So Rich and I are taking our last sunny vacatin for awhile. This is the long awaited and long delayed (from March) beach retreat! We are staying in Tulum, along the long beach towards the Sian Ka´an biosphere (sorta like a Mexican national park). In Tulum they didn´t develop the beaches into non'stop all inclusive monstrosities, here they are all small hotels and cabana´s (much like Fairbanks´cabin scene) and the effect is wonderful. Laid back, lots of small restaurants anyone can go to, and hardly any people, because each place can only host so many. Truly paradise here. Sadly we can see the signs that this beach is now getting cooler, and more popular...which means in five years it will all be torn up and changed into some slick ugly modern resort, where good looking teenagers prance around and offend all the locals that are left. But I am here now, and it is beautiful and wonderful now, so maybe my worst fears won´t come true!
Our place of residence. I like it. Mostly cucharacha and skeeter free, a pretty decent free breakfast, no hot water, and the shower water is a bit salty, but not too bad. The restaurant is, well, blech for any meal other than breakfast. Good thing it´s so near all these other AMAZING restaurants. I´m not sure why, but many of the hotels on this beach are owned by Italians, and they love food so much that for $30 USD you can get a three course meal on the beach that is mind blowingly tasty. I got focacia fresh out of the oven with sandy toes! And they have great wine. What more can a girl ask?
So these signs are all over, in a rainbow of langauges, English, Espaniol, Italian, German, and maybe a few more. Turns out there is a woodland based greyish-black crab that has to cross the road to get to the beach. What does a woodsy crab needs at the beach? Maybe some sun, like me! Anyways, we´re extra cautious and have avoided two of the little guys so far.
Pretty much every day Rich and I walk the long, powdery, palmy beautiful beach, sometimes twice in one day! Ít´s great exercise, and lovely. We walked all the way to the nature preserve once, which was 6+ kilometers round trip (4 miles for you metrically challenged folks).
I´ll post some more updates as we do more cool stuff. Right now we´re just reading, relaxing and getting tanner by the minute. Adios amigos!
Richard and Shannon, sitting in the sea, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!
This ray was as long as me! Thankfully he wasn´t the same kind as the one that got Steve Irwin...still I stayed a good distance away. He actually left big scallop shaped dents in the sand, that once you knew what to look for you could trail all over the ocean floor. I so should have been an Indian tracker instead of working for the state. I´ve been obsessed with tracks for the last few years. And I love riding horses and getting the best of cowboys. But I digress...
Can you see the conch?
So different on theunderside :) You can just see his wee foot poking out on the bottom edge.
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