Eternally Nomadic

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How to Explore Tulum like a Local

After reading about Tulum everywhere, I convinced B to book a vacation there. Since the weather in NYC has been so mild, the temperature there wasn't much of a shock, but upon getting to the beach, we were in heaven. BUUUUTTTT the hotel we initially ended up was a bit too rustic for our taste (no water pressure, iguanas on the roof at night, no privacy, etc.) and they completely messed up our dates thinking that we were there for only 2 nights. So we rented bikes and found Cabanas Tulum. It costs us a pretty penny, but my oh my, worth every bit of it. 

So with the hotel finally straightened out, we were set to enjoy our vacation. Cabanas Tulum had a great restaurant nearby, Ziggy's that had some fantastic fish tacos. I once told my friend Elise that if I were given a chance to eat fish tacos every day, I would. Then the next day, Montezuma's revenge striked! B was out of commission but at least the hotel was able to get a private doctor to come and give B some meds. Few days later, he was up and at 'em. All in all, it was a great (mis)adventure and B was a good sport. So here's my composite list of what we did and I thought was good:

To Eat:

  • Zamas - a small restaurant with decently priced items. I had a whole fresh caught fish and some ceviche with 2 rounds of drinks for both of us. We paid roughly $70 including the tip. 
  • Mateo's had some good fish tacos and fruity margaritas, if you're into that. A short canopy walk away was the Sunset Lounge. 
  • Ziggy's - I mentioned that they had good baja style fish tacos. Some other items on the menu were good too (I'm sure)

To Do:

  • Tulum Ruins - as a pre-cursor to going to Chichen Itza (a must btw), the ruins offer awesome views of the sea and home to many, MANY iguanas. 
  • Beach - all the beaches in Tulum are public. Go to the hotel zone and get on the beach where they clean the seaweed (ours did). Makes it that much more enjoyable.
  • Chichen Itza - B and I rented a car and drove to Chichen Itza on our way to Cancun. About 2 hour drive from Tulum, we saw one of the Seven Wonders of the World. I highly recommend getting a guide, which we did, and asked him to show up the highlights. For $500 MX it was worth it. The shit those Mayans did was like, whoa!
  • Drinks margaritas and eat local food - what better way to immerse yourself in the culture than eating your way through it? Just don't think the tap water :-)