Time out for two... Let's continue through Mexico: Tulum & Punta Allen

Tulum is a beautiful little Mexican town that embodies the typical vibe of hippie-eco-vegan culture. There are diverse hotels and restaurants adorned with tropical plants and wooden art, serving fresh and delicious food. The prices are accordingly European. We spent 3 nights in Tulum. Our main goal was the Mayan ruins on the Gulf of Mexico. Surrounded by palm trees, iguanas, and the deep blue sea, the ruins had something very beautiful about them. We then booked a boat and snorkeling tour. After a short glimpse of the ruins from the water, the boat crossed over to the snorkeling spot. It would have been a beautiful spot to explore the underwater world, but there were too many tourist-packed boats parked at the spot, so we were more busy avoiding elbows and kicks... Furthermore, feeding was encouraged, which we don't approve of. A pile of stingrays and people gathered in one spot. Nico and I still had the luck to observe and film a little turtle peacefully, as the others just struggled and kicked in one spot instead of swimming and gliding over the water. The poor turtle even suffered a kick to the head. Oh man...

We spontaneously decided to rent an SUV in Tulum and take the 3-hour dirt road to Punta Allen. The small fishing village is located at the end of a peninsula that stretches nearly 30 km south of Yucatan in the Gulf of Mexico. We didn't regret this idea! There were hardly any tourists there, we had pure Caribbean feeling, and there was an incredible calmness in this little piece of earth. We booked a small tent on the beach in the hotel complex "Cielo-Selva" for 3 nights. It was a sandy affair and at night we were awakened by the drumming of rain on the tent, but it was wonderful to open our sleepy eyes in the morning and look directly at the sea 😊

Even though we were in a Caribbean paradise, the sad truth remained, which clouded the paradise... The entire peninsula and the beach were filled with trash that had washed up over the course of 2 years! It was really heartbreaking to see how such a beautiful place could be ruined! And the problem was not just Mexico. It affects the whole world! Who knows where all the plastic bottles, incredibly many shoes (!!!???), fishing nets, and various other garbage came from... The islanders and hotel owners couldn't keep up with the clean-up anymore, so a walk on the beach meant walking through a mountain of seaweed and plastic trash...

Nevertheless, we enjoyed our little break in the Caribbean, drank from freshly picked coconuts, met a very nice Mexican family, and this time we had a really great boat and snorkeling tour in Punta Allen! We observed a school of dolphins with a baby dolphin, a large loggerhead turtle, a beautiful coral reef with many colorful fish, squid, and stingrays, and last but not least, a large manta ray swam by our boat. It was fantastic!

And as I mentioned, I didn't want to let boredom arise. Can't have the old man sitting his butt on the beach chair :-P
So I let the drone land somewhere on the beach and went on a search mission with Nico again :-D
Luckily, my amazing husband came up with a rescue idea after a long search: Check the landing coordinates in the app. Yup, the option "find drone" exists. Could have thought of that right away... :-D

Back in Tulum, we once again took the ADO bus and let it take us to our next destination: The colonial city of Merida in northern Yucatan...