Our Cancun experience was 'interesting'. We’d intended to catch a bus straight from Chichen Itza to Tulum, avoiding the ultra-touristy towns of Cancun and Playa Del Carmen. As luck turned out, we could only seem to get a bus to Cancun so headed there. On arriving we couldn’t get a bus to Tulum for another 4 hours so jumped in a taxi to find a ‘cheap’ hotel and bunker down for the night. Little did we know no such thing exists in Cancun.
The taxi took us somewhere he said was cheap and we drove for miles past endless luxury hotels, stores and restaurants. The hotel turned out not to be ‘cheap’ at all but well above our budget so we headed back into town and found a Hostel (I think we broke a cardinal rule about allowing a taxi driver to find us a hotel).
Cancun was awful. This place is kind of like what the Gold Coast wants to be when it grows up. The scale is hard to describe. The entire place consists of over the top opulence everywhere you look from hotels, designer labels, bars and restaurants. There is little to do here aside from eat, drink, shop and party.
 |
| Cancun - miles upon miles of hotels just like this one. |
In it’s defense, the beach itself is beautiful, only it’s covered in coca cola umbrellas, drunk/sunburned bogans and a DJ pelting out beach doof with a few bikini clad girls dancing on stage.
 |
| Beach at Cancun |
Someone told us that Cancun used to be a little fishing village (and probably absolutely lovely) until the Mexican government turned it into a tourist trap in the 70’s due to it’s stunning location (poor locals!). Haven’t verified that but I guess if the tourist dollars are helping the rest of the country I can’t judge too much – just not for me thanks. It’s hard to believe people visit Mexico just for Cancun.
 |
| Cancun 'entertainment' |
 |
| Authentic Cancun merchandise hawked on the streets. Apologies if someone wanted this as a souvenir - I didn't get one. |
We head out to grab dinner which was nice except for the incredibly drunk and obnoxious American guy at the table near us. Vanessa and I spent some time debating if he was really drunk or just a natural f*wit. We tried to walk around but there are hawkers everywhere. Not really wanting to spend the night in that kind of energy, we flipped a coin and caught the 7pm bus to Tulum.
On arriving we’d had no chance to hit the Internet and find a place to stay. The (very patient) taxi driver took us to quite a few hotels before we finally found one with a vacancy (at 10pm). Waking up to the beach only metres away was quite a treat!
 |
| The view from the cabana in Tulum |
Tulum seems to have an emphasis on ecotourism. Most of the places here are little thatched roof cabanas on the beach and utilise recycled materials. People come here to chill out and get away from the pretentious tourist scene. There seems to be a lot of Spanish speaking expats who come here to work, or holiday. Everyone is relaxed and friendly. Couldn't be further away from the Cancun scene. Certainly a cute tourist town although in danger of getting a bit too big.
 |
| Our cabana in Tulum |
|
 | | | |
| Raw food cafe - yay! |
As synchronicity would have it the place we are staying at has a raw vegetarian café (yay!) and a normal restaurant for those who are carnivorously inclined. I was just having lunch (a slice of raw chocolate cake and strawberry/kiwi smoothie) and met a lovely chap from Kauai (where we’d just been) who grows his own cacao :-)
Quickly found out we had at least 3 mutual friends and that he is a good friend of David Wolfe. Wow, small world!
Anyway, plan is to stay here 3 nights and relax. Maybe check out some of the ruins by the beach and see the 'secret' river (if I can find it) :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment