Tulum, Mexico

When you enter Guatemala on a tourist visa, you have 90 days in the country. At that point, if you go to Migración in Guatemala City, you can renew it for another 90 days. But at 180 days, you need to exit the country. When you enter again, the process starts over. And we had to time it just right so that we only have to exit once in the year that we are here, so pretty much at the midpoint.

There could be many worse things than having to plan a trip outside of Guatemala. Brett looked around for cheap tickets and pretty much the best deal was to Cancun on Volaris. We didn’t want to be in Cancun itself, so we decided to go south to Tulum to escape some of the tourism.

I think that this was the first time I had been to the Caribbean! And I think that the beaches there might forever spoil me for any other beach. It was glorious.

Another first was that I was the driver. For whatever reason, Brett has always been the driver in Guatemala when we have rented cars. But, he was pickpocketed in the market and lost his drivers license. Since we are waiting for his replacement I.D. (without photo because MD screwed up their implementation of REAL I.D.), I had to drive. It was probably good for me–and good for the girls to see too.

We rented a condo on the north side of Tulum through AirB&B, which worked great. Then we spent 3 days exploring.

Tulum is known for several things: great beaches, Mayan ruins overlooking the beach, cenotes (more on that later) and instagramers! Everything was an Instagram moment and there were many people trying to get that perfect shot, even at the expense, we thought, of just enjoying the experience.

The first day we went snorkeling in the Ya-Kul lagoon, which is a crystal clear body of water that opens into the sea. It’s shallow and calm and we saw a lot of different types of fish. Really the perfect place for beginner snorkelers.

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We rented all our gear and got ready to go.

I think that both girls were almost beside themselves with excitement to do this. Willa isn’t in any of the photos in the water, but that’s because she was zipping around with the fish. I don’t know the names of all the fish we saw other than parrot fish and blue tangs. But it was quite a variety.

On the way back, we stopped at a rocky beach just to look around. There were so many little pools with all kinds of life in them: snails, crabs, anemones, fish. I could have stayed there a long time just poking around.

The next day, we visited the Tulum ruins. This location was inhabited as early as the 500s, and at some point the Mayans built this walled city which thrived for centuries until sometime in the 1500s.

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Don’t be fooled by these smiles. They are fake. There was a lot of complaining on this walk because it was very hot and the girls wanted to move on to the next activity.

Which was a boat trip and snorkeling out to the reef just off shore!

Snorkeling was fantastic! The girls were beside themselves with excitement. We saw a lot of rays and even 2 sea turtles! I accidentally kicked a ray because it came really close to me and I didn’t see it. Its body is pretty solid. As amazing as it was though, we could tell that the reef showed signs of bleaching. The colors just weren’t very vibrant. Unfortunately this is the plight of many reefs as the water temperature increases.

We spent our last day visiting Gran Cenote. A cenote is a sinkhole or underground cave where the ceiling has collapsed and the water is amazingly clear and cool. There are many on the Yucatan peninsula.

And of course, throughout our stay in Tulum, we ate wonderful seafood! I could have shrimp or fish tacos every day, I think! One evening, we had dinner in Palma Central, a lovely outdoor dining area with live music surrounded by food trucks, so everyone could get what they wanted.

More food and restaurant shots

And no trip would be complete without some shopping time for Sadie.

Or a visit (or several) to an ice cream shop

All our travel went smoothly, the driving and the flights. We were able to get our new stamps on our passports coming back into Guatemala. And coming back really felt like coming home. As you walk through the airport, there are many large photographs of different places in Guatemala and it was exciting to see that so many of them are now familiar! And now we are starting the last 6 months of this adventure….