I forgot to mention one funny thing about yesterday. When our plane landed in L.A., I phoned the kids to let them know we had landed safely in LA and to see how they were doing. Jorden asks, “So, you’re in L.A.?” “Yup.” I answered. Then he says, “Sooo, did you see any hobos?” I don’t know where that came from, but I had a good laugh. Also, before we left we asked the kids what they wanted us to bring them back from Mexico. Both of them said “Babe’s Noodle Bar.” We then got it down to a coconut head for Jorden and a coconut purse for Kelsey. Well, I tried to phone them again when we were having dinner at Babe’s Noodle bar, just to rub it in a little. But I couldn’t remember how to dial home. When I was talking to Jez at the Beer Bucket a little later, he showed me how to dial and I was able to talk to them from the Beer Bucket. One of Jorden’s first questions was, “so are there any new bars in town?” Man, that kid cracks me up!!
So on day two we woke up early, and packed everything up to head to Tulum. On the way to the car I ran over to Bloody Chica’s to drop off the cookies for Robert. I hadn’t told him that I also had a roll of chocolate hob-nobs for him, figured I’d surprise him. I told the gentlemen working there that I was leaving them for English Robert and could he please put them in the fridge. He said no problem.
We drove over to Bip Bip for breakfast. This was always our favorite breakfast place when we were ‘living’ in Playa, and it was great to be back sitting out in the open and enjoying breakfast there again. I felt a pang of regret for the kids, though, as they loved the place too and I guess I felt like it would have been nice to be sitting there reminiscing about it with them.
I had pancakes, coffee and fresh squeezed OJ all for 40 pesos. I was drooling over the OJ, that is always a favorite for me. Nothing like OJ made fresh each morning from oranges that are fresh off the tree. Mmmmmmmmmm.
We decided to do our playa.info stop now, even thought it was a bit early. I figured one of the crew must be awake though, given the fact that a young little Elsa would most definitely be up. So we drove by James’ and Anna’s place to deliver some gifts and pay for our Fat Cat trip. Anna came to the door asking us to excuse her as she was out late the night before…well, I’d like to look HALF that beautiful when I have a hangover. Damn, I’d like to look half that beautiful even on a GOOD day!
Elsa has grown so much since we saw her last, when she was just a baby. She is absolutely beautiful and stunning with her white hair and big blue eyes. She is going to be a remarkable little girl and not just beautiful…she is already learning 3 languages!
I gave Anna her treats from us, some things I had heard her mention on the forum: lingonberry jam, salty licorice, Swedish chocolate and even some Swedish biscuits I found. I loved that she was so happy to receive them. We also left two bags of chocolate chips with her for Heather.
We paid her for the Cat, and then after a short visit left her to recouperate some more. We headed off on the highway for Tulum. Ya’ gotta love how they transport people around here:
Looks like cows off to slaughter.
As we got into Tulum and headed towards the beach hotel zone, we decided to go to the right and just see if we could get into Cabanas Tulum for tonight as well. I had made reservations with them via email for the next two nights for two rooms for when John’s brother and sister-in-law were in town which would be tomorrow. That was very easy, and didn’t even require a deposit at the time I booked it.
As we went right, we immediately noticed how the road was newly paved. It was very nicely done, and was paved for a long way, in fact all the way to our hotel and beyond.
As we drove along we watched for signs for a few different places that I was going to take a look at for some people from the tulum.info board who had asked me to take a look for them. The first we happened upon was Tita Tulum. John pulled in and I jumped out to take some photos. It looked like a very nice place.
The next place was Tierra del Sol cabanas, which was also very nice. I don’t think you can go wrong with either of these places.
I was also going to look at Coqui Coqui for someone, but we couldn’t see a way to get in. The sign was there on a gate, but the gate was locked shut. I also was supposed to look for La Zebra, but never ended up noticing where it was.
Finally we went to Cabanas Tulum, which from first impressions looked quite nice. We went in and admired the main building area which consisted of a restaurant, and a pool table and ping-pong table. There was also a book library where you could grab or leave a book.
