 For our Winter 2008 vacation we headed back to Mexico. This time we went further south down the Yucatan peninsula to Tulum. We'd visited Tulum briefly on our honeymoon in 1995 and had enjoyed the wild and open feel it had - just a few thatch huts on an endless beach. That was awhile ago, and you can't expect things to stay the same. There's a a kind of boutique-ification going on there now, with many of the little madre and padre places adding spas and yoga classes, but the area is still largely unspoiled and unpopulated. There's no real infrastructure here - no sewer services or electricity - so the development has mostly been limited to an increase in the number of little palapa-roofed hotels that line the old coconut road on the way from the south end of the Tulum ruins to the end of the road at Punta Allen. |
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 We stayed at a charming collection of huts called Cabañas La Luna situated right on a great stretch of beach. |
 We had the top floor of this 2-story building.The location made for plenty of breeze and great views while maintaining a lot of quiet and privacy. |
 Since this part of the world is off the grid, they rely on wind and solar power.La Luna installed this wind turbine just a week or so before we got there. |
 They use solar panels and tináco water tanks to provide hot water. |
 One of the reasons we picked this place is that they had a communal kitchen with a cook on duty if we wanted breakfast. |
 Great table and seats under the seagrapes - this is where we ate most mornings. |
 We hadn't seen seagrapes much in Mexico. They spread out into a low canopy and provide a lot of shade. |
 Seagrape flowers and fruit - the iguanas love to eat them. |
 Of course we always find kitties on our trips (or maybe they find us). This is Luna - queen of her domain. |
 Luna getting a good rubbing from Gelina. More to the left, please. |
 We stayed in the Marakech cabaña. |
 It had some great murals on the walls. |
 There were 2 open bedrooms separated by a bath and shower. |
 we picked the bed right off the deck - great views and nice breeze. Never needed either the ceiling fan or bug nets. |
 The view from our front deck. |
 There was also a side deck off the 2nd bedroom. |
A panoramic view from our front deck.
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 The path to the beach along the side of our cabaña. |
 Perfect place for a hammock. |
 The Tulum beach was a big draw for us - wide with soft, white sand. |
 The view to the south. The beach runs for about 6 miles from the Tulum ruins to the entrance to the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve. |
 We took great advantage of the hammocks. |
 Gelina catching some sun on one of the beach beds. |
 Dave's view of the world. |
 One of the other guests made this great sand castle. |
 Gelina juicing up some limes.We went into Tulum Puebla a couple of times to pick up supplies. |
 Lime juice, Controy liqueur, and tequila blanco - put that all together in some cutsie little glasses from the mercado and what do you have? Margaritas, of course! |
 Mandatory beer-on-the-beach photo. Anybody else find it unusual that the key fob for our rental car had a bottle opener on it? |
 Dave telecommuting - the cabañas had just installed WiFi. |
We found out a couple weeks before our trip that there was going to be a total Lunar eclipse while we were in Tulum. So Dave loaded up his photo gear (see Dave's Geek Stuff for all the painfully nerdy details) and we settled into a couple of chairs on the beach with some margaritas in hand to watch the spectacle.
It was magical. When it started the moon was right over the water and was so bright that you could almost read by it. By the time it finished, it was high overhead and so dim that you could see a million stars in the sky.  |
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 We took off one day and headed south to the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve.At 1.3 million acres, it's the largest protected area in the Mexican Caribbean. On one side of the reserve is mostly lagoons and mangrove swamps. The other side fronts the Caribbean. |
 The narrow winding road through the preserve is mostly dirt or sand, but was in surprisingly good shape. |
 Reserve sign marking the bridge at Boca Paila.This is a spot about halfway down the road where a boca (ocean inlet) joins the Chunyaxché Lagoon with the Caribbean. |
 View of the new bridge from the inland side.Here the water is brackish from the ocean. Further inland the lagoon has fresh water from rainfall. |
 The lagoon is full of small mangrove islands and bays. |
 We walked out on the old bridge. You can see why it's been replaced. |
Panorama of the inlet to the Caribbean.
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 Closer look at the mouth of the inlet where the ocean breaks on the beach. |
 A school of needlefish hiding along the mangroves. |
 More of the mangroves. |
 Pelicans looking for needlefish. |
 They bay at Punta Yuyum - a point where the land juts out and meets the reef. |
 The beach is littered with chunks of coral. |
 The reef is right off this point where the trains of waves are breaking. |
 Coral flats and tide pools. |
 Another view of the flats. Most of the rock is limestone, but sections of it appear to be volcanic. |
 Here's section of reef that now above the water. |
 Some of the tide pools have been worn out so that they're pretty deep. |
 More tide pools. |
 The reef runs right up onto the land. |
 Here the surf has worked the water up into a foam. |
 The tide pool structure is pretty complicated - here a little waterfall where one pool drains into another. |
 The beach is covered with chunks of coral like this brain coal. |
 Fossil impressions of corals in the limestone bed. |
 Here one of the tide pools had dried out and filled with coal pieces. |
 Someone arranged this little coral display. |
 This collection was put here by nature itself. It's hard to tell how much of the coral we saw was fossilized and how much had recently been been tossed there by the ocean. |
 The closer we got to Punta Allen the more the road turned into sand. Looks like they have to plow it back to keep the road open. |
 Not sure what the big blue monolith was for, but the land