You don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward. Just take the next step.

– Unknown

Tulum was one of the towns we had been really wanting to visit. Brian had come to Mexico by himself on a scouting trip (of sorts) this past January, and he had really liked it there. When we were about to give up on our dream, he saw this sign on the street in Tulum, and it gave him some encouragement to keep trying. He’s had this picture as a wallpaper on his phone since then. For that reason alone, I would have gone to Tulum, but it helped that Henry was eager to go where his Daddy had been before.

When hurricane Grace made landfall last week, Tulum took a direct hit. We weren’t really sure what we’d find when we got there, but since all of the buses out of Valladolid were heading that direction, we thought we would ride into town and check it out. If things looked ok, we could find a place to stay for a few days. If they weren’t good, we’d move on to plan B and head a little further south.

We ended up staying in town for four nights, and we found the area to be touristy, but mostly in a good way. Our first two nights, we stayed at a cute hotel on the downtown strip. We were only a block away from the bus stop and were surrounded by restaurants and local shops. Henry enjoyed the rooftop pool every chance that he could, and I loved the shower. Our room was small but efficient, and we spent most of our time exploring the town.

Our final two nights in Tulum, per Henry’s request, we stayed at Mama’s Home, a small hostel where Brian had stayed in January. We had a spacious private room on the second floor. We enjoyed our freshly prepared breakfast each morning with the other travelers and we hung out each afternoon in the hostel courtyard hammocks until we went to dinner as a group. Henry was our social butterfly making friends in the kitchen as he prepared snacks for us each day.

On Monday, we rented bikes from a nearby shop and rode a few miles to the beach area. The beach was open, but the rough waters had continued to churn up the seaweed and the shore was a little gross. We played in the sand and waves for a few hours under the scenic cliffs of the Tulum ruins, and I could imagine how beautiful the beach must have been normally. The next morning we walked out of our hotel to find Henry’s rented bike had been stolen. Someone had cut the chain off and taken the bike. Henry had been hoping to ride to breakfast, and while I hated that the bike was stolen, my rear end was relieved to not have to ride bikes anymore.

On Tuesday we ventured a few miles towards Playa del Carmen to a place called Casa Tortugas. They had a hotel and restaurant, but their main attraction was the four cenotes you got access to when you entered their property.

A cenote is a freshwater filled sinkhole and there are thousands of them in the Yucatán peninsula. Some of them are in caves, some are partially open like Ik-Kil, the cenote we visited near Chichen Itza, and some are completely open where the caves that were once above them collapsed. Some of the cenotes served religious purposes in the Mayan days, and gold, silver, jewels, and human remains have been found in the bottom of many (the Mayans believed in human sacrifices to appease their Gods).

At Casa Tortugas, they had two open cenotes and two closed ones (in caves). We had a great time exploring three of the four cenotes there (one was closed to visitors for the day). Tres Zapotes was a long narrow river-like cenote and it was open. Cenote Dorca was another open cenote that was more like a water oasis with a wooden boardwalk surrounding it and a few jumping platforms. Henry jumped in from the 15’ platform at least 10 times. Cenote Wisho was a closed cenote, and it was my favorite. You entered the cenote through a set of stairs that descended into the cave. The water was about 75’ deep, and the ceiling of the cave was only a few feet from the surface of the water. Once we were all in the water, our tour guide dove in and swam under all of us to lead us through the cave and help us find the exit on the other side.

On our last day in Tulum, we rode the Collectivo towards Coba to visit Cenote Carwash. It is called that because at some point in its history, someone had a carwash at the site. It’s real name is Aktun Ha. This is another open cenote and most of the swimming area is around 25 feet deep. The water is cool and refreshing and crystal clear. This cenote is also a local scuba diving spot. At one spot in the bottom, you can access the cave system under the shore that stretches for several miles. Experienced divers can come there and follow the rope guide system to safely navigate the caves. Signs near the surface mapped out the cave and told of how they’ve found remnants of life deep in the cave indicating that it hasn’t always been water filled.

Today we are traveling out of the Yucatán on a 21 hour bus ride to the mountainous region of Chiapas. We could have stayed in Tulum and the Yucatán much longer because there was so much more we wanted to see, but the rest of the world is waiting on us. We want to experience all that we can on this trip, and our time already feels so short. But perhaps we will come back to this area one day.