Tulum

Dec 9, 2024

10 min read

After the relaxing beaches of Isla Mujeres I took a ferry to Cancun and then a bus to the southern part of the Yucatan peninsula and spent two weeks in Tulum. For me, the two things I was looking forward to the most were the cenotes and the Mayan ruins. And wow have they both delivered! What has also been amazing are even more of the beautiful beaches as well as awesome food.

Volunteering

Since this was one of my volunteering spots, I had to learn the ropes and get to know my tasks. However, since the busy season doesn’t start up until about mid December, there wasn’t much for me to do or learn. So, for my first shift Tere asked me to take everyone to Las Palmas. It’s a local food truck park that also offers salsa classes. We had a fun time, learned some moves, enjoyed the vibe and the surprise fire show! My shifts after that weren’t quite as cool LOL but still very relaxed and easy. Nothing major. Just making sure someone is on the property if spontaneous travelers swing by, helping out if any guests have questions, and helping with the planning for the upcoming busy season.

Food Tour

You know me. Gotta do a food tour! This tour was absolutely amazing and SO worth it! So far the food tours I’ve done in Mexico were set up where you pay the guide a small fee for their knowledge and input, and then pay for the food separately. Not on this tour! Everything was included. And it was a feast, let me tell you!

Stop 1 was an outdoor sitdown restaurant by the main road. I had the chile relleno taco which was soooo good! I also had the huevos con chaya taco. It was nice to try but didn’t have as much depth in flavor as most Mexican tacos. We also got a refreshing cucumber and mint water.

Stop 2 was a little hut selling sandwiches, falafels, and all the juices and smoothies you could think of. I had a juice with pineapple, orange, ginger, and a few other ingredients. Sooooo refreshing! But also filling… Here we were, at stop number 2, and I was already worried about getting full…oops!

Stop 3: Ok, gonna be honest here. This was a little shop that I would have NEVER stopped at on my own. The “kitchen” aka space where the cooking device was setup looked quite questionable. Bc it wasn’t a stove or a hot plate or… anything conventional. But hey, you use what you can, right?! Here we got to try a local tamale. Now, for all my Texans, the Yucatan tamales are different in that they are wrapped in plantain leaves instead of dried corn husks. This changes the flavor and color a bit. The one I tried was Chaya with cream cheese. The outer layers were a bit too dry for my taste, but once you got to the middle every bite was a soft, creamy goodness. Yum!

Stop 4: We went to a small local market where our guide shared some info about the local fruits and veggies. Now, one thing I had already known, was that once a Jalapeno is dried and smoked it is then called a Chipotle chile. But what I didn’t know is that a smoked Poblano is an Ancho, a smoked Anaheim is a Colorado, and a smoked Serrano is a Chile Seco! Mind blown! Oh yeah, and no food here, thank goodness LOL

Stop 5: Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture here… but I got to try probably my favorite thing! A Salbute. It’s basically a deep-fried tortilla, but fluffy. So, not like a tostada. It was topped with ground beef, lime juice, tomatoes, lettuce, and crema. It was soooo good!

Stop 6: Next up was a Oaxacan Mole accompanied by a refreshing glass of Pina con Chaya (pineapple juice with chaya). Having just had my fill of excellent Mole in Oaxaca I have to say this was not my favorite. However, the juice was really good!
Stop 7: The last stop was dessert LOL. Although I could barely take another bite I went ahead and got a dragon fruit popsicle. Wow-oh-wow…it was perfect. Not too sweet with just enough sourness. I’ll be back for more!

Outside of the food tour I found some more really neat restaurants, like a vegan spot with a hidden garden and super yummy tamales, a BBQ joint where I had my thanksgiving meal of a BBQ sandwich with mac and cheese LOL, a snazzy coffee joint where I had the biggest, fattest almond croissant ever, and so much more.

Cenotes

Cenotes are defined as sinkholes in limestone with pools at the bottom. There are both open and closed cenotes. The open ones look more like ponds or lakes, whereas the closed ones are basically caves you go into to find the water. Most cenotes have suuuuper clear, fresh water. Also, the cenotes are usually connected via caves so there’s basically an entire network of around 5’000 cenotes in this area. Crazy!

