03-08-2006
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#25 (permalink) |
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none
 Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 10,162
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Okay, the painkillers are in overdrive and I was able to put together another day...here goes:
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. :p 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 Synestere. 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. |
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| Tulum Trip Report with Requested Photos - tulum.info forum | This thread | Refback | 06-01-2007 08:50 AM |
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John did a great job of photographing you. Looking forward to more