I confirmed our reservations for tomorrow and the next day, and the manager Carlos assured me they were there. Wow! I was impressed I guess, because I hadn’t had to put a deposit down and yet the reservations were still kept. He even had my email printed out. We asked about availability for tonight, and he informed us he did have a room but it was not the same as the one we had for tomorrow. That wasn’t a problem for us, so we took the room. Rooms here were $60 US during high season, $40 US during low. We booked the room with him, and he told us not to worry about paying until later, or until we checked out. I was impressed with his trust of us.
John had to use the washroom, so while he did that I went outside to take some photos of the hibiscus flowers and bourganvilla which I love so much. My grandmother used to grow hibiscus in her house, and I always loved it. Now whenever I see these flowers growing so rampant I always think of her!
John came out and we got back into the rental car to take a drive down the Boca Paila road into Sian Ka’an.
We were amazed at how far the road was paved! It made for easy and quick going of the road, and I’m sure has shaved off a large amount of time from the drive to Punta Allen. As we entered the biosphere, we saw a huge convoy of Jeeps, must have been a tour of some sort. We drove for quite a ways until we happened upon the bridge. Last time we never made it this far. We crossed the bridge and then the road immediately became very bumpy. Lots of potholes made for very slowgoing, and we decided not to go any further as we wanted to spend some time on the beach. I got out to take a few photos of the new bridge next to the old one.
As I finished up, the Jeep convoy came through:
We turned and headed back and found the little driveway leading to the beach access where we went last time. This beach was just as beautiful as before, completely barren and private. With no one around there was definitely no need for this:
We walked down the beach a little ways to see the house we had saw last time. It was a beautiful little home right on the beach, all windows on the front. Last time there was a family living there, with badminton nets up, toys everywhere, and kids laughing and playing. This time as we approached it we got very sad…it was obviously destroyed by the hurricane.
It was sad because it was so full of life the last time we saw it, and now it was just a broken down husk.
John decided it was time for a photo shoot and took some photos of me in the surf. He seemed to quite enjoy being the paparazzi for a half naked lady in the Caribbean Sea. And it was different for me to not be behind the camera!
Then it was my turn to get one of John:
After some more fun (tee hee) we decided to head back to our hotel and check in. We got our keys and headed to our room. It was better than I imagined! Cabanas Tulum is kind of like a motel on the beach. All the rooms face the sea. There is no A/C, but it is not necessary as there are huge double windows that swing open to let the ocean breeze in. They are screened to keep out the mosquitos. The hotel has electricity for a short period in the morning, and from 7-11 at night which was perfect.
The rooms were nice and clean, and had a porch out front. You could rent a hammock for your porch for 40 pesos. And that view! Fantastic!
We got changed and headed out front of our room to plant ourselves in some loungers. We just soaked up the sun and chatted for a few hours. Then we decided to go for a walk down the beach. The beach in this area is just spectacular. Here’s some photos:
We noticed a few cabana hotels that had obvious hurricane damage and weren’t open yet or perhaps wouldn’t be again. We saw some neat rudimentary huts on the beach that I think would be a great experience to stay in.
I spotted a few more opportunities for some photographs, and stopped to snap. John just loves standing around waiting for me while I snap photographs!
We walked back to the hotel, and decided to drive down to El Paraiso for some lunch. We had plans to meet BonnyW and MikeW for dinner this night at Zamas, so we decided to have just something light for lunch. We ordered some shrimp and some guac, but neither was very good. We’ve always really loved the beach here at El Paraiso, but I think I liked the beach at Cabanas Tulum even better.
We hung out for awhile, and then returned to our hotel. We hung out on the porch reading for awhile until it was time to shower up for dinner. We met Bonny and Mike at Zamas, which is really neat place to eat at night. The ambiance was great, sitting outside, feet in the sand, right on the water, by candlelight.
Dinner was great, but the best was Bonny’s fish for sure. It kind of scared us though, with it’s vampire teeth still intact! I had a bite, and it was fabulous.
We didn’t hang out as long as we would have liked with them as we both were feeling really tired. We had been up over 24 hours on our travel day, and then last night didn’t sleep much at all at Mom’s Hotel. So we said goodbyes for now, and went back to our hotel. We went to bed early, lying there and listening to the loud pounding of the waves on the beach through our wide open window, feeling the breeze and smelling the salt air. It was truly mesmerizing and romantic!
