First things First

After 3 weeks of icy cold Minnesota weather over the holidays, I had to take care of the basics.  Spend a few days at the beach, soaking up the sun, swimming in the Caribbean Sea and adjusting my attitude and patience to Latin American. Tulum is the perfect place to make that adjustment.  Just south of Cancun, Tulum is quite the opposite of the mega resort, party time all night Mayan Riviera.  I stayed at Copal which offers cobanas with cement floors, a bathroom, walls made out of sticks with plenty of gaps for jungle critters (yes spiders, cockroaches, snakes) a thatched roof, no electricity (candles are free) and bed with mosquito net.  

Anticipating at least a couple of hours at the beach on my first day, I was quite happy to move through customs, baggage claim and bus ticket rather quickly.  Mexican tourists board is all too familiar with impatient American beach travelers, so their is system is pretty efficient.  But the sheer number of people still made it a timely process.  I was happy to see they were still using the red light, green light system for randomly selecting people for baggage search. Thankfully the lady that gave me a look and cut in front of me was the lucky one to get the red light for herself, husband and three kids. 

First stop, Playa del Carmen for bus transfer to Tulum. Bus is an hour late, buy no problem will still make a couple hours beach time. I kill the hour at the Taco Stand watching the tanned, happy beach goers of Playa del Carmen wander the streets, while I sit there in long pants, a stinky shirt and two heavy bags that I guard with my life. 

Finally the bus arrives, we are on the way and my chances for a swim in the Sea before sundown look promising.  About 40 minutes into the trip, the bus blows a rear tire!  Oh no!  No more delays, onward driver, three tires remain. And so he does, without so much as even tapping the breaks, the shredded tire works its way free of the rim and we motor on. Cars pass, honking, pointing at the tire, no matter  there is a schedule to keep. Moving along nicely, about 20 minutes away from Tulum, I am sure to be swimming soon and then.....Pow! The bus lists to the right, people grab hold, luggage shifts, dust in the air and the sweet smell of burning rubber and loud clap of a second shredded rear tire hitting bottom of the bus. Why me? This sounded bad enough to cause driver to pull over and take a look, so I am already planning a strategy. Grab my bag and stick my thumb out or jump on a Collectivo (small public van that transports people) whichever comes first. In the 30 seconds it takes for this strategy to materialize, the driver is already seated and pulling onto the road. I praise this man for doing the right thing, after all there are still two good tires on each side. However, not so fast. I mean not so fast as in we only go about 25 MPH, which is utter torture as other buses pass us at the speed of light. What should have been 15 minutes, turned into an hour. Beach time has been jeopardized and I resolve myself to getting there by dark and enjoying happy hour by the Sea.

Not even the most creative writer could entertain by writing about laying on the beach in a vegetative state, so I won't bore you with the next few days. However, I did take some photos of where I stayed and the beach. 

Next up, a 12 hour bus ride the Palenque, Mexico in the state of Chiapas. My first time on an international flight to Santiago, Chile I couldn't imagine my reaction to spending that many hours on an airplane. 12 hours on a bus....I am just hoping there aren't more flat tires.