After a chaotic and fun night out in Tulum, I woke up feeling surprisingly well and headed down to grab some free breakfast. The hostel’s name is Mama’s House because there is a woman that comes every morning and evening to cook a home-style breakfast and dinner for everyone. So, staying here and eating a home-cooked meal gives a sense of staying over at someone’s home. To be honest, these were some of the best meals I would eat during my entire trip. After breakfast, I headed out with a group to explore the Tulum Mayan ruins and then go to the beach. Not having looked at a map of the area yet, I was surprised how far away the beach was from the town. It took over an hour to reach the ruins by shared taxi and walking.
We paid to enter the ruins, walked around a bit and took some pictures. Although the guided tours seem a bit of a scam, I find that they are often worth it to be able to really understand and appreciate the historic context of the sites. It’s safe to say we didn’t really get much out of the visit other than some fun pictures. Afterward, we headed to the beach which was lined with chairs and umbrellas for rent. The sea was filled with seaweed that continuously got caught in my hair and bathing suit and the short choppy waves made swimming a little unpleasant. Since the Yucatan Peninsula is known for its beautiful beaches with white sand and turquoise water, I was a bit disappointed both by the tourism and the water quality. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one thinking this and the group of us decided to head back to town and grab some lunch.
The following day, I woke up early and grabbed my mask, snorkel, and fins because it was time for some diving! Around 8:00 am the divemaster, Alberto, picked me and my new French friend, Hugo, up from the hostel and took us to our first dive site called Casa Cenote. This is an open, brackish water cenote right next to the coast and receives a lot of tidal influence. Since I hadn’t SCUBA dove in almost a year and Hugo had just recently gotten certified, the divemaster thought it was good to start with an easy, unconfined cenote. We geared up and I was surprised to receive a 5mm wetsuit, but since cenotes contain water that flows from underground, the water tends to be much colder than in the open waters of the Caribbean Sea.
Once in the water we descended and traveled along the edge of the cenote, underneath the mangroves. It was really cool to see the root structures shade us from above and give the feeling of a kind of underwater jungle. The water was crystal clear and I became a bit disoriented when my vision went extremely blurry a few times due to the halocline mixing of freshwater with saltwater. We even saw a sulfur layer that gives a cloudlike appearance from the decomposition of organic materials over time. There were a few different fish, but I was a bit disappointed to not see the local crocodile that frequents this area. Overall, it was a great introduction to cenote diving and I became super excited for what was coming up next.
We packed up the gear and headed to the next dive site about 40 minutes away called Dos Ojos. Arriving there and seeing this classic cenote cavern was breathtaking. The entrance to the cenote is below the cavern roof. The overhang of the roof was shadowing the crystal-clear water below. We had the choice of doing one of two routes, the Barbie Line or the Batcave Line, and decided on the first since it has much more natural light. After descending into the chilly water we followed the rope designating the route. I was in awe of the underwater cavern formations, seeing stalagmites, stalactites, and columns of various sizes.
The entire route took about 40 minutes. It was incredibly stunning to see the beams of light enter the cave and illuminate different features. It felt almost like a Disneyland ride with each section of the route being more beautiful and interesting than the one before it. The water seemed to have almost no sediment and the visibility was comparable to that of bottled water. Swimming through the confined areas was a little unsettling at first and I did my best to relax and control my buoyancy. It was an amazing experience and I texted Eitan afterward that we needed to do a couple more cenote dives once he arrived.
That evening I went out once more with the hostel group and decided to depart Tulum the next day. After seeing Tulum on social media, I had really high expectations of the town but was a bit disappointed. In reality, it was just another Mexican town with a hipster influence and feel and struggled to find it as cute as it was portrayed on Instagram. I did enjoy the access to healthier food options but not the American prices asked for almost everything. I figured we would be returning with Eitan’s family once they were in Mexico, so decided it was time to move on to my next destination: Bacalar!
