Day 360 – Akumal Beach
Snorkelling with Sea Turtles in Akumal
Today we left Hostal 6/15 after the basic breakfast in the morning. My wife cooked an omelette to supplement the bread and fruit.
Getting to Akumal from Playa del Carmen
After this we walked down street 15 (Calle 15) to the intersection with street 2 (Calle 2). There are some collectivos that run between Playa del Carmen and Tulum. We were really lucky as we got the last two seats as soon as we got to the stop, around 9am.
The collectivo picked up a few more people along the way, so that a few people were standing in the van. However, there are lots of tourist attractions along this road and people kept getting off.
We got to Akumal at 9.35am and were dropped off near an overhead footbridge. After paying 40 MXN ($3.05 AUD) per person (p/p) for the ride, we then crossed the bridge and followed the road towards the beach. Along the way there are a few people selling tours or renting equipment. Group snorkelling tours are around 500 MXN ($38.07 AUD) p/p and equipment (mask, breathing tube and life jacket) rental costs around 100 MXN ($7.61 AUD).
We brought along our Chedraul snorkelling mask and breathing tube, that we bought yesterday (Day 359), since we figured we would use it a lot more.
Access to Akumal Beach
To access the beach you need to cross through a hotel, a restaurant or the easiest is through the Government Access Point. We used the government access point known as Tsuuk Akumal which costs foreigners 100 MXN ($7.61 AUD) p/p. For an additional 100 MXN deposit, we could get a locker to leave our stuff.
Akumal Beach
At the time we were there, the beaches of Mexico were suffering from seagrass. We could see piles and piles of the stuff swept up. Due to all the hotels, there were staff members clearing the beach.
Initially we swam around by ourselves. There is a lot of confusion online about whether you need a tour or not. For the most part you don’t need one. The areas that you are most likely to see the turtles are unfortunately in the areas that require tour guides.
While we were in the ‘free’ green zone, we couldn’t see anything right near the entrance. It was pretty shallow and the currents were strong, so the visibility was very low.
After a while, we gave up and found a tour guide along the beach from Akmul Smile Tours. We negotiated the price down to 400 MXN ($30.45 AUD) p/p with a money back guarantee if we didn’t see turtles.
The tour guide ended up taking us further along the beach towards the resort, Secrets Akumal. From here we swam into the tour guide only section. It was a little crowded and the water visibility wasn’t any better. We could actually see the sea grass moving with the waves.
We saw 3 to 4 turtles, a bunch of fish and a ray of some type during the tour.
After the tour, I found out that I didn’t have enough cash! Ooops. Luckily there was an ATM outside of the beach. The tour guide came with me, to make sure I come back I guess. After withdrawing some money, we went back to the beach and had showers.
We ended up leaving the beach at 1.30pm. We bought some ice cream along the walk back to the main road. At 1.48pm, as we approached the road, there was a collectivo waiting. We were the last two to get on before it left. The one way trip cost 40 MXN ($3.05 AUD) p/p again. We were back in town at 2.15pm.
Playa del Carmen
Back in town, we were dropped off at the same location we took the collectivo in the morning. We walked back to our hostel. Along the way, we stopped for lunch at the delicious and cheap restaurant, Falafel Nessya.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing and doing some night time shopping along the main walking street. I bought a t-shirt from Cuidado con el perro which was really cheap. However, we found out that the ticket prices don’t include the 16% tax!
Looking back at Akumal Beach, I wouldn’t recommend it for just swimming with turtles. I felt the tours didn’t do too much to protect the animals from the various tourists. We saw some tourists literally stepping on turtles (by accident) and the tour guides did nothing to prevent this. On a calm day, the water conditions are probably better.