Tulum Mexico vacation, February 2023
Adventure for Noel and Lionel Space, Nanaimo BC
Report of first week.
(Photos can be clicked on for a larger view)

So far it's been a learning experience as we adjust to the different culture and our new living environment.

Flying out from Comox BC, we had a layover in Calgary, arriving at 10 pm Friday and flying out at 7:30 the next morning. We booked flights straight through and then the airlines changed our flights; hopefully they won't do that to us on the return leg. We didn't lose any luggage. I stayed up all night to watch our bags as others tried to cat nap on the uncomfortable airport benches. The Calgary airport has practically no electrical outlets available for travelers (maybe 1 every 400 feet along an outside wall) and none where we camped for the night; at least they provided WiFi. The WestJet 787-9 was packed, filling all 320 seats and we were in the last row (and we had paid a non-trivial amount extra for seat selection, which we didn't get). When combined with other flights, the line through customs took about 45 minutes of standing in a huge herd. Outside the Cancun terminal, about 250 drivers are waving signs for pickup (in addition to the regular taxi drivers trying to find those who did not pre-arrange transportation) and I was amazed that Noel found our company. Half an hour later we were in a van that is ubiquitous to here (and not seen North of Mexico) for the 2+ hour trip down the toll road to downtown Tulum. The same van body is branded with Toyota, Nissan, Volkswagen, and others I've never heard of; probably all made in the same Mexican factory. The ride was bumpy and noisy with no interior finishes, so not a vehicle I'd recommend for personal use.
 
Mexican transport vans. 
 
Bottled water served at a restaurant. www.AquaDeTulum.com does not exist.

We've been out to eat twice and Noel had some tasty dishes, so that's good. And there's nothing to complain about the alcohol in Mexico.

We are amazed at the congestion. Heavy traffic with little decorum on the roads and lots of scooters, motor bikes, and bicycles and not much in the way of painted lines (lines that do exist seem about 25 years old). Roads do not have much trash, but would be considered as needing repair back home, except for the dirt roads out to our development which are super bumpy and dusty. All buildings are made of cement block and cement surfaces and not maintained well after initial construction; mostly what you would consider the poor side of town in North America. Most people speak no English, so we're mostly on our own to figure things out; and of course all the writing is in Spanish, so the signs are of little use to us except for known towns (we learned that Returno means a U-turn access). Basically just one main thoroughfare goes through the towns and locating a specific business is an Easter egg hunt with a couple returnos to get back to that missed and unmarked tiny road that looks like a driveway.

We did an AirBnB on a 2 bedroom, 2 bath unit in a small community about 10 minutes to the South and West of downtown Tulum. Our living unit has no oven, no toaster, no pillows on any chairs except the couch, a 7 liter hot water heater (almost enough for a Navy shower and sewer smells from the drain while showering) and construction being ALL cement (floors, walls, ceiling, counter tops, cabinet boxes) and 7-foot tall glass, is acoustically like being in a cave, which is not conducive to social interaction. We have 1 TV (which is in Dorothy and Dave's bedroom), but good Internet (when it works, our router stopped after a week and all WiFi is down if it's windy due to the flimsy antennas to receive the main signal), and Noel and I are able to watch our Netflix on her tablet. The community has a gym with 1 out of 4 working treadmills, 1 out of 2 working elliptical trainers, limited barbells, 2 working Livestrong spin bikes (noisy), and no lat bars. There are two nice pools (with constant adjacent construction noise), two cenotes, a small restaurant, and two shops.
 
We chose a rental outside of downtown or at the beaches to save some money. 
 
Hotel entrance of El Capitan where we spent the first and last nights on the main street. 
 
Typical WiFi receiver; winds disrupt service. 

Something in the water in the pipes (which you can not drink) makes anything stink from our provided washing machine, so we're still looking for detergent and bleach that might resolve that (which of course, is very expensive as well). The furniture here is not comfortable, so I've been having constant back pains in places I didn't used to get pain. There's a free gym just across the path that has spin cycles, so I've used those most days to try to get the ache out of my legs (still waiting for that). We've been to the pool that one time, but have not been able to explore the cenotes that are in our development (other than to take a walk and see them).

Food from the town grocery stores here is sometimes twice the cost of what it is back home and mostly tasteless if it's at all processed (e.g. cereal, cookies, nuts, milk); Veggies are ok. The largest store in Tulum, which is on the other side of town (half an hour from here due to heavy traffic), has very limited selections of anything and stinks. All the registers have long lines (i.e. 15 minutes) and very tiny staging areas to try to bag up your purchase (I had to put everything on the floor before the basket was emptied and ready to load). The bags they sell to organize the purchase are small and not flat bottomed; we purchased 5, which was good for about 2/3 of our provisions. Carts are not allowed out of the store unless you leave your drivers license with the guard at the door. Noel is going to try a different store today that may cater more to American tastes. It turned out that there's a little bit better selection, prices are a bit higher, and they charge (5 pesos for 2 hours) for parking, which is paid at the store with your groceries and appears at the top of the receipt. However upon leaving, a man dressed in a uniform stopped us before we could insert our ticket to lift the gate, looked at it and said something was wrong (in Spanish), asked to see our receipt, muttered something else and told us to hold on as he went to talk to someone. We suspected he was going to bribe us, so after he left our sight, we inserted the ticket, the gate lifted, and we left.

On Thursday, we checked out the closest pool in our rental community. We got Dorothy to be more comfortable swimming with some instruction by me in the four foot deep pool, so she can go snorkeling with us (she couldn't swim before the trip).
 
Noel snorkel test with new under water camera. 

On Saturday, we checked out the cenotes in our little rental community. They are open for swimming, but it's not really a desired experience. The water is murky, cold, nothing of beauty in them, and the small black snails are about the only interesting thing. A natural place to sit and gather sunshine.
 
The larger cenote in our community. 
 
The large pool adjacent to it was much more pleasant for swimming. 

Noel has been chained to being near a toilet for the last 2 days (even with sticking strictly to bottled water), which may delay our trip to the ruins we had planned for Sunday. Dorothy had similar problems, but taking imodium seemed to help; Noel also relented to it as well and it seems to be working. I've been under the weather for the last couple of weeks (general weakness, tired, achey; the long haul symptoms I've had for the last 5 years from the flu, only a bit worse right now) and having trouble sleeping at night, mostly due to my legs having an extreme ache (i.e. pain). I'm able to buy Zythromyacin over the counter in Mexico, so I did a Z-pack to see if that would help (nothing to report yet after now finishing the pack). So a bit of a rough start.

We hope to get out (we have a rental car for the month; also very expensive) and see some ruins, swim with the turtles, swim in the big cenotes. We still have 3 weeks left. The weather has been consistently warm with calm winds, though muggy. The people are friendly and do their best to accommodate in spite of the language barrier.

Tulum main page