Spring Break - Mexico - Part 3 - Exploring

Akumal is only about a 15 minute drive to Tulum so we took the kids again.  We were in Tulum about 9 years ago with Mia and Luca when they were 4 and almost 2.  It was so fun to be back again!

The day was overcast and it was a perfect day to sight see because typically, the ruins of Tulum get HOT.  It's rather small and we meandered the little trails through the park and stopped to watch the huge iguanas now and again.  

Here is the photo from 2011!  

Before we head out of Tulum, Mia spotted a Starbucks and we went in, eager for some AC!  

Our most favorite explorations were of our own little town of Akumal.  We walked the road from our condo into town often and loved all of the bright walls and beautiful simplicity.  On our last day, we actually rented a golf cart to get to and from town and it was a blast!

The town has a lot of coatimundi, which are critters that a bit like racoons/monkeys/squirrels.  You can spot them everywhere!  We had just discovered them over this brick fence when I took this. 

The main square of town is lovely and very little, with some shops, little cafes and restaurants and an ice cream shop.  We absolutely fell in love with Akumal.  We decided we want to return again! Just not with a global pandemic with us. :)

Spring Break - Mexico - Part 2 - Beach Days

After our few days of super fun adventures, we settled into a rhythm of beach days, being lulled as much as we could by the waves, the warmth and the sun.  We threw tennis balls on the beach, snorkled, swam, and walked the shore searching for sea glass, which became a past time a bit.  

Our condo had a pool.  It was cold, but a nice way to cool off after salt water. 

The kids brought their own snorkel gear and would often tear off into the ocean and swim for a long time together.  I would get nervous as they would slowly disappear out of sight, but V always reminded me how shallow the waters were.  They would come back telling of everything they saw.  Pretty incredible!

The kids brought blow up floaties too which was a brilliant idea!  

Man do we love the beach. 

Spring Break - Mexico - Part 1 - Adventures

We spent a week in Akumal Mexico over spring break and it was one of our favorite vacation destinations, by far.  We all absolutely love the beach and being near the water, and love Mexico specifically.  

The Covid-19 Pandemic that was unfolding globally all around us made for an exceedingly stressful travel companion but there were moments of pure beauty and magic.  We flew out in the early morning of March 14th, and to be honest, had our flight been a day or two later, we would have cancelled.  States weren't on "lockdown" yet but over the next few days, the reality of the virus set in and governments were calling people to stay home.  We were already in Mexico and were so unsure of how to proceed.  I'm not going to lie, I shed some tears and felt wild waves of major anxiety.  

Vacations are so important to us as a family and even though there were some tough moments of uncertainty about when we'd get home, now that we're back, we can view the experience as the adventure it was. 

Neil and Pam introduced us to a friend they met in Akumal who gave us two tours.  On the first day, he took us to an ecological park with 5 above ground cenotes and one massive cenote underground.  A cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath. It was perhaps our favorite experience of the trip. 

Taking little trails to these hidden spots of insane beauty was incredible.  We were almost alone out there and spent the day moving from cenote to cenote.  I don't have any photos of the underground cenote because you can't photograph in them (the lights will deteriorate the very fragile conditions) but it was stunning.  Cool crystal clear water and stalactites and stalagmites everywhere made for a bit of a surreal experience. 

This is Ahmed with us.  He was so sweet and wonderful; he even comforted me at one point when I got teary about the brewing pandemic.  It felt nice to feel we had a true friend in him.  

On our second full day, we decided to do one more activity we wanted to do with Ahmed.  We weren't sure if we would be cutting our trip short and we wanted to see and do what we could.  Ahmed took us out on his friend's speed boat past the ruins of Tulum (those are the ruins behind us on the boat!) to swim with wild sea turtles.  They brought a bucket of fish and turtle grub and when we stopped the boat, they dumped some in the water.  The turtles and the sting rays come right up to get the food, and allowed us to swim with them to "pet" them.  Akumal means "place of turtles" in Mayan and  is exactly where hundreds of these tutles arrive every year to lay their eggs on the beach during the summer months.  It felt incredible to swim in the ocean and the kids were absolutely in their element.  That's Mia on the left and Luca on the right (and me on the way right). 

Ahmed took this just before we jumped on the boat to head out for the day.

The two shots above were taken at the caleta de yalku, which is a cool spot where the fresh water lagoon meets the ocean water.  It is a unique experience to feel the difference between the two bodies of water. We stopped here on our boat ride back.  It was so fun to just pull the boat up to the shore and hop out onto the beach.

Mia and Luca

This was lunch on our first day of playing in the cenotes.  We all loved the fresh food and are longing for more of it. 

This is a cute little bar/restaurant down the street from where we stayed and it was a nice easy place to stop for a few meals. 

More photos to come in the next few blog posts!  This was only the first two days of our trip!