Cristal & Escondido - I took a collectivo* to reach these two. They are both on the smaller side and both open cenotes. I loved swimming in the clear water, relaxing on a hammock near the shore, and watching some funky birds walking around. Oh, and walking through the jungle of course - how cool is that?!

Two nameless Cenotes - On one of the days I got to hang out with some fellow hostel stayers - Saby and her daughter Isabella - who happen to be from SLP and know the hostel owner I worked for there! Small world!! Anyway, since Saby has a car we were able to head out to two more cenotes. And these were free!! Cenote number one was half covered. We had to walk down into a cave-like area, but the other side of the cave was slightly open as well so you could see the sun shining in. It was quite small and hidden by the side of the road, and super cool! The pictures do NOT do it justice at all. The second one with Saby and Isa was a beautiful oasis looking cenote, surrounded by trees and so many different shades of green. Absolutely stunning!
Aldea Zama - this cenote is literally in the middle of town! It’s small, accessible, and where all the locals hang out. It was cool to see, but also a little sad that there was quite a bunch of trash lying around there, despite there being a big trash bin setup by the city…
Zaci - this one was a day-trip away in the cute little town of Valladolid. The city was so colorful, and peaceful. It was so nice to just walk around and admire the town. After a while the heat was getting to me so a dip in the local cenote in the middle of town was the PERFECT way to cool down. I hadn’t seen a cenote this deep in the ground before. It was quite the sight and also clearly a gathering spot for local families to hang out and enjoy the day.

Beach and Snorkeling

After having been spoiled on Isla Mujeres and having seen beautiful beaches and insane blues, I thought for sure I wouldn’t see anything like it anytime soon. Well, I was wrong. Tulum has some pretty gorgeous beaches! Although technically not allowed, many of the hotels privatize their beaches. So, public access beach spots are few and far between. Luckily, Saby knew a good spot and offered to show me one of her favorites. Playa Principe was absolutely gorgeous! You’re right by the reef so there is a bunch of wildlife to see. I was even able to take a video of some of the fish right there off of the shore. So cool!

A few days later another hostel friend, Amber, and I decided to go on a snorkeling tour near Playa Santa Fe. The waters were rough and we weren’t sure if our tour was actually going to go out. But of course, the “si se puede” attitude had us embark without a problem. The first part of the tour included going out to see the Mayan ruins from the ocean - an absolutely stunning view! After that, we anchored at our snorkeling spot. This was absolutely amazing! We saw about 5 manta rays, two of which seemed to be either fighting or mating at one point… plus about 3 big turtles who swam right up next to us! Too bad I didn’t have my phone on me for this, but it’s a memory I will keep for a good while!

The Mayan Ruins

I’ve been getting so lucky with the guides I’ve booked! And Roger was not an exception to that. He shared so much info about the Mayan culture and history! So, here’s some info on what went down in the Tulum area:

In 1519 the Spaniards, with captain Hernan Cortez**, arrived in Cozumel (an island off of the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula) where he encountered Mayans. The Mayans had specific features: short, dark skin, folds in their eyes, a round head, and short neck. However, there were also two white men living with the Mayans - how/why? Well, a previous exploration had been shipwrecked and the survivors were taken captive by the locals. These two men were able to act as translators to the Spaniards and told Cortez and team to keep going west if they wanted to find any silver or gold. So he did. Later on he ended up banding together with the Mayans when he wanted to fight the Aztecs.

