Day 358 – Tulum to Playa del Carmen
Today we planned to leave Tulum. Therefore, we packed our bags after breakfast and checked out of the airbnb, Casa Lupita. Some of our hosts other recommendations that we didn’t get a chance to visit include Cenote Tortuga and a smaller cenote near Cenote Casa (he didn’t know the name).
We walked to the ADO station and bought bus tickets to Playa del Carmen at 1.30pm costing 89 MXN ($6.77 AUD) per person (p/p). The lady at the station was overworked with lots of customers. She warned us that the 1.30pm ADO bus was typically late. There is also a second class bus, Mayab for only 49 MXN ($3.73 AUD) p/p, but it’s apparently always full, so standing room only. With our large backpacks, we decided that seating would be good.
Since we had a couple of hours to waste, we went to a cute cafe called Cafeina for lunch. The bagels were really nice. After lunch we picked up our bags from the airbnb and went back to the station.
Street art around Tulum
At the bus station, we noticed that instead of “your destination…” in English, that announcements kept saying “your destiny…” As predicted by the staff member, the bus was late. The Mayab 2nd class bus left while we were waiting, with heaps of free seats. We were kicking ourselves until our bus arrived at 2.07pm.
The bus ride was uneventful as always with ADO. We arrived in at our “destiny” of Playa del Carmen at 3.10pm.
Playa del Carmen
Once we exited the ADO station, we saw the most tourists that we have ever seen in Mexico. The streets were crowded, with mainly United States tourists (from their accents). The sun was as harsh as ever, and we were doing our best to stay under shade as we walked down a busy walking street towards our accommodation, Hostal 6/15.
After paying, we were shown the nice and basic private room. We also found a laundry across the road. This was really needed as our clothes were really starting to smell. Lavanderia Smart Clean charged only 16 MXN ($1.22 AUD) per kilo.
For dinner we went back to the main walking street to Yo Tacos Bar and Grill for some tasty burgers. From the seating in front of the restaurant, we could people watch as we ate dinner. We could see the staff from the restaurant across the road try so many techniques to persuade tourists to eat there. He failed all but once while we were eating. There were also street performances happening all over. There is definitely a party vibe here.
After dinner we returned to our hostel to sleep.