After taking the ferry back to Cancun, our taxi ride to the bus port was very interesting. We bartered a good price which also factored in going to get me an iPad charger which I had lost, and a post office run to ship back the bleeding Mexican hearts we had gone crazy over. The driver who was all smiles and “no problem” motioned for me to try his charging port for my ipad. Doubtful (as I had tried every chord lying around the hostel for the last four days) I handed it over and would you bloody believe it, the darn thing fit. He laughed and chatted in Spanish the whole way to the questionable black market roadhouse where he pulled up, disappeared and promptly came back with a chord for me!

When we were finally on route to the bus terminal our kind-faced man suddenly pulled off the road and down a side street. Not knowing what was going on, we were madly flicking through the phrase book trying to question him when he finally pulled up in front of McDonald’s and shouted us an icecream! Silently, and not wanting to ignite anything more, we tried to disengagingly eat the ice cream and hoped for the best the next stop would be the bus! Which is was. Bus number 9!

For the next 9 days we took up residence in a humble little eco-friendly tube. This cylindrical life was absolute bliss! We loved every minute of our time here. Days blurred into each other as we fell into a ritual of morning yoga, a bike ride to the beach, a trip out to a cenote, back into town for guac-o’clock, cheap taco specials for dinner and then a bar to end our magical evening listening to live music under a straw covered cabana.

The town had many layers. From our serene little tube home, we would could reach the buzzing centre on foot in about 15 short minutes. Here, the dust covered streets were overcrowded with markets and lined with cafes and restaurants – all wonderfully kitted out with swinging chairs and loud decor. There were a lot of happy hours and budding musicians, mixed with street vendors and locals trying to make a buck.

The beach strip was completely different – very slow moving and hippie, filled with signs boasting organic goods and smoothie bowls. We were blown away with how some of the places along here looked. There were secret gardens, cabanas filled with cushions, dark rooms lit with festoon lighting, lace covered day beds on the beach and dream catchers everywhere! This area was definitely more expensive then town and was home to some serious five star resorts.

C E N O T E S

Cenotes are a secret subterranean world of groundwater pools. There are over 30 in and around Tulum and are filled with pure, clear water meticulously filtered by the Earth. Some are hidden within jungle, others housed in caves – all are spectacular. We visited as many as we could, each time dumbfounded with how beautiful they were. We quickly learned the earlier we got there the less crowded they were, so tried to arrive by 9amish (when we weren’t hungover).

N I G H T  L I F E

One of the nights we decided to party along the beach front and was told the best night out was the Papaya Playa Project. Thinking we knew what we were doing, we emailed ahead to book a table for dinner so that we would have a good spot before the party started. The response was, in order to reserve a spot we would need to pay a deposit of $1000 which we could get back if we spent the equivalent at the bar. Wow. We politely declined and made our way there after dinner – about 10pm. As expected, it was a very ritzy affair. We met a lot of American’s who had made the journey from Playa Del Carmen or Cancun for the night. We could only afford to drink beer which were still 3 times more expensive then town. We joined a group of people to make friends and settled into people watching. The next time up at the bar I took my chances and asked if we could have a free shot.. the bar tended laughed and shook his head, but then swiftly came back with two massive tequila shots!

By midnight the place was crawling with people and we joined the masses on the sand dance floor. The music was heavy techno and crowd questionable but we still had a really fun night, meeting a lot of weird and wonderful people – a Mexican millionaire, New York aspiring actresses, a German entrepreneur, local chef, more bloody Swiss boys… and they are just the ones who shouted us a drink!

We found the best nights out were definitely in the town of Tulum, – they were less pretentious and a lot more fun. We made friends with a big haired bar tender at Batey which we frequently visited, who gave us free drinks and the best seats in the house by the end. It was these kind of music filled nights that bought people from all walks of life together in a far more chilled environment.

On our last night we had to move from our beautiful little tube to Mama’s Hostel because we had booked one less night than we had thought! It turned out for the best though because Mama’s was housing 8 Irish girls travelling together. The TOTS (teachers on tour) were an absolute hoot! We ended up buying vodka and unidentified mixers from the store for about $5 and heading to Santinos, a flimsy double story dive pumping out Latin American banger songs! We had such a good time, even though the morning left me scrambling to find my wallet I had left on the kitchen floor and us running for our bus to Belize in such a state I wasn’t able to physically speak all their way there.