I picked Jenn up at the airport and we headed south along the Riviera avoiding Cancun and stopping at Playa del Carmen for a couple of days, taking in the first of the warm and turquoise Caribbean waters and finding a park with great street food and live music from a little old man with a big smile and huge sombrero who we came to adore. After leaving most of my gear behind with Rosario, we packed a backpack and continued along the highway until Tulum. I had had a few short experiences of riding with a passenger and although it’s not as enjoyable I was now comfortable with the changes in weight distribution, gearing and cornering.
We found some relatively cheap accommodation in the resort area across from the beach and visited the Mayan city on the glistening shores of the Caribbean Sea. On continuing this stretch of coast we entered the UNESCO protected biosphere leaving the bitumen behind where the road quickly turned to shit, sandy, bumpy, uneven and full of potholes. The path through dense tropical growth often opened up to follow the shoreline where we stopped for a quick swim on a secluded beach. It took over three hours of riding to cover 50km’s but we finally arrived at the end of the road at Punta Allen, a small and peaceful fishing village.
The village is popular for its fishing charters which were in off season so we enjoyed being the only foreigners staying there, found a nice room on the beach and wandered around eating fried Mexican food from the old ladies, avoiding the late morning heat, swimming and finding the lighthouse.
On returning to Tulum we stayed in the town, spent a day picnicking at some cenotes, or freshwater sinkholes often formed by collapsed earth exposing the underneath water, or a cave. We dived off the platforms up to 10 metres high and went snorkeling to follow the large sea turtles around at Akumal. We returned to find a small hut on the beach and spent the last of couple days back in Playa Del Carmen before dropping Jenn back off at the airport early one morning. That completed a very relaxing couple of weeks where we swam every day and took it quite easy in perfect company (most of the time), somewhat a holiday from my travels.
