Tulum

We stayed in Akumal until sunset so we didn't end up going to the Cenote this day.  Which was fine, the kids had so much fun swimming in the bay.  We stopped by a roadside stand (you see them everywhere in Mexico) and Rose and I picked up some corn.  She opted for just butter and salt.  I tried it the local way with mayonnaise, cheese, and lime.  I said no to the chili powder.  It was different, not bad but not something I will ever crave.

Next clue for the road trip: "Soft sand beneath your feet will be where you sleep, if you can barter for a pillow to keep."  The kids were scrambling around the car for their treasure map so they could read the clues for what came next.  They all agreed that Akumal lived up to what I had written!

It was so late and dark that Nathan and Rose had fallen asleep in the car.  We did not make a reservation for a cabana.  When I was researching lots of people on the internet recommended just walking down the beach until we find a cabana at the price that we want.  It was especially hard to book any in advance for a family of 6.  I swear people think families only come in parties of 4!  And the ones I found were super expensive, like $250 for a cabana without a private bath or air conditioning.  Ridiculous!  

Unfortunately it was so dark and we didn't really know where we were going.  I had written down 5 names of "eco-hotels" that I thought we be good for us to look at first.  Ken and Darin went and checked it out for us and he convinced me to stay at Zazil-Kin because we got a private bath and there were wood floors and electricity through the night.  They weren't right on the water's edge but everyone was super exhausted and it was under $100 for all 6 of us.

It ended up being perfect.  We really all needed to shower and rinse the sea water off of us and to get cool before going to sleep.  There were two King size beds and it was enough room (barely)

And super cute inside for a beach shack.

When we first got there Rose was so grumpy.  She kept telling me, "I don't understand why we can't go back to the condo." "The condo is so much nicer than here!"  It didn't matter what I said to her about us going on an adventure and camping on the beach (even though she normally loves camping).  She was grumpy, grumpy, grumpy!  After a cold shower and getting her a snack though she perked up and got into it.

We all piled into one bed under the mosquito netting and played Uno.  Our electricity went out for 10 minutes so I whipped out my iphone for a light so we could keep playing.  It was so dang hot!  Once it came back on we were all cheering!  Our little blackout made the fan seem like air conditioning.

Ken and Ginger fell asleep in two seconds, but me and Nathan and Rose stayed up for awhile talking about the amazing experience we had in Akumal earlier that day.  It was super sweet to listen and talk with them.  Eventually two hours later I fell asleep, I had the hardest time with all the heat.  Ken said it brought back huge memories of serving his mission in Colombia.

The next morning Rose was the first one up and was very happy!  She loves beach camping now!

While I was making our lunch and cutting up fruit for breakfast Ken took the kids on a short walk to the ocean.

All ready to eat our breakfast.  I don't think cantaloupe and chocolate muffins ever tasted so good!  See our stack of towels.  I had spread them out on all the railing overnight and they were still drenched in the morning,

We were so happy to have air conditioning in the car.  The night before Ginger and I discovered that when I charged my iphone it would automatically start playing on the car radio.  We were so happy and dancing in the car when Darin and Ken came back for us.  I love my music and we were on a long road trip.  The funny thing is that at least half of the radio stations play english music but then all the commercial breaks are in Spanish and there are alot of them.

We were pretty happy to have electricity and radio again!

This is our "van".  Personally I don't think it is a van but it sat 7 with the teeniest tiny trunk.  We rented from rentalcars.com (they are owned by priceline) and got the car for less then 1/2 of what the car rental companies we charging.  We ended up picking it up from Hertz.  The only downside was that we didn't know until 24 hours before we planned on leaving if we were actually going to get a rental.

We decided to drive up and down the beach strip in the light of day.  We realized that the reason I couldn't find any of the hotels I had listed out was because they were 5 miles south on the road.

This part of the road freaked me out the night before.  We were driving through tree lined streets and then all of a sudden open ocean was on the side of a tiny road.

Tuum is a very pretty area.  It totally has a hippy vibe to it.  I think that we would like to try this again and get a cabana just 3 steps from the ocean.  We could probably do two nights, but I don't really know about spending more time here.  Ken and I kept scratching our head about how it's reviewed online as an awesome honeymoon spot.  Really, I think that it's perfect if you look at it as awesome camping in an incredible area, but romance not quite as much.