After snorkeling, we had an amazing dinner at Lola Valentina's. Hibiscus empanadas, cactus tacos, jerk platter (it was veggies and tofu in a yummy sauce) and veggie chorizo potato balls. During dinner, Dani had a cockroach crawl up her that got all the way to her chest. That was pretty creepy.
After dinner and some street food desserts, Dani wanted to go salsa dancing. There was a place near our hotel that had a dance floor and live music. I went with and someone did ask her to dance, so she was pretty excited. While I was watching her, someone asked me as well. I tried to say no, I couldn't dance, but that didn't work. I attempted to not make a fool of myself for a song then hid in a corner so no one would ask me again. Dani danced again and had fun. She then taught me the basics, which was pretty awesome.
-Miranda
Pretty coast.
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We had the car until noon and the room until noon so we drove the car to get a quick breakfast. My food never came and we needed to get going. While Joe was trying to find something else for me to eat Dani grabbed the key because she apparently wanted to start the car to get it cooled off before we got in. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that was her plan and she doesn't know how to drive a manual. She reached over the passenger side to turn it on. Joe had it in first without the e-brake on (which is normal when not on a hill) and since it's a cheap car, it actually let her start it without the clutch in. Whoops. It started, moved over the curb and hit the sign in front of the car. Dani jumped back in the car and pulled the e-brake so it didn't end up in traffic. There was a little dent in the front, but nothing too bad.
After shaking that incident off, we headed to Don Ojos Cenote. It is definitely a popular cave diving spot but it's pretty awesome to swim around with goggles also. Watching the lights from the divers in the cave was awesome and let us see more of the underwater portion of the cave than we would have otherwise seen. Once we were done, Joe dropped Dani and me off at the hotel so we could get packed up and checked out while he returned the car. There were no issues with the return so that's good. We found a yummy lunch and then hopped on the bus to get to Isla Mujerus.
Upon arriving, we looked around for a hotel. The one Joe had in mind was a bit pricey so he went to look around some. We ended up back where we started though. We found some yummy Thai food for dinner and then crashed.
-Miranda
One part of Dos Ojos. It was pretty big and very pretty.
So many divers. It was neat to be able to see farther into the caves underwater because of the divers' flashlights. This photo isn't great since you can't really hold still floating in water, but I thought the lights looked neat.
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Today we went to the Tulum Ruins. Once we arrived, Dani realized that she had been there as a young teenager with her family during a cruise. She didn't remember much so it was still a good trip. The wind was blowing which definitely helped with the heat but ended up being bad for the sun as Dani and I ended up pretty burnt by the end of the day.
After the ruins we rented a car so we could try to get to at least a couple cenotes. We quickly realized that Joe left his license and credit card at the car rental place and we definitely didn't have enough cash to pay for entry. Fortunately we figured something else out that worked. We decided on Akhumel first, which was Yal-ku Cenote. It felt pretty similar to Casa Cenote but larger. The water wasn't super clear so that was unfortunate. It was still really neat though. Lots of fish. There were also statues randomly near the water such as an iguana and random women statues. We left there right around closing and ended up having trouble finding the key to the car. Dani went back to the desk and they had it. Apparently it fell out of Joe's pocket when he took his wallet out to pay.
That fruit that Dani really wanted to try the previous day? She saw someone selling them on the side of the road so when we stopped to get gas for the rental car she ran over and bought one. I wasn't a huge fan, but Joe and Dani were pretty happy. It tasted like a combination of sweet potato, brown sugar, persimmon and ginger.
It was too late to go to any other cenotes so we got dinner at El Vegetariano. It was still good but different than when we ate there a couple years ago year. Joe wanted to take us down to the beach after dinner so we did and watched some pelicans until it was dark. Our plan was to keep going South a little a farther but then we realized our headlights weren't working. We had to drive with the brights on (with the permission of the police) being jerks.
-Miranda
Dani has Stanley, a stuffed snowman that we decided to bring with on the trip. He came to the ruins with us.
And got his photo taken.
Lots and lots of iguanas sunning around the ruins.
Lots of tour groups and people there.
A Tiger Heron eating a fish at Yal-ku Cenote.
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We had a great breakfast but when we planned on showering after breakfast, it turns out the water main had broken so there was no water. Yay... Our original thought was to go to Isla Mujeres first, but we changed our plan and went to Tulum instead. Once in Tulum we found lunch at a yummy local place across from the ADO station that we ate at quite a bit last time we were here. We then went to the hotel we stayed at last time and got a room. Our first plan was the Gran Cenote. There were quite a few people there but it was very fun. Lots of exploring around the stalactites and watching the swallows and bats fly around. So many turtles also.
When we got back to the hotel, Dani was checking out the fruit on the tree that was in the courtyard. We spent some time looking it up online and she really really wanted to find a ripe one to try. It was a mamey zapote. We went to a local fruit market and found it there. One of the guys went through the entire box of them trying to locate a ripe one for us, but he said none of them were ready. We bought a couple mangos instead. They were different varieties. They were both good but one was definitely superior to the other. Near the fruit market was also a place where they had frozen fruit and cream bars. We each got one to try. We tried walnut, coconut and rice. They were very good. Joe has become pretty obsessed with the coconut ones. Afterwards I left to head back to the room while Joe and Dani found some empanadas from a small Argentinian shop that they said were very good.
-Miranda
So many swallows! They had nests in the rock crevices and were flying around everywhere.
There were a couple areas blocked off that were specifically for turtles, so there were quite a few around.
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We decided to head back to Mexico this year. We're taking Danielle with us. Mary was kind enough to take us down to The Cities before our flight. We flew to Cozumel this time instead of Cancun because the flight was cheaper and ended up just making more sense.
Upon arriving we walked to the same hotel that we've stayed in before. Pretty handy. None of us slept well the night before so we were all extremely tired. After dropping our bags off and cooling off a little, we headed out to find food. We mostly spent the day wondering around. There were some pretty cool murals that I don't remember seeing last time we were here. One about the dangers of overfishing.
That evening we found some street food. One thing looked like a tostada but was on a larger square thing. Joe wasn't a huge fan of what it was on, but Dani and I thought it was pretty yummy. We also find some churros, which were awesome.
-Miranda
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