Our Yucatan Trip - 1st 3 days, Aug 5, 6, 7 (Tues, Wed, Thurs) 2008

Our first night, Tuesday August 5th, we spent in Playa de Carmen which is the standard tourist town. We paid $2.20 a piece for our dinner of tacos by going to a "local" resturant on Calle 15 (as recommended by "Let's Go Mexico") and then $12.00 for two ice cream cones on Calle 5! Granted it was Hagen Das but it was a quick lesson on how important it is to know where to go!

The beach was beautiful and completely lined with hotels and resorts. This was not the Mexico we'd come to see so I didn't take many pictures. I did snap a shot of the the military patrol that we followed out of Playa de Carmen on our way to Tulum! And this was the "nice" town!

Here are some pictures from our days in Tulum, Mexico. We spent Wednesday and Thursday there.

Wednesday skycycling and swimming in cenotes at Hidden Worlds Adventures.

Thursday at the Tulum Ruins

followed by swimming and sunbathing on the beach in front of our $35 per night cabana!

The toliet and shower were in a seperate building and the electricity was a car battery that could light the single light bulb hanging from the palapa roof but we were right on the beach! The other places we checked to the left and right were $150 a night and they didn't have electricity either!

Our cabana was just far enough below the one sand dune between it and the beach that the wonderful sea breeze didn't get to it. After spending all of Wednesday night in our cabana sleeping fitfully in the still, hot air I made arrangements with the resturant owners to have a beach lounge chair left out for me so I could sleep on it in the area where they served food outdoors - literally on the beach. Jack sat up with me until everyone had left the beach for the night and then he retired to the cabana and his mesquito netting. I sprayed myself down liberally with insect repellent and streached out on the lounge chair. It was wonderful. I watched the stars brighten, listened to the surf, and enjoyed the wonderful ocean breeze as I drifted off to sleep.

Sometime around 11:30 or Midnight I was awoken by a "noise". Looking over at the "doorway" off the beach I could see a dark shape on the white sand. Visions of the HUGE iguana's we'd seen at the Tulum Ruins that day made me shudder at the thought of one coming any closer than it already was! Rolling off the far side of my lounge chair I shoved the chair in the direction of the "shadow". The end of the chair came up against something solid. Much more solid than I imagined an iguana would be. Maybe it was the low wall that seperated the resturants area from the beach proper. Cautiously I stepped over the knee high wall to see the "shadow" from that side.

It was a sea turtle! She had made her way up the beach to lay her eggs and had it in mind to make her way through the opening in the wall. I had startled her and she was already turning around. She was 3 or 4 feet long and moving as frantically as a sea turtle can in the sand. I moved away and she rested. It was a magical moment for me. I love turtles. Especially sea turtles (tortuga's). She resumed her trek back towards the water, resting after every two or three "strokes" in the sand and I moved along with her at a respectful distance. I waded in to the water as high as my knees with her which is when a large wave freed her from the sand and she disappeared into the dark water. I sent wishes with her that she find a safe beach to lay her eggs on tomorrow night and returned to my lounge chair smiling.

I'd thought about running for the camera and waking Jack up but decided against it. She did not need any additional stress and this was a memory for me. A reward for sleeping on the beach.

In the pre-dawn I woke again to sounds from the beach - this time it was a group of four armed soldiers or policemen making their way from the beach resort at the left end of the beach to the path between the two hotels at the right end of the beach. They didn't seem to notice me and I didn't move. With full daylight I saw lots of little lizard tracks around my lounge chair too. Not a magical moment at all.

At breakfast the next morning the owner of Trescelunas Cafe told me I was extrodenarily lucky to have seen the turtle... she has lived in Tulum for 5 years and has never seen a sea turtle! Jack wondered why I hadn't waken him. I explained I wasn't sure it would be a special thing for him and didn't want to break the spell of the moment. He seemed to understand.

Next installment will be of Friday's drive to Isla Holbox and our stay there!