I rode away from Bacalar with Lupita, Clau and Sergio and they dropped me off in Tulum after a two hour drive.
I lodged for the next three nights in the home of Natasha and Juan.
Quite a climate difference for Natasha, and she expressed homesickness for the change of seasons and that she is not a fan of the humidity here. Natasha ( who is also not a fan of the grey and cold climate in England) came to Tulum on vacation a couple years ago and met Juan who is from Spain but was living here and working as part owner in a hostel.
I had a private room and bathroom and access to the house and back patio where I ate my breakfast of fresh fruit I bought from the grocery store
They had a basically normal washing machine
( as opposed to the one I used last year when I was staying with “mi madre Mexicana” during my week of Spanish school. Her machine filled with a hose and had to be rinsed and wrung out by hand) but the water pressure was so weak it took 90 minutes to wash one cycle.
There was no dryer, but dryers are an unnecessary luxury in the heat and breeze - line drying works just fine:)
I enjoyed relaxing in the shade several times after cooling off in the condo complex swimming pool. The pool and the connection to England were influential factors when I was choosing my lodging in Tulum!
I rented a bicycle the first full day in town to get around. I knew it was a long-ish ride to the beach but I’m up for exercise so off I went. The back tire looked a little low when I left the rental booth, but for some strange reason I did not question that.
As I was pedaleling the 3 miles to a public access to the beach I noticed it was a tough ride and other bicyclists were passing me easily.
After I locked my bike at the racks provided at the no-parking-for-cars beach access I enjoyed a long beach walk. When I was young, I was a beach blanket sunbather. Since I met Mike, I’ve adopted his practice of walking the beach for exercise and entertainment. Much better than lying there collecting sweat.
I walked the entire available northbound stretch of this beach - about a mile to the cliffs blocking beach passage and the site of the Tulum pyramid ruins overlooking the water.
The remains of this poor sailboat had been there much longer than the algae. It was a bit shocking to see how much of the shoreline is covered with algae - much different than last year - and fairly unpleasant to smell. The resorts are paying locals to rake up the algae and move it across the street in wheelbarrows to pile on the jungle side of the small access road to the beach frontage where there is no building on the inland side of the road.
I did some reading about the algae - Trip Advisor tourists asking about the severity, location and calendar timing of the algae (some expressing displeasure with the situation and others declaring their determination to enjoy the beach regardless of the smell) and scientists remarking about the algae as one phenomenon of the effects of climate change and the general rapid overdevelopment of the entire Mayan Rivera.
Makes me wonder if I am part of the problem just being here. But at least I am going by public transportation and bicycle.
I did find an algae-free section of beach and went in for a warm dip - definitely refreshing.
Late in the afternoon I decided to ride to LaZebra - a resort on the far south end of the hotel zone because I remembered there was Sunday evening Salsa Dancing lessons on the beach. It was a long hard ride but the reward was a cool breeze and a big shady deck where a local was teaching about 40 tourists how to salsa dance. First we learned the basic steps...
then he organized us into a large circle and taught us to dance as couples - changing partners every minute or so as if we were speed dating like in the movie Hitch. We made at least two complete passes through partners during the lesson. The guy in the white shirt in this photo was supposed to be my partner but I skipped out to take a picture, so he followed along without me and when I returned, we were 3/4 of the way through that sequence and I never caught up. But in general, I did OK. Maybe I’ll get a chance to try it for real.
Dance lessons ended, and it was getting dark at La Zebra....
and I knew I had a long ride home, so off I went with no light on my bike and what was now a completely flat tire. That was a hard ride! In addition to the tire issue, I had to stop and wait for light on the road from passing taxis a couple times. I tried to call the bike rental number, but did not get through, and nobody has air pumps on rental bikes, so I simply pedaled hard ( the almost 10K distance total from LaZebra to my house) and did not roll very far on each pedal, but it was faster than walking. When I got 3/4 of the way home, closer to town, I pulled in to the Pemex gas station and said “ mi llanta está plano”. The gas attendant looked at it, laughed and said “Nada!” and gave me air. I cruised the rest of the way home comfortably. The wheel! What a great invention!
Next day I rode back to the rental stand and traded for another bike because the tire was flat again. But I did not ride much more. This day was for shopping in town
and “mirando el fútbol en las cantinas”.
Mexico lost their game in the morning and is eliminated from the World Cup tournament, so it was a subdued crowd despite the return of alcohol sales on this Monday morning after the election. I stuck with avocado toast with grilled shrimp and water.
On get-away day I had the whole morning so I rode on good tires back to the beach for exercise and sweat, then stopped for a tamale and green juice at a small shop off the beaten path.
As I sat there enjoying the shade, I noticed the restaurant on the opposite corner of the intersection with the circle vent holes in the roof section that looked vaguely familiar. Sure enough, it was the same place we had breakfast at in 2016 with Kelly, Eric,Claudia, Curt and Sarah.
Now it is a Japanese restaurant under new ownership with a new paint job on the outside.
Hola, mi amor!
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