Ross Millard’s Weblog

Arriving in Tulum I checked into the Weary Traveller hostel and met an Austrian girl called Lisa who was in the same room as me; Lisa was in the process of taking her Rescue Diver qualification and therefore staying for a week or so. I intended on spending a couple of nights before moving onward to Belize.
The Weary Traveller is a pretty good hostel to stay in because the communal eating area means you get to meet loads of people straight away. Facilities are fairly basic but enough for the budget traveller but a great breakfast is included where you can cook eggs and hot cakes on the hot plate.
This was the beginning of a few adventures …
First of all there were a number of long termers staying there who had been there for literally years! They were a little strange and not really people I wanted to know; basically a bunch of wasters who sat around watching TV and drinking most of the day.
I decided that heading down to see this infamous beach was what I would do. I’ve uploaded a couple of photos which show the wide white sanded beach and the beautiful blue water; definitely living up to my expectations.
The first night Lisa mentioned that there was a party going on down at the beach and it was free for women to get in and she had a free ticket so I could get in. We headed down there with another guy from Poland, and Yonatan from Israel. On arrival we discovered that there was a 100 Peso cover charge and no free drinks as we’d thought. We paid anyway. We had a really great time dancing all night to music put on by a DJ, and drinking Cuba Libres. The highlight of the night was some dancers who performed a number of routines with flags and a couple on stilts. Finally some fire dancers came on and provided a great finale. I guess that was what the cover charge was for; worth it in my view.
I met Adam from Leeds on the following day and after having a few drinks out we headed back to the hostel and a couple of guys were heading down the beach for a swim, so we decided to tag along. The beach is about 5 km from Tulum town, so a taxi ride. When we got down there we had a swim and looked at the stars, but then they said they were going to stay down there, and we only had shorts and t-shirts on rather than lond trousers and jumpers. We decided to leave and head back. There was nowhere open at 3am and we couldn’t get a taxi … so we walked and got back at 4:45am! This was the start of the late nights.
Over the next few nights it was a similar story … lots of beer and Cuba Libres in the evening and drinking through to 4:30am, slepping the following day on the beach. We had a great time!
We decided to take a trip to a beach further down the coast on night to see if we could see the Turtles laying their eggs, so we took a colectivo at around 9pm. We arrived at the beach after trekking down a long dark road and the sanctuary said we should have permission to be there but they would let us wait and if any turtles appeared they would let us know and we could see them.
We waited several hours and decided to head back as there was no news. We walked back up to the main road but there was no collectivos running at around midnight so we walked up the road. We called in at a restaurant and the guy there told us it wasn’t safe to walk along the road at night as there were gangs that would rob and kill you! He offered us a room but we decided to head back to the sanctuary and sleep on the beach. We were woken early by a military guy patrolling the beach and he asked us what we were doing .. fortunately he was ok and let us stay. It then tipped it down with rain so we ran for cover into the sanctuary building where a really kind guy made us coffee and showed us some baby turtles. He then asked us if we would like to see them released back into the sea, so we watched as he released 181 of them. I have a video which is too large to upload that Yonatan took. This made the trip worth while and we caught a collectivo back to Tulum.
The penultimate night in the Weary Traveller … five days later … an Italian called Marco offered to make pizzas for everyone and they were fantastic. One of best meals since I’ve been away.
The final day Sean, Stu, Isabel, Yonatan and myself hired some bikes and headed to Hidden Worlds (about 12 km) which is another Cenote site and did some snorkeling. I bought an underwater camera and had the photos burnt to CD; I will upload these soon. Unfortunately they will be out of sequence in the album.
The next day Lisa, Yonatan, Adam, and I decided to head down to stay in a Cabana at the beach. We found a great Cabana that had enough room for four and a table and chairs inside. We spend two nights there and I got up for the sunrise both days. I have posted some beautiful photos of the first day as it was clearer. When you’re taking it easy it is no problem to get up early and have late nights as you can sleep on the beach the next day! I have even managed to work on my tan a little now. We headed back into Tulum where Lisa and Yonatan were leaving for Merida, and myself and Adam were getting a bus to Chetumal. I was pretty sad to say goodbye to the other guys as we’d got on so well, and hopefully I will see them again.
Chetumal was a bit of a dive, and the hotel we had planned to stay at full, so we got a rather nice room with air conditioning down the road. Worth the extra for a good night’s sleep. We left the following day to head into Belize and onto Caye Caulker, where I am writing this.
Caye Caulker is fairly small with lots of guest houses and dive shops. We checked into Bella’s Guesthouse in our own little two bed room in the garden. Very good.
Yesterday we took a trip to dive the Blue Hole. Adam hasn’t qualified yet so he snorkelled and I was with a group of 12 that dove. I can honestly say it was the best dive I’ve done. There were so many sharks (maybe 30 -50) and some fantastic stalagtite formations as well as hundreds of fish and fabulous coral. The second dive revealed equally great sea life and a huge Eagle Ray. Lunch was spent on the Half Moon Island Sanctuary (see photos) which was lovely. The third dive saw a Nurse Shark and huge shoals of fish. We finished off the day eating at Frans Fast Food street bbq which was amazing, I had a grilled snapper with mashed potato and garlic bread – truly one of the best meals I’ve had.
Just chilling out today, getting the laundry done and thinking about heading down to San Ignacio tomorrow depending on the weather. This is where the 1000ft falls are (although they are 1600ft tall).