In which Layla and Roz celebrate their wedding anniversary in a mangrove channel

By Layla

A two and a half hour bus ride through the dark countryside brought us to a very different-feeling Mexico: Tulum. Having done lots of research of Caribbean beaches in Mexico, I decided Tulum sounded the right mix of beautiful, bohemian, and non-18-30s-drunken tackiness a la Cancun reputation... And it proved to be so. I don't like arriving at beach places at night, because as our taxi drove us from Tulum town, several miles in complete blackness, I feared we'd found ourselves in some awful abandoned place. But after checking in (and realizing we'd left all our toiletries in the last hotel and dashing to a little shop to replenish and mourn the loss of Roz's hair product...) we headed down to the beach. We couldn't see the sea, but the sand was soft under our feet, the waves lapped at the shore, and the stars were amazing. We walked along the beach to a beachside restaurant called Zebra, drank mohitos, ate chilli poblado, which was delicious, and after sheltering from a sudden and short rainstorm, strolled home along the beach.

The next day was our 4-year wedding anniversary (indeed, also the 4-year anniversary of this blog!) and we had booked a tour Tripadvisor reviews had assured us would be romantic - a boat tour through a beautiful nature reserve dotted with birds, mangroves, and Mayan ruins, called Sia'an Kaan. Off we puttered in our little boat across the lagoon and into the mangrove channels, watching the water turn from blue to brown-ish to black to yellow-ish to clear... At which point we were told to hop out of the boat into the crystal water of the mangrove channel, and use our life jackets as floatation devices. For 20 minutes, we lazed on our life jackets as the current slowly but determinedly pulled us through the channel. Roz and I were at the front so all we could see was the water, the greenery, blue skies, and an occasional heron. It was both idyllic and bizarrely delightful - we were very sad when it eventually ended, we reluctantly clambered aboard the boat, and were conveyed back to dry land for lunch overlooking the Caribbean. 

We spent the afternoon swinging in hammocks, reading, and drinking the anniversary bottle of wine given to us by the hotel. When it got dark we headed over the road to Om bar for less-good-than-last-night mohitos, before taking a cab to Restaurare, a well-reviewed vegan restaurant, of all things. It was in a beautiful jungly/twinkly candles location, and other than their food being so spicy I could hardly eat it, had a very nice time. We returned to Om - for beers this time - and ended the evening lying on a beach lounger, listening to the waves, and gazing up at the stars - with me yet again impressing Roz by identifying Orion's Belt... 

A comparative long lie this morning, in honour of a day without a strict schedule - and then a tedious hour trying to make Paypal work for a course I was trying to sign up for - and eventually we set off for a beachwalk and ruins day of fun. It was lovely and gloriously picturesque walking several kilometers along the beach, our feet in the lapping waves. We stopped off at a nice beach restaurant for breakfast, then later as the heat started to crush us, a cool beach club for guacamole, beers, a book, a breeze, and lots of water. We gazed out at the sea (and someone doing a hula hoop dance) before hopping in a cab for the final leg of our journey. At last we arrived: the Tulum ruins!

These ruins are apparently the second most visited in Mexico but we arrived sufficiently late that most of the bikini-clad tourists from Cancun and Playa del Carmen had got back on their coaches, and it was fairly relaxing to stroll around these ruins which, while less impressive in scale than Uxmal and Chichen Itza, were interesting, had some cool structures, and gave a nice impression of a real little Mayan town in a beautiful seaside location. We paused by the viewpoint, enjoying watching a woman on a paddleboard on the waves trying to do a headstand and feeling nervous about the paddleboard adventure we're planning for tomorrow (no headstands in our plan though...). 

On the way back from the ruins we stopped off at a beach club where we hopped into the sea and spent the rest of the afternoon jumping in the quite substantial waves, before strolling home along the beach, watching the sunset. We are now de-sanded and installed in another beachside bar where we are enjoying basil mohitos and the sound of the waves. All quite delightful.