Day 352 – Valladolid to Tulum

We had originally planned to go to some more cenotes around Valladolid, but we never ended up going. Instead we took the lazier option of going back to the cafe, Conkafecito that we went to yesterday (Day 351). 

Getting from Valladolid to Tulum

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After this we went to buy tickets to Tulum from the ADO Bus Terminal. The second class bus would depart from Valladolid at 2:04pm. The tickets cost us 103 MXN / $7.91 AUD per person (p/p). 

We had several hours to spare, so we went back to La Villa Bistro for lunch. The salad and soup were nice.

Afterwards, we went back to Hostal 230 to pick up our backpacks that we had left in the morning. When we got to the bus station, we were surprised at how busy it was. ADO, Oriente and Mayab buses kept coming in constantly for various destinations. When an ADO bus (1st class) came, there was an announcement over the speaker system. For the Oriente and Mayab buses there was only the occasional announcement. You need to listen to the guard yelling out the destination, which can be difficult over the noise of the waiting people.

Our bus was late. Since we couldn’t really hear or understand the guard, at regular intervals we would go and ask if the bus was here. In total we asked more than 5 times. In the end, as we were about to sit down with our bags in front of the guard, he remembered us and told us that the bus was leaving! We ran towards the reversing bus which luckily stopped for us. The driver made us take our large backpacks inside the bus instead of the storage.

The bus left the terminal at 2.34pm. This was the first time a bus didn’t arrive around the correct time in Mexico. Along the way, the bus stopped at the Coba Ruins. Then it arrived in Tulum around 4.30pm.

Tulum

At the edge of Tulum some locals got off, and since we were clueless, we did too. The buses final destination was Playa de Carmen so we weren’t sure if it would go into town or not. FYI, it does go into town. Due to my error, we had to walk 1.1km to the accommodation, which was only a few blocks away from the bus stop.

We had booked the airbnb, Casa Lupita. The rooms were really nice and large. The owner was a little on the cheap side. This was the first place we stayed at that provided us 1 water bottle and 1 bar of soap and shampoo. We are staying here for 4 nights.

Then we walked into town…wow! It was super busy. From what we could tell, most of the English speaking came from United States accents. All the store owners could communicate in English which was strange in Mexico. 

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We found a place that rents bicycles for one day (return before closing time) costing 50 MXN / $3.84 AUD p/p, or for 24 hours that costs 70 MXN / $5.37 AUD p/p. Every other place was 100 MXN / $7.67 AUD for 24 hours.

Another salesman tempted us with a private discovery diving course in a cenote for $100 USD / $145.45 AUD p/p. The videos and photos he showed us looked amazing. We were seriously considering it, but later we decided not to go.   

We then walked to a massive supermarket called Chedraui. We bought some groceries and a 10L water bottle. The 10L water bottle was great for the environment but there was over a kilometre walk back to our airbnb which wasn’t fun. I also bought a Go Pro 7 Black, which was on sale from 8,999 MXN / $691.07 AUD down to 7,235 MXN / $555.61 AUD. It was still $50 AUD more expensive than back home, but at least we could take videos of more cenotes now. The rest of the night was spent playing with my new toy.