Today we unusually nice out according to the locals. It was beautiful and felt about 20 degrees cooler than Panama City. We took a really long walk into the centro. There were so many great door photos. Here is the first one I saw.
After our walk we went grocery shopping. The store was similar to an American supermarket but there were a few differences.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think pig sized pork rinds are common at Safeway.
Is Twix Coffee a think l thing in the US?
I know dried chilis ate available, but in bulk?
We weer able to find everything except few a,few things like canned garbonzo beans. But we did find the dried. So next time I remember to soak them the night before and have 3-4 hours to cook then we’ll be all set.
On Monday we took a bus from Tulum to Merida. The bus, was great, air conditioned. Comfortable, quiet. But it was long. Somehow we didn’t realize it would be a 5 hour trip.
But once in town we got an Uber who gave us a quick tour of the town. Then we got to our Airbnb and we ordered in food.
On Saturday the wedding activities continued. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate and the planned sailing, snorkling trip was scraped. Instead the boat was able to park in a bay.
Last night we had so much fun. Our nephew Brian’s wedding to Jessica was incredible. The setting was gorgeous. First wedding where I had my shoes off before the ceromony even started.
It was a night filled with so much love and joy.
I didn’t get photos of later in the night but they had another 40 friends at the wedding who danced until late into the night.
Everyone had so much fun. We got there at 4pm and didn’t leave until midnight.
Today was the pre-wedding welcome drinks. I didn’t get very many photos but we had a really fun time. Here is Jeff with our grand nieces Aubrey and Carly.
Tomorrow I will get a lot more photos. We loved seeing everyone ! Tonight we got to see my brother and sister in laws, three of my nephews meet their wives and brides and see our great nieces. No surprise that the Zeunert women who have married into the Zeunert family are awesome.
Below is my sister in laws Amy and Gabriella, my niece in law Melisa and me.
Today started off crazy. We thought we found a place to go for beach access but after this text exchange decided no. We were not about to pay $200 just to nap on a lounge chair.
Then we tried to go to another place but it was $50 just to enter. Didn’t include parking. We finally found the free beach. It was beautiful but no shade.
We decided to walk to a nearby restaurant that had shade and no cover charge.
And that was perfect. We stayed for hours and had the longest lunch every. Here was the view from our table.
Then before leaving Jeff tried out the hammock and I feel asleep in an andironack chair.
Jeff and I walked to the rental car place this morning.
This street reminded is how Tulum looked the first time we visited. Once we got the rental car we went to the grocery store. I didn’t but these Pringles but it was tempting.
Later in the afternoon we tried to go to the beach. We were on it for maybe five minutes before they told us it was closed. We thought we were at the free access beach but apparently not. We’ll try again tomorrow.
Jeff and I were in Tulum 25 years ago. This is where we stayed. It was even more rustic inside.
Heres the weird thing, it was easier for us to settle in back then
We rented a car in Cancun. Tulum didn’t even have a town much less an airport. We didn’t have cell phones or advance reservations. We had a paper map, a Lonely Planet Guidebook and a bottle of water. We drove until we found a hut we liked and paid in the pesos we had exchanged dollars for in our US bank. This hut I remember cost $30 a night which was overpriced for what it was even then.
Now we are in a beautiful Air BnB but completely confused. We have WIFI in the condo, but on our walk to breakfast we realized that we didn’t have data and got completely lost. Like walking in circles lost.
We stumbled on a great place for breakfast, and paid with credit card. When the waitress said we couldn’t add the tip on we remembered we only had US dollars and Colombian pesos. Jeff had to run to an ATM.
We went to a 7 eleven to get a SIM card for my phone. A SIM card is a tiny microchip thing you can put in some phones which makes it basically a burner phone. Putting the chip in was not easy.
We also realized the Uber thing. Uber is allowed here which is what I had read. But the taxis have a monopoly so don’t allow peopke to drive for Uber. A five mintute taxi ride from the neighborhood we’re in is $20. That is a flat rate. I think the taxi drivers may own the town.
Now we know why everyone suggests renting a car if you are not staying in a resort in Tulum. So guess what we’re doing tomorrow.
But by evening we got our wits about us. We found our favorite kind of tacos.
We found a mini mart where they circumvented the Sunday night dry laws, and found homemade tortillas, and fresh eggs for tomorrow’s breakfast.
