesday night in Playa, we walked up to the Executive car rental place on 5th Avenue to pick up our VW Beetle. The Beetle can be explained easily. My wife owned one in college. It was the only option. Having satisfied that bit of nostalgia, I doubt that we will ever rent one again. It was a fine car, but as the owner of the AlmaLibre bookstore said ?I think most of the cars I pass are Beetles.?
So we got the car, checked it closely with the Executive car guy, drove it back to the hotel, parked in a no parking zone (assuring a gentleman there that we would be gone in cinco minutos when he asked) checked out and loaded up the car. The most interesting part of the drive was up Juarez to 307 and everything on this website about driving in Playa is true. Once we made the turn onto 307, things were clearer.
Federal highway 307 was a delight. It is new concrete two-lane south of Playa with shoulders on both sides that are the same quality as the lanes--and lanes they are. When someone approaches from behind to pass you, you pull at least half way over onto the shoulder, maintaining your speed, and it becomes three lane. This is more complex near the entrances to the big all inclusives where there are tourists riding bikes on the shoulders, waiting for the colectivo vans and where there are colectivo vans stopped to pick up tourists and workers. You also have to be vigilant to the front so you can make sure to get on the shoulder before hitting an oncoming vehicle driven by someone who just knows that you will pull over to the shoulder when you notice him coming at you in what you thought was your lane but he or she knew was really a passing lane. All in all a stress-free and fun driving experience, especially if you are used to driving in urban areas anywhere in the world.
Our first stop was Paamul, a place I had read about and wanted to see.
On to Tulum
Left Paamul and the RV park in paradise and headed south. Saw lots of names I recognized from my pre-trip research and drove right past them--Barcelo Maya, Akumal, Casa Cenote--no more stops, now I was focused on the Boca Paila beach road and Tulum. Arrived at Los Lirios a little after noon and checked in. Loved the room. I described it in response to a question from Denisea and won?t repeat it here. There are some photos of the buildings on the photo page, so enough about that.
We left Los Lirios and drove to the Pueblo Tulum, or Tulum Pueblo, however it is supposed to be written, after reading the page I had printed on restaurants there. Cruised the city a bit and stopped at La Bohemia internet cafe and restaurant. Kathy had a salad, I ordered a fish dish but they did not have it, so I settled for one of the few menu items they actually had that early afternoon, a beef something. When I arrived, it was a chicken fried steak.
It also turned out that it was a meal with a memory, giving me a short term intestinal interlude that was easily controlled later that afternoon with the appropriate medication. Back to the hotel and to the beach. Laid around in the sun--later took the first of at least twice daily l walks on the beach,except for one day. Ate at Los Lirios restaurant (Los Corales) and had happy hour there (2 for 1 from 5 to 7). Went to bed pretty early.
The next morning we laid around in the sun and took a walk up the beach to Zamas and a rock we called Pelican Rock. Walked back to the hotel along the beach. There are many small cabana places and a few larger places, ranging from very rustic to more upscale. We did not see more than 30 people or so on the beach during this walk. Granted it was not the winter high season, and I do not know how crowded it gets then.
The Tulum beaches were beautiful!! Up towards Zamas and Cabanas Copal there were some rocky segments, but it seemed that sandy parts were not far from the rocks.
Got in the car and drove north on the Boca Paila road. This is on Thursday. Stopped and had lunch at a pretty place on a little bluff. I had a good fish sandwich and Kathy had a chicken sandwich. Drove north a bit and turned around to go back to Los Lirios. Got there about an hour after lunch. Within 30 minutes of arriving Kathy had a bout of projectile vomiting and the tourist trots. What she had, it became apparent, was more than the common tourist intestinal interlude, and she suspects it was food poisoning--bad piece of chicken, I guess. While we all know that temporal sequence alone is not enough to infer causality, the eating event and the getting rid of food event seemed related.
The next 24 hours were pretty rough. Kathy felt well enough that I drove to the Stop n Go at the intersection of 307 and the Boca Paila road and bought some soda, ice, crackers and cheese and resupplied the Immodium. Kathy ran a fever and while she did not vomit anymore, she was pretty unhappy from feeling bad and because it wiped out our plans to do some cenote snorkeling. She is rarely ill, and is not the ideal patient when she does get sick.
I remembered my corpsman training from the Navy and forced fluids down her, have her ibuprofen every few hours, wiped her head, neck and shoulders with a damp cloth and by late that night the fever was gone and she felt better, though the trots did not get totally controlled until later.
Friday, feeling better, Kathy decided we could do a short trip to the ruins, and we did. got some nice photos, saw some really nice Mayan ruins (but then we have nothing to compare them to) and bought a couple of t-shirts for people back home. Given the gastronomic adventures of the previous day, we bought sandwiches at the Subway at the ruins and headed back to the hotel While it was an abbreviated visit, it was nice.
That afternoon we hung out in the room, took a walk on the beach and laid in the sun for awhile. In keeping with the language from another topic, Kathy finished bronzing her boobs, and they look nice in brown.
That evening, feeling a bit better yet, we went to Que Fresco, the restaurant at Zamas for dinner. It is at a lovely setting and the food was good. It is a popular place for a good reason. I had a lime garlic fish fillet and Kathy had seafood pasta. They have a few cabanas in a semicircle to the left of the restaurant (as one faces the sea). They looked pretty nice, but they were all occupied, so my request to see the inside of one went unfulfilled. They also have a couple of house like structures across the road from the beach that were well-hidden by vegetation. That evening we also walked around Cabanas Copal, a larger place with rustic looking grounds, and internet cafe, bar and restaurant. There is a recent trip report from someone who stayed there, and many trip reports on the web from people who stayed at Copal, and I am sure they are more complete than anything I could write about it from a five minute walkabout.
After dinner we returned to the hotel. A very tired Kathy went to sleep (a process that actually started while waiting for la cuenta at Que Fresco), and I read and started packing for our return home the next day.
Saturday morning we woke up, took one last short walk on the beach, finished packing , loaded the car and checked out. On the way back we stopped a Paamul for another cup of coffee, waved at Playa del Carmen as we drove by and made a stop at Puerto Morelos. It was 20 minutes before the AlmaLibre bookstore opened, so we walked around and looked at things. This town, at 9:45 in the morning, seemed like a small, laid back beach town just 20 minutes from the Cancun airport.
After our walk the bookstore was opened and we met Rob, who has posted here on a fairly regular basis. Visited with him for a bit and he was generous in sharing their story of moving to Mexico. Bought a couple of books, one about Yucatan wildlife (the animal variety), and a å cookbook.
Arrived at the airport and had a moment of anxiety when we drove by multiple rental car return places without seeing Executive, but then there it was, around a corner. No problems with the car turn-in, the shuttle ride to the terminal, or the check-in process. If you fly Continental, they had separate lines for the three hubs, Newark, Houston and Cleveland. After learning that than switching the Houston line (which was shorter), it was a breeze.
Had lunch at the airport, did some shopping at a duty-free shop and went to the gate, got on the plane and about 7 hours later we were back in Portland.
We will return. Our intestinal experiences led us to decide to pass up a couple of things we wanted to do, mostly because we wanted to insure that a meal memory deposit station was not too far away . One of those was snorkeling and the other was the expedition to the secret beach--although I have to say, the non-secret ones were very nice and not at all full of people last week.