Tulum: Punch Buggies, Butterflies and Gringo Yogi Girls on Bikes

(Lindsey here)

This will be a quick post as we've got an overnight bus to catch in a few hours and still need to grab some dinner beforehand.

Tulum, while not a place we'd jump out and say is a MUST VISIT, was a great intro to our trip. The first sign Tulum might be a little more Gringo-fied than we'd like was when we met two American girls right off the bat at the bus station in Playa del Carmen (next town south after Cancun), waiting for the same bus to Tulum. One was coming down to "winter" with her German boyfriend. She is a yoga teacher and "writer" and was excited about the yoga eco-retreats on the beach - potential places she could teach other wintering Gringos. The other girl was on a one-way ticket to Latin America, with her first stop visiting her very pregnant American friend who has been living in Tulum for a year, with her Argentine boyfriend. Preggers American girl is also a yoga teacher.

Gran Cenote, Tulum

After the requisite Latin 40 minute delay at the bus station, we board and see about five other white girls also traveling solo towards Tulum. None speak Spanish and almost get off at the wrong stop, just outside the town. Lucky we were on the bus with them.

Tulum itself is a bit of an oddity: a bohemian, touristy Mexican beach town that literally straddles a major highway. Restaurants, shops and bars are on each side of the highway, with hostels and smaller business a few blocks on each side. Three kilometers east is the Mayan Riviera beach and Mayan ruins, three km west are cenotes and more ruins. So we've got the beach, ruins, cenotes and yoga retreats. Oh, and the white yogi girls riding bikes everywhere. In massive straw hats.

 Also very typical of Mexico that I remember from my October 2010 trip to Mexico City for Adriana and Jonathan's wedding was the plethora of punch buggies. A's nephew Francisco bruised me up pretty badly on the bus back to the hotel after the wedding. I warned Matt of this when we started punching each other in Northern California last month.

So, being the childlike souls that we tend to be, Matt and I have taken on an ongoing Punch Buggy competition, using our friend Jessica's simple rules: punch buggy cars are 1 point, vans are 2. In the past two days, our tally is an even 17 all. Sometimes I get a little excited and punch Matt too hard and spend five minutes apologizing, until the next punch puggy rolls by and I forget my manners. And they come in all colors, all shades of the rainbow. My secret dream car is a pastel-colored tricked out punch buggy.

And the butterflies! They match the punch buggies in color spectrum. Bright ceruleum, pale yellow, shocking red and black. The provide an ethereal, calming feeling while walking seven kilometers along a hot dusty highway.

Today we spent Day Two at the beach with a new friend we met at our hostel, a NY ex-advertising dude also dating an Australian. Snorkeling in the turquoise waters, carving out a massive juicy pineapple we bought for $2, watching high school girls' soccer practice on the sand and midday coronas... twas a good day.

Tonight it's a 12-hour overnight bus to Palenque in Chiapas, to check out some of the supposedly best preserved example of Mayan architecture. We've been informed by some "family" (a fellow dreadlocked American/Canadian couple, traveling with their dog Ghostbuster, who saw us on our Ft. Lauderdale flight and twice again on the street here) that there's a massive Rainbow festival in Palenque right now...  they were wondering if we were heading there as well. I didn't know what it was but Matt quietly let me know it's probably not something we're prepared for so we'll skip it. The 12/21/12 advocates are out in full force so we're expecting be an interesting two weeks.