More of Tulum

Hello! Good Shabbos!

Well I managed to stay on that lovely beach in Tulum for while! I am just leaving today...tonight! The man at the bus station assured me the other day that there will be buses to my next destination all day today. Of course when I packed up early and headed into town he tells me the only buses are at 8:15 and 10:45 tonight! So I have 8 hours to kill, and I dont have the will to go back to the beach, although that may change in a while!

The beach has been fun, seen the sunrise almost every day for the last week, and went to bed really early. The moon is a crescent, and the stars are still bright!

For food I have been living off of guacamole and one meal a day in a restaurant plus or minus a couple bananas and my 5 litre bottle of dihydrogen monoxide. I make the guac with my spork, and mix in tomato, garlic, onion and lots of lime.

In the restaurant I am usually eating Frijoles, arroz, y salada, y beber a fruitas mixta, which may not transalte directly to, but ends up with me getting; Beans, rice, salad, and a fruit smoothy. The best has been in a colorful place that seems to be popular with taxi drivers but not tourists. There it is 30-40 pesos, depending on if I am eating with a local or not. That is 3-4 bucks. It also comes with tortillas, and the same meal up the street could be 10 bucks. Thanks to Gualberta for that place. He works at the campground and has been lots of fun to talk too.

The beach I am living on as well as the next 100km of coastline are prime drop off points for Columbian drug dealers. The army patrols the shores regularly, at all hours of the day, and every local has a story about how either him or someone he knows has found a large bag of cocaine on the beach! Gualberto (in the photo) who watches the campground at night has told me on two mornings that he saw boats at night flicking lights just over the reef, about half a kilometer out to sea!! He's also shared many interesting and wild stories that could probably be made into a best selling book with a little work.

For my spanish education, I am no longer walking around saying ´I have dollars´, I am now saying ´I want to drink a beer, do you want beer. I will pay, no you will pay´.

Tonight I am heading to Palenque, and everyone I say this too says ´Holy Shit man, you´re going to love it!!´ So I am looking forward to it although I have no idea what to expect.

I do know that there is a chance to go hiking there, and that is the one thing missing from my trip so far... It is great to know a countrie´s populated areas, but I love getting into the bush! I´m waiting on an email to find out about possible trails...

As well there are two equinox celebrations I plan to attend, one at some ruins, which is a traditional Mayan celebration for the equinox, as now days will comtinue to get longer until summer! After words there is a music festival all weekend!

Not sure what the computer service is like there...

I have been trying to upload a video for 3 hours and am getting sick of waiting although catching up on some news and other stuff.... I wish the man knew the bus schedule better, afte all he works for the company! But my wait is over half done... soon I will have my last meal for now in Tulum and be on my way!

This is a street in Tulum....


Until Later....

More life on the beach!

The Beach where I am staying is a 6 km walk from town. You parallel the shore heading south for 3 km, followed by a three km walk westward directly away from the water. The first bit is exactly a 28 minute walk. (I guess the second would be too) I know this as somehow it is excatly the length of time it takes me to listen to one spanish lesson on my mp3 player. As you may be able to see in the pic, the road parallelling the beaches...giving access to small hotels and cabanas and campgrounds, has people popping onto it and walking and riding bikes all over. I am walking up the road with my oldschool headphones saying things outloud like: Hello! Goodmorning! I dont understand! Do you speak English? I have pesos! I need dollars....etc! I feel really funny and hope no one is listening too closely when i say ¨I have dollars!¨











I had a friendly visitor in my tent last night, he had eight legs and was unfortunately not a Hindu god! He was a spider! and a big one! Big enough that i put some work gloves on before getting him out! (or her)... The truth is that I was clearly able to see that the spider was frightened to a much higher degree thatn I was, but that did not alleviate the fear that it would pounce and inject me with some kind of venom! I slowly poked it fromt he far corner around the tent adn tried to get it over the lip and out. The danger was if it didnt get over the lip it woudl fall near the pile i had pushed all my stuff into and then I could lose it! After a few hearty efforts I succeeded and got to ake its photo... there are in the tent and out of the tent pics.
See a sunrise in Tulum!

Has it been a week on the beach!??!

I can´t remember when I got to the beach, but I know I don´t want to leave! This is my third or fourth day trying to go, I was stopped yesterday because i bought a hammock, so I had to spend some time reading in it. Today I have my bag packed and with me in town.... although I am just trying to get to another beach! This one, or maybe a lagoon nearby is in a wildlife sanctuary or something similar from what I can gather. It is supposed to be a place where I can learn a bit about the ecosystem, but may be hard to get to. If that proves to be the case it will be back to the campground on the beach.

The campgound is magnificent. For 6 bucks a night you get toilet facilities and a man to watch your stuff when you are not there. There is free camping on the beach, but no shade to put your tent under. The best way to make a tent last is to keep it out of the sun.... and not bring any porcupines inside.

Up the beach I went to a restaurant that serves as a side to their meals a big bowl of pickled stuff. Primarily there are carrots...the best I have ever had, and there was an entire bulb of garlic, not too strong or too weak...and the peppers. This is when I found out why cartoons are so expressive of people eating peppers. I had gone through a bunch of Jalipinos when I came to a squashe done that I thought was just a little deformed... It was actually a Habaniero...and a mistake I will never make again. For a full 5 minutes I couldnt even think... The pain was excruciating and the thought of the embarassment of being the silly white man rolling on the floor in agony was all that kept me from doing so! I am surely somehow stronger for it...but I dont think i will ever eat another one in just one bite again!

The other highlight of the restaurant was the mangar/owner? Pedro, He had plenty of knowledge to share but refused to let me into the secret of his garlic pickling...I can´t blame him... He did say that each day int he morning he swallows a clove of garlic like a pill atleast half an hour before eating and that keeps the bugs away. He also said it is better than chewing the raw garlic. I´ll let you know how it goes...


The campground is just up the beach from the ruins near Tulum, which I visited with Jess. I saw them this morning as the sun rose, and a dreaded mexican explained to me that Tulum used to be called sunshine or something similar, and then was given the name Tulum which means wall as the ruins have a wall all around them. The sunrise was great and begged me to stay another day...which I may! Look closely at the picture, its the corner of the building... The face is easier to see if you look on just one side as the nose sticks out, but a fron shot shows how it goes around the corner!