9) Tulum, the cenotes around and bpm festival in Playa del Carmen

In the morning (14.01.) we boarded the ferry to Chetumal. During a short stop in San Pedro at the immigration office I learned that you must have 20 US$ in perfect condition available to leave Belize... also it was the most inefficient border control I experienced so far. 1 person checked whether our passport and boat ticket was ok, the next person received the money while a third person's sole duty was to stamp the passport. Passport control is a case where shared labour is actually less efficient! Immigration into Mexico in Chetumal was much less complicated. After a dog searched our bags for drugs, it cost another 15 EUR in MEX$ to enter the country... shuttle busses waited right at the ferry terminal and brought us for a reasonable price to Tulum. Unfortunately, the car had some issues giving us a detour via a car service that resulted in quite a delay.

In Tulum we stayed at Posada Giana. A nice hotel owned by an elder Italian lady. As Tulum is located quite distantly from the beach, we flagged down a cab to get us there and enjoyed a swim and some Tok-tok while the sun went down. The beach was very nice, but the water wasn't. We walked back to Tulum which takes about 45 mins. The next day (15.01.) we decided to rent bikes. We first cycled to Gran Cenote west of Tulum. The biggest entry point to the longest limestone cave system currently known. Most parts are fill with fresh water making it natural water resources and swimming pools :) The water inside is crystal clear where you can easily spot the ground even if it is 5m deep. In the cave we spotted several bats as well as nesting birds. From Gran Cenote we then cycled to the Tulum's Maya ruins at the beach. We shortly explored the area but decided to go for a swim instead due to the soring heat. The water quality was much better here than where we were the day before. When the sun slowly set, the beach was quickly covered in shades. With this great light we continued exploring the small ruins. The location at the beach is nice, but not as spectacular as I hoped and the ruins are the smallest we visited. My final rating of the Maya ruins: 1. Tikal, 2. Palenque, 3. Uxmal, 4. Chichen Itza, 5. Tulum, 6. Kabah ;) Back in Tulum I booked a dive trip to cenote Dos Ojos for the next morning with Scuba Tulum. We had only a 1 night stay at Posada Giana because we booked a stay for another 2 nights at Luna Llena Tulum earlier. We walked to the location google maps showed us based on the booking information. Surprisingly, it turned out that the hotel was not located there... aparently, noone seemed to know the location of this hotel. A taxi driver then told us that he knew the hotel and drove us there. It turned out to be the worst location ever being totally off town. At least the rooms were great and they gave us a discount by illegally handling our stay tax-free. Back in town, we found an awesome local taqueria and finished the day with drinks and nachos+guacamole at nearby bar.

Swimming at Gran Cenote

Cave fun^^

Selfie at Tulum beach, Maya ruins behind us...

great to view the ruins during sunset

this small ruins also offered some good views

The next morning (16.01.) the very friendly German-run dive center turned out to be an excellent choice! Franzi could join our ride to Dos Ojos cenote for free and even got snorkeling equipment and lunch for free. While our group went diving, Franzi went snorkeling and sunbathing :) Diving the cenote was a lot of fun! It was my first cavern-like dive and my first fresh water dive. The water is so clear that diving looks like hovering. The respiratory bubbles formed aggregates of used air at the cave's ceiling that looked like water splashes and tiny lakes being above you, while the water you are in looked like air. Definitely a great experience! On the way back from Dos Ojos Franzi and I hopped off at the main street and flagged down a collectivo going to Akkumal. Some more beach time^^The beach was small and a bit crowded but offered crystal clear water. Some swimming, sunbathing and Tok-tok later, we went back to Tulum. For dinner, everyone advised us to go to Asadero Steakhouse. The food was tasty but the portions small and the waiting time terribly long. After dinner and some shopping we enjoyed some more drinks and music at a nearby bar.

diving Dos Ojos... 

Crystal clear water at Dos Ojos cenote

At the last day (17.01.) we drove to Playa del Carmen, where we started our Yucatan Peninsular trip. We found out that the BPM festival was on its final weekend in Playa del Carmen that Saturday. This time we stayed at Wabi Hotel. Locations closer to the beach were sold out due to the festival. The hotel was ok, much better than Tres Mundos Hostel we stayed at during our first visit. First, we had one of the awesome streetfood burritos at the downtown park again^^. When we went to the beach, people were dancing at the beach with plenty of drinks. However, the crowd was small and the music stopped after sunset. We were surprised. For dinner we went to the great taqueria Los Portales again :) Then we strolled around the streets looking for more places of the festival. We then found that most nightclubs located near the beach at Calle 12 were taking part in the bpm festival. We ended up with some big drinks and quite some fun at La Vaquita - a bar with a cow theme^^

The next day (18.01.) we went for some shopping before we took an afternoon bus to Cancun airport to fly back to Hamburg, Germany.

drinking and dancing at La Vaquita