It is at the very southern tip of the island and I was at the very northern tip. My plan was to cycle down and return before I would take the ferry to the main land again.
For this I needed a good strong breakfast. I knew a place I had tried the day before. Just a few meters down the road. A little garage sort of place that sold tacos, fajitas and fresh juices. A good start into the day. I was ready to go now.
Just between the Hotel and the breakfast place was a place that rented these Golf carts that are all over the island but they also had bikes.
I got one for two hours and set off south along the east coast of the island this time. Here it was not so busy but the head wind was very strong... It was a lovely cycle with great views, past the little private airport in the middle of the island, guarded by mercenaries (or at least the looked like it). It reminded me of how I would imagine a little secret air strip in the middle of the Colombian jungle where the Cartels would fly out their drugs.
Due to the strong wind all along the ride I was pretty exhausted when I finally arrived at the southern tip of the island.
I parked my bike next to the golf carts whose owner had come here with ease and not felt all the pain, fighting against the wind and walked in. This now looked very touristy, nice, but touristy. White table cloth on the tables in front of the restaurants, that were in houses that looked like the should be in one of the new England states, rather than down here and fancy golf cart drivers drinking champagne and eating lobsters.
Well, I was only interested in going to the very souther tip and checking out the Maya temple.
For this though, I had to pay a small fee. Not much was left of the temple but it was exciting to think about this place being a place of worship for the old Mayas. Not surprised really, the place was beautiful. The water crystal clear (still) and the rocks fell steep into the water.
I really didn't want to get back on the bike, but had to very soon if I wanted to make it back to the rental place within the two hours (if the cycle down here was any indication).
Going back was not so much of a problem, because the wind was still blowing in the same direction, which was with me this time. So I arrived a good 20 minutes earlier than I expected and returned the bike.
Now it was time to pick up my bags and go to the harbour. I didn't have to wait very long for a ferry and soon we were on the way back to Cancun.
On the open top deck of the ferry was a musician, who left us no choice but to listen to him or go into the air conditioned section underneath.
Usually I wouldn't enjoy anyone playing music into your face without a choice but he was very good and had some nice hippy talk about everyone should be happy, it's not about the money, peace brother and so on, after the show when we were about to dock.
So I gave him a few peso.
From the ferry terminal I had to get to the ADO (one of the big bus companies in the Yucatan area) bus station now. With the experience on the way out I refused to take a taxi like all the other tourists and looked for a bus station. After some questions I did find one and joined the queue.
Luckily this bus would bring us straight to the big ADO bus station where I wanted to go and only cost a few peso (probably less than I gave the musician).
I really enjoyed the uncomfortable, noisy and hot bus ride.
At the large, new, clean(ish) bus station in central Cancun, joined a queue, that I assumed was to buy tickets. It wasn't very long but moved depressingly slow. It turned out (at least I think, this) to be the customer services queue where people tried to get refunds and exchange their tickets. So each person took very long to process. I decided to stick with it in case I go over to the other queue and then that one would not be the right one either and I had to queue all over again. I got my ticket to Tulum in the end and went to the waiting area. Again, not much longer (maybe 15 - 20min) my bus was ready to load.
The ADO bus system is quite good, the buses are clean, new and comfortable, reasonably priced and pretty frequent to the places that I would be going in the next couple of days. The only thing that should be improved (in my OCD German mind) is the signage for the buses.
If you buy a ticket, it says, where you are and where you want to go, but not what bus number it is or what the final destination the bus goes to. The bus itself only has a sign (if you are lucky) that tells you the final destination, but if the place where you want to go is somewhere along the way you don't know that this is your bus. So I had to ask each time when there was bus if this is mine, because there was also no gate numbers or display that would tell you anything about the bus that just arrived. The bus guys I asked were relatively forgiving for me asking them every 5 minutes and I got on the bus that I wanted in the end.
It didn't take long again for me to fall asleep, only to wake up every now and then. We passed through thick jungle, the City of Playa del Carmen and soon we were passing the archaeological sites of Tulum.
Then we arrived at the bus station in Tulum. Also clean and relatively new but of course much smaller.
It was very hot and the walk to the hostel seemed quite far on my map so I took a taxi. This guy didn't try to rip me off and just charged me the pre agreed 40 peso (3 Euro ) for it. It was quite a distance and being so happy not to be ripped of I even gave him a tip.
Not sure if my theory is true, but I hope that being out of the way of the Spring Break tourists of Cancun (Tulum is still touristy but in a different way than Cancun) the locals (and tourists) are nicer and everyone treats each other with some respect.
The Hostel (Sheck Hostel) was a great little place. It had a little garden with hammocks, a bar and a great atmosphere about it. It was a bit out of the way from the central Tulum or ocean front Tulum area but I immediately liked it (and would suggest it to anyone who visits Tulum).
It was a sort of relaxed back packer hostel and I quickly joined a group of people and had a nice cold beer and a chat.
For food I just stopped off at a little quesadillas place, but the employees (it looked like a sort of Mexican food fast food franchise) didn't seem very enthusiastic and the food wasn't very good. So I tried the little stand next door that sold tamales (little breads filled wiht chicken and stuff - a bit spoungy). They were not exactly what I was looking for but the experience and the happy owner that knew half of the customers by name made more than up for it.
Now it was time to get back to the hostel and soak up the travellers atmosphere there a bit.
I met Qwen from the Netherlands and we decided to hit the streets of Tulum for a few more beers and an odd Tequila. While wearing silly mexican Sombreros in one of the more touristy bars we decided to rent bikes in the morning and cycle to the Maya temples.
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