Not snorkelling in Akumel

It was tempting to try another couple of cenotes, but we'd done a few expensive dive days already and decided to stick to snorkelling instead.  We hired fins and I bought a snorkel.  Unfortunately Motmot had sold out of the green ones to match the mask I bought a few days ago.  We’d been told good things about snorkelling with turtles at Akumel, so off we went. 

A common form of transport in Mexico is the Collectivo, a minibus that travels from A to B and stops almost anywhere en route.  They wait until the bus is almost full before departing, then drop people off and collect others on the way.  They can be cheap, but they discourage people with a lot of baggage.  We took a collectivo for the 20 minute ride up the highway to the Akumel stop, then walked the rest of the way down to the very crowded beach.  Halfway there, Christina suddenly realised she had forgotten her mask, which made me realise I’d been so focused on getting the snorkel that I’d forgotten mine too!  Oh dear.  We considered hiring masks there, but the place was so packed with noisy tourists that we decided not to bother.  We had a drink and some guacamole – almost a daily ritual for us now – then made our way back to Tulum. 

When we went out for dinner later we discovered one of the side roads had been taken over by a group of drummers.  There were more than ten of them with an assortment of drums, banging out infectious rhythms for the small audience they’d gathered, some people dancing and others tapping their feet.

Our last day in Tulum was spent sorting out practicalities like getting our washing done and booking bus tickets for tomorrow.  We found a B’n’B in Playa del Carmen for a couple of nights.  Christina will be heading straight to the airport while I will probably go back over to Cozumel for a few more days.  Later we found a lovely eco-friendly café with a hippie vibe and had smoothies and salads for lunch (corn and zucchini fritters, delicious!)

Hard to believe we've been travelling together for nearly three weeks already.  It seems to have gone so quickly, but it has been a lot of fun.