Akumal | Cozumel

Flying from CDMX to Cancun on the east coast of Mexico we knew from the airport how different this part of Mexico was going to be.  The sheer number of people trying to get us into a private car and also the cost of 2 bottles of water (5 times the average airport cost….)  We were picked up by the daughter from the place we were staying which was in Akumal (1 hour down the coast from Cancun), another noticeable difference was the state of the highway - great condition and so big in comparison to west coast and Oaxaca.

We were staying ‘in the jungle’ not on the beach side of the highway in a place called Camp Akumal http://campakumal.com/campakumal/  Camp Akumal was geared up for families, great space with two pools, lovely spacious apartment with air con - complete necessity for this time of year.  We also rented a car directly from them which saved the hassle of the inflated insurance costs and crazy inspections on returning a vehicle.  We went for local dinner and were also the dinner for the local mosquitos.  Dana who owns Camp Akumal provided an amazing summary of all the places to go, things to do and local advice on how to avoid issues on the road / petrol stations etc.  Great for me, the ever planner, to figure out what we would do over the next few weeks.

The next day we experienced our first cenote - we had heard about them from our friends Helen and Julio before we left but I don’t think we realised how big a part of our time in Quintana Roo would be spent in Cenotes.  Essentially these are fresh waterholes that are connected through a stream of underground rivers, every one is completely different.  Cristialino was stunning, introduced the first cliff jump to the boys - over the next few days these would get bigger and they would get more daring. we have hundreds of videos!  This cenote also had little fish that loved to eat all the dead skin from your feet, considering I hadn’t had a pedicure in a while this was a treat although they loved Tim’s feet more!  There was also a hidden cave which was fun to swim too and explore.

Wednesday we headed to Coba ruins, we had not heard of these ruins, we had planned to go to Chichen Izte but Coba was a suggestion from Dana’s list and was amazing.  In the jungle, huge city with one of the highest pyramids in Mexico and the only one you can still climb.  We hired a bike each to get around which was great fun and meant we avoided the - I’m tired, I can’t walk anymore comments (well for most of the time).  We spent 3 hours checking out the ruins, climbing and gradually getting hotter and hotter.  We knew there were some cenotes close by and that these are underground cenotes, there were 3 close to each other and we choose 2 to explore.  Getting into these was quite an experience as it feels like you are walking down a well, not for the faint hearted - the boys practically ran down.   Tamcach-Ha was breath taking, huge underground, deep blue cenote with a 10m and 5m wooden diving platform.  The boys were impressive jumping off the 5m, Tim from the 10m!!  We had an amazing time there.  The next cenote Choo-Ha was once again different many more stalactites and stalagmites, huge underground space and no one there but us - which was cool but also freaky.  We didn’t spend as much time here but had fun exploring all the nooks and crannies.

Thursday and we thought we should try and check out the beach, we had been warned about the Sargassum (seaweed) and had been sent the webcams for some of the beaches so we could see how bad it was before going.  I mentioned this in the blog about things we loved / and not so much, it is a real issue which doesn’t look like it will be solved anytime soon.  Climate change, pollution are some of the possible factors and solutions at the moment are to put more people on to the clean up - JCB’s and trucks taking loads away on a daily basis.  Talks of government corruption in not working through large scale solutions is also discussed on the local newspapers.  

We drove down to Chamico’s beach bar, this is a part of the beach that has a lot of natural sea grasses and a reef that has kept quite a bit of the sargassum away.  We all managed to snorkel and swim without getting caught in the seaweed however we all craved the refreshing water of the cenotes so went to seek out another one - Zacil-Ha.  This one became a favourite for the boys due to the 3m and 5m jumps and also a zipline that went across the middle.  They had a ball and by this stage had been researching diving - a few Tom Daily youtube videos!  and now were diving from these heights much to the delight of the mostly mexican crowd.

Then came the day of the scorpion…  Dana had caught a scorpion (alive) in her home and brought it in a jar to show the boys.  Who were, of course, delighted!  They stared at it and took it everywhere with them for the morning….  we had promised Dana that we would realise it away from camp akumal when we left for the day.  So he came in the car with us….  we stopped before the highway and found a spot to release him.  The boys both wanted too, I had visions of them fighting and the scorpion flying and landing on one of them so the job went to Tim.  The scorpion was released, at first he didn’t want to move as we were all staring at him, but then he started to scamper off.  We then heard a noise and saw an iguana running at full speed towards the scorpion and in 2 bites the iguana had swallowed the scorpion, poor thing had about 20 seconds of freedom before his death…  circle of life in Mexico!  We drove up to Playa del Carmen to have brunch with a friend Emma who was over for business, we tried to go to the beach there but the sargassum was too bad so off to a new cenote. This time garden of eden - totally our favourite, a huge open cenote - with of course great cliff jumps…  as we arrived the heavens opened but there's no better place to be in the rain than in the water….

Saturday we were up super early to drive 2 hours to the famous Chichen Itze mayan ruins, probably the largest, most popular in Mexico.  It didn’t disappoint, we had an amazing guide called Eric, learnt loads and he was patient with Dexter’s non stop questions - and not always about animals, the human sacrifice element had definitely taken the interest of the boys imagination.  We saw the biggest ball court we have seen so far (and we can now probably call ourselves experts in this field.  Debated on whether it was the losing or winning captain that was beheaded (truth is they don’t really know).  Learnt more about the quetzal bird and also found out some bits about Tikal where we would be going in a few weeks.  There is so much to write about the ruins, Tim will likely do a blog on all of them as he is totally the most knowledgeable one on this.  After local BBQ chicken we were off cenote-hunting again.  Ik-kil the closest cenote that you can swim in from Chicken-Itze was amazing, it is quite commercialised as so many people visit there but still beautiful.  Another cliff jump of course, it’s also the place from one of the redbull cliff diving competitions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGnnM98UGg8

Then it was Mexico fathers day and we started in Kaan Luum lagoon, went to check out Tulum - unfortunately Sargassum too bad to stay too long, too smelly for eating near the beach so we went back to Akumal and to an awesome restaurant ‘Buena Vida’ for lunch and margaritas. Probably too many margaritas for me as I had to take myself off to bed super early from an afternoon of too much relaxation and tequila….  We had previously planned to drive down to Bacalar (large lake further south) but we ended up changing our plans and getting the ferry to Cozumel which is an island off the coast.  Main reason is that on the west coast of the island there is no sargassum so we thought it would be great to have a few days snorkelling in the caribbean.  The turquoise water that greeted us as we got of the ferry was magical!  

We had a fun few days, the island is small and takes about an hour to drive around, there are plenty of beach bars - from super exclusive to super local, we tried a mix of both.  It is a strange place due to the number (and size) of cruise ships that pass through on a daily basis, must become groundhog day for the people that live there, a few days was plenty for us.  

We had a couple of days back in Akumal to end our Mexican adventure (for now), we revisited our favourite cenotes, plus a new one - Gran cento, this one had turtles swimming in the water much to Dexter's joy. I had fun packing and repacking to fit everything into our bags, weirdly gives me a sense of satisfaction that I can get it all in…. Then we were off - direct flight to Guatemala city for the next part of our adventure….  volcanoes and spanish school, more from us in a few weeks

#francisfourontour