Tulum and swimming with turtles

May 5, 2016

Tulum is known as one of the better tourist beaches if you want less resort-goers than Cancun or Playa del Carmen. I stayed a night there, and while it was cute, I was less than blown away.

I did have fun going to the nearby beach of Akumal, known for its sea turtles. They come to graze on the sea grass that grows in a couple patches right off shore.

The beach was lovely.

A couple companies have a good racket going, with a roped off section right at the entrance and a 'information' spiel that makes it sound like you have to go in the roped area, and to do so you are required a lifejacket which you rent from them and why not pay a guide while you're at it. We brought our own snorkels, and thus walked 50 feet down the beach to outside the roped area and snorkeled for free.

The water was calm, and the bottom was boring, but there was some sea life around. I saw a big ol' barracuda, a stingray, some small schools of silvery fish, and about 6 sea turtles, who were HUGE! They were nomming on the grass (imagine sitting next to someone eating low-pitched potato chips and a couple rocks with their mouth closed and that's what chewing sea turtle sounds like) and came up for air every so often. The shells must have been at least two feet across.

This is what they looked like coming up for air. And were about that far away from me too.

First ever beach in Mexico!

It was a fantastic time swimming with and watching the turtles, and a great little day trip. I celebrated Cinco de Mayo all alone with a margarita that night (the whole US parties way harder than anyone in Mexico) and headed out to Cozumel the next day for my last diving hurrah before heading home.

Authentic Mexican flautas