Mexico - Akumal: where the turtles live

Akumal, which means 'Where the turtles live' in English, is located about a half an hour drive from Playa del Carmen. As the name suggests, you can see turtles there, so we pack our snorkels and off we go. We leave early in the morning to avoid the crowds, this time on our own. We take a taxi to Playa del Carmen, to the Collectivo station, and from there we take the next Collectivo towards Akumal. This is the cheaper alternative to taking a taxi all the way to Akumal. Collectivos are the public transportation, which are much cheaper than taxis, costing 80 pesos (about 3.60 euros). We seem to have gotten caught in rush hour traffic, as we are the only tourists on the bus. There are only locals on their way to work.

When we arrive in Akumal, it's about a kilometer to the beach. When we get there, we are immediately approached and asked if we want to snorkel with a guide, and that it is mandatory to rent a life vest (of course for a fee), if we want to snorkel alone. Luckily, we did some research beforehand and know that neither of these is really necessary.

There is a restricted area on the beach where you can snorkel with a guide, but a few meters further down the beach to the right, you can do it alone as well. Even without a life vest. However, it's outrageous and pure profiteering that money is demanded here to be able to snorkel at a public beach. Of course, you are not allowed to cross or swim over the restricted area without a guide. Unfortunately, we didn't have much luck today and only saw two turtles. We had heard of people seeing up to 30 turtles in a single day, but today they were either less active or all over in the restricted area that we were not allowed to enter. So the tally remained at two turtles, one stingray, one flounder, various small fish, and a pretty big, malicious-looking fish that stared at us menacingly from the seagrass. But in Akumal, you can simply enjoy the beach. It's really beautiful there!

The only problem is that there are no restrooms there. As both the beach and our bladders got full, we set off again. On the one hand, to visit Yal Ku Lagoon, which is not far from here, and on the other hand, to find a restroom, which is quite far from here - at least when you really have to go :D

The next restroom was only available at our next destination: Yal Ku Lagoon.