Do you believe in paradise??
On Monday we went to Akumal, a beach near Tulum where you can snorkel and see turtles. Not far from the shore you can swim with the turtles in their natural habitat. Please don’t step on the sea weed because this is what they eat. I was partly struggling with catching up with our small group consisting of Marika, an older American couple and our snorkeling guide, Daniel. Marika was all the time checking on me to see if I drowned already! We moved from one spot to another sneaking to see turtles, sea eels, corals and colourful fish. I spent half the time trying to breath through this snorkling tube and the other half taking it off and catching air on the surface. I was, nevertheless, very happy with what I managed to see.
During this trip, I have collected a list of favorite Spanish words that sound nice to me. One of them is “chaleco” which means “life jacket”. Maybe not because it sounded nice but rather because of the number of possibilities it allowed me to expediences as a bad swimmer. My most favorite word from this trip is “cubreboca” which is the face mask that we are wearing now because of this shit virus. There is a nice musicality to this word. In Spanish, you can make things smaller by adding “ito” for masculine or “ita” for feminine at the end. For example, doctor becomes doctorito and means “little doctor”, sounds cute. I saw a grill bar called ” infiernito” which translates to “little hell”. I found the translation rhymes even better: ” little hell, BBQ and grill”.
Tuesday started somehow cloudy and rainy, so we opted for visiting the Grand Cenote near Tulum. A very beautiful Cenote where many turtles are living. Here as well you can swim with the turtles and watch them in different sizes eating and chilling. I counted around 15 turtles chilling on the stones or tree leaves just above the water surface. This Cenote consisted of two parts connected by a cave that you can swim. But that swimming path passes under a lot bats. This part crept me out and I swam this path only once.
Swimming in this Cenote while watching the turtles made me forget life worries. They made me think of Paradise. A place where you are immersed in beautiful nature without worries. I this is not the big motivation I am currently a believer but at that moment i found the concept appealing.
In the afternoon we visited Tulum’s paradise beach. Sand, clear water, sun, palm trees and everyone having a good time. I decided, a regular visit to the seaside is mandatory to maintain my mental health.
On Wednesday we explored playa del Carmen. We didn’t stay there long though as we felt it was more prepared for American tourists. We had a quick meal and headed to Cancun and from there we took the ferry to Isla mujeres, which translates to island of women. A name given by the Spanish colonials upon arriving when they saw a lot of images of women. The images belonged to Ixchel, a goddess of childbirth and medicine in the Mayan culture. We had very little beach time before the sunset then we walked through the market Street with many restaurants. We had such a fine dinner at a good price. I am definitely going to miss the food in Mexico.
These three days of leisure have rejuvenated me. I felt ready to be back to real life after all these experiences but I didn’t actually want to! Well, we still have around 3 days more!