Hello Reader,

Am I the worst at blogging about all my travel experiences? Yes, I am and that’s a fact. So here I sit to share with you one of the most perfect little 2.5 day get-aways I’ve had.

I have wanted to visit Cancun ever since my mom read me the children’s book called “Altoona Baboona“. It’s about a baboon that travels all over the world… one of the places being Cancun(a)… the book rhymes and was quite a thrill to me as an 8 year old.

With a couple hours of research under my belt and a last minute flight to Cancun, we rented a car and hit a couple of the “must do in Cancun / Tulum / Playa Del Carmen” types of things… so you can think of this as a very consolidated “MUST DO” list… but this is ALL we did so I’m sure there are better things to do that I don’t know about, but I think this list is a really good starting point for your trip.

Cenotes – We hit up two different Cenotes and they were both so inspiring and so different from each other, I would highly recommend you add this to your bucket list because it was like swimming in another realm of existence.

What is a Cenote? It is a fresh water bathing pool of sorts.

This is what google says:

Cenotes are surface connections to subterranean water bodies. While the best-known cenotes are large open water pools measuring tens of meters in diameter, such as those at Chichen Itza in Mexico, the greatest number of cenotes are smaller sheltered sites and do not necessarily have any surface exposed water.

-Google

Cenotes Dos Ojos (Two Eyes) – This spot is about 30 minutes from downtown Tulum (maybe an hour or a little more from Cancun) and worth the drive from either location. There are two pools and personally I thought “Ojo Uno” was the best one but by the time I got in Ojo Dos, it was getting a little dark so the lighting wasn’t as good. Ojo Uno was the most comfortable Cenote in my opinion because it was deep, but not TOO deep, you could see and swim to the bottom if you wanted to, but there weren’t too many rocks or dangerous spots. Ojo Dos had a few more rocks which made navigating it a little less relaxing, but both were amazing. The water is CLEAR BLUE like you wouldn’t believe. Ojo Dos even has some bats flying around which was kind cool (and slightly creepy).

Cenotes Kin-Ha – This. Was. Magical! Seriously this was freaky at the beginning but in such a great way. You go down two flights of stairs to this underground cave that has a few lights, and one big hole at the top that you can jump from. This Cenote is so deep (over 200 feet) that you can’t see the bottom, and since it’s a little darker in this one, when we first went down, the water just looked so dark blue it was a little freaky until we got in and realized you could see through the water, it’s just dark. Don’t drop your phone here 🙂

Check out this video below to see what it was like in the Cenotes!

Playa Delfines – The bluest beach waters I’ve ever seen and so beautiful right in Cancun near the hotel zone. It’s worth a couple hours of your time to get that salt water therapy.

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Tacos at Antojitos La Chiapaneca in Tulum – If there is ONE thing you do in Tulum, THIS IS IT! I’m telling you… this is the most authentic (but still safe) street taco style food experience you’ll get and it was simply amazing. I Ordered Tacos, Sopes, Tostadas, Empanadas, Pnuchos and I think some Salbutes… I couldn’t have told you which was which when I was eating them but I really do recommend just going in there and ordering one of everything. Go with the pork / al pastor, or the beef, chicken was my lesser favorite. Also the prices on the menu below are in PESOS – not DOLLARS! Generally to do the rough math I figure about 20 pesos per US dollar. It changes though.

This spot is where I felt like I did my best “traveling”… I found the spot that had locals, gringos and everyone in between, (stray dogs on the sidewalk, and someone had their cat with them at a table) I just ordered one of everything off the menu… and it was ALL amazing! Please, do yourself a favor and don’t always order what’s safe or normal for you… take a risk,

you might like what happens.

-Me, Dan DuPraw

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Tacos in Cancun – The second best tacos I ate on this trip were from Los Tarascos. This place was nice but I’m not convinced there aren’t better tacos in Cancun. If you aren’t sure where to go, check it out because you won’t be disappointed. The seating is all open air and right along the street and they play fun music.

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Ruins of Tulum – Make sure not to get taken advantage of by the people trying to sell you parking and over priced tickets. Tickets cost 80 pesos at the actual ticket booth. Don’t buy from anyone on the sidewalk or in the parking lots. Some chica tried to charge me 280 pesos and I ALMOST did it until I realized that the price was SCRATCHED OFF on the ticket (LOL). So park and pay a small fee for parking, then walk to the entrance and buy your tickets at the gate (basically, walk as far as you can until there is a turn-style and that’s where you get your real tickets).

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Tulum – When you go through Tulum, if you aren’t staying in this area, you should put Azulik Tulum in your GPS and drive down that road (Calle Zona Arqueologica Tulum – Punta Allen). There are all sorts of boutique hotels and stores with handmade items, this is the more ritzy area of Tulum but it’s definitely worth a drive down, and there are some cool beach stops along the way with good views of the ocean.

Walking in Playa Del Carmen – a quaint little Mexican beach town. We stopped here to walk around and have a Cerveza for a couple hours (it’s a nice stop between Cancun and Tulum) and you can get tickets to Cozumel if you’d like (I didn’t have time for that). Sit on the pier, drink your cerveza, and then move along – NOTE: I would recommend avoiding this area around spring break, it just has that VIBE of “it gets messy here” when I imagine all the spring breakers are doing their “spring breaky” thing… if you know what I mean.

So if you don’t know what to do and you’re in the area… any thing on this list won’t disappoint. This was probably the best case scenario kind of trip. There were no hiccups or timing issues and we just went from one thing to the other based on a little googling.

Until next time 🙂

Dan

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