Tomorrow would be a visit to the hurricane zone – Cancun.
Day 3
I woke up early the next morning, and opened my eyes to see the sun rising out the window. It was magnificently beautiful. I’m usually a slow waker, lounging around in bed awhile, but I jumped up real quick to snap some photos of the sunrise.
Since we were already up, we decided to head to Paamul for breakfast and to say hello to my sistah from another mistah Susie. We packed everything up from our room since we’d be moving rooms today, and went and paid for last night. He told us again not to worry about paying for the next two nights right now. We headed out, and arrived in Paamul at the ripe early time of about 8am. Wake up, Susie! Well, really she was already awake, but complaining about her lack of grooming at this early hour. We thought she looked beautiful as always.
Big hugs were exchanged all round, and I’ll admit I was a little teary-eyed to see her again. We had bonded well when we were ‘living’ there, and I had missed her. We admired her new kitchen and bathroom, and she showed us her other palapa under construction. She then joined us for breakfast at the Paamul restaurant. We had Mexican eggs which were absolutely DIVINE. We chatted for awhile with Susie (gave her the sugar-free jam we had brought her) and then had to say goodbye for now as we wanted to get to Cancun to do some shopping and beaching before having to pick up John’s brother and his wife from the airport at 4pm.
We headed to Cancun and decided to do stop at Walmart in Playa first. We needed some sunscreen, and some beer and a Styrofoam cooler. I also wanted to empty one of my flash cards out to make room for more pictures. We managed to do everything and bought a shirt for John. Then we headed to Market 28 in Cancun. We got lost along the way, driving through Cancun, but with a few directions along the way we made it to the Market finally. John actually stopped for directions for a change, I think it has something to do with the Mexican driving and wanting to spend as little time as possible on the roads.
We shopped a bunch at the market, and found some really great deals, much better deals than we had seen in Playa a few days ago, or in Tulum. We picked up a coconut head for Jorden (one with a Mohawk!) and a coconut purse for Kelsey, along with other assorted souveniers, such as beaded necklaces and ankle bracelets.
I loved all the colours in these linens, but they wouldn’t go with the browns of my décor back home:
I saw all the pigeons in the square, and reminisced about the kids running through them last year. I felt a pang of guilt again, and missed the kids! (that never happened when I was lying peacefully on the beach during the trip, though!)
I asked this girl if I could take her picture, and gave her 20 pesos afterwards for letting me.
I then got another of her and some other Chiapan ladies resting from selling their wares:
We decided to take a drive into the Hotel Zone and view the damage from the hurricane, and stop at Playa Delphines to lounge for awhile.
The destruction in the Hotel Zone was unbelievable. Hotel after hotel after hotel with no windows, construction….there weren’t many who were up and running. It was quite amazing. We were hungry, and the first place we spotted where we could park easily was Pizza Hut. So we stopped in and had some late lunch. We then went to try to go to the beach, but there was absolutely NO parking left at Playa Delfines (<-sp??). We forgot it was Sunday, so a LOT of locals seemed to be at this beach.
So we kept driving, out of the strip. I asked John to drive south a bit and use the retorno on the highway so I could get a pic of an interesting car I saw on the way in. I just thought the contrast was interesting, the colorful bougainvillea growing over the tattered, husk of a car.
It was a little early to go to the airport, but we had nothing better to do. So we got there about 3:40, and their plane wasn’t due until 4:20. We sat and people watched for awhile. Finally we saw them coming at about 5pm!!! We scooped them up and got back in the car for the return trip to Tulum.
We got back to the hotel around 7pm or so, and grabbed our keys to our room. We were side by side. After dropping off our bags, we all returned to the restaurant there for some dinner. We had some GREAT tacos, as well as some other things I can’t remember, all of which were really good. We just ordered a bunch of stuff and shared. And it was cheap, cheap, cheap.
We went back and sat on our porch end enjoyed some cervezas and wine coolers together (I hate beer!), and went to bed early since we were going to get up first thing to be at the Tulum ruins when they opened at 8am. I wanted to get in early to get some photos before there were people everywhere.
I loved sleeping to the sound of the sea!!