Other facts about Mayan culture:

Mayans were in all of Mesoamerica meaning the Yucatan, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala. However, the term Maya was created by modern archeologists to group together the people who spoke the same language and had the same religion. The Mayans themselves did not consider themselves from the same group. The oldest Mayan cities can be found in the southern part of Mesoamerica with the oldest site being founded around 1 BC. Tulum is dated around 800-1200 AD
The ruins in Tulum were a religious center. Only the kings, advisors, and upper class people lived within the walls. The commoners lived in the jungle in wooden adobe-style houses with thatched roofs. The houses were round, which offered more stability when the strong winds and hurricanes passed through. The houses were also set up as family compounds with people sleeping in hammocks.
Mayans believed when you die your soul goes to the underworld. However, there is no suffering in the underworld. It is simply the next place. Family members used to be buried underneath the house or within the property lines to prove that your family had been in said spot for however many years. It was a way to claim inheritance of the property. Also, part of their belief was that once a year the deceased relatives would come back to earth. To welcome them, they cleaned their relatives’ bones and left out flowers, water, and corn. This tradition is still practiced for Dia de Muertos, although now some catholic elements are also included.
The Mayans had some interesting beauty standards. They valued:
- Elongated skulls: babies would have a wooden plank placed on their head to create an elongated look
- Tooth gems: they would file their teeth and inlay precious stones with adhesives
Mayans are said to have never discovered the wheel. However, there are have been discoveries of kids toys with wheels. So the question is - why did the MAyans not use the wheel as a tool?
With the Spaniards came the building of the first universities, schools, aqueducts and churches, as well as the existence of horses in the area. However, they also introduced a cast system. The top tier were Europeans, the second were people born in the new world with European parents, and the lowest tier were the natives.

The Aztecs were more towards the center of the country and were known to be ruthless towards other natives. People from other indigenous tribes (like the Maya) were forced to pay the Aztecs taxes in the form of wood, animals, crops, and even people.
Current day classism exists in the form of colorism. When you have lighter skin, you tend to have better opportunities. Reality is, about 60% of Mexicans are mixed race (Native & European), 30% are Native, and 10% have close European ancestry.

Sian Ka’an

Upon the suggestion from my host, one of my hostel friends and I decided to take the collectivo to Muyil to visit Sian Ka’an. It is a world heritage UNESCO biosphere with vast wetlands, lagunas, cenotes, and various species of mammals, bees, fish, mosquitos, butterflies, coral, etc. (In the colder months there are over 350 species of birds that winter there!). Since we arrived quite early we got to enjoy a private tour. The boat ride through the laguna and canals was quite interesting since it depicted yet another, very unique landscape within Mexico. It’s still hard for me to believe that I’ve seen mountains, deserts, coral reefs, palm tree beaches, caves, cenotes, jungles, and wetlands. All in one country! Anyway, the highlight of the outing was being able to float along the canals amongst the mangrove trees. These canals were made by the Mayans over 1’000 years ago to connect the area with the trade going on in Belize and Guatemala. So peaceful and special! We even spotted a baby crocodile - thank goodness that was after we got out of the water… I would have been preeeetty scared to keep floating if I would have known we were amongst baby crocodiles! No matter how much our guide said they wouldn’t attack us. I would not have felt comfortable LOL!

Art

I discovered some pretty awesome art museums/buildings. It’s super hard to explain what they are exactly, so just go ahead and check out the photos and videos. AMAZING spaces, shapes, and nature!

Other random things I did in and around Tulum

I celebrated Thanksgiving by eating the closest thing I could find to a Thanksgiving meal… I had a BBQ sandwich with Mac & Cheese LOL!
I saw a sign for a 10k, signed up, and did it LOL. I haven’t jogged a 10k in years. I probably haven’t jogged a 5k in about 4 months. I definitely did not jog the full 10k. But I did do it! So yeah, there was that LOL.
I rode bikes - obvs.
My hostel friend Amber and I stumbled upon the city’s christmas parade, decided to join it for a bit, then walked alongside it dancing to the salsa-fied christmas songs LOL
I went to a breathwork session. Not nearly on the level of the @Keur workshops I go to, but still felt good to breathe, meditate, and take some time for myself.
I visited the textile museum in Valladolid which was very interesting, seeing the different types of clothing and how the Spanish influenced so much of the current traditional wardrobe.
Had the best corn ribs you could imagine! And in general, just really, really good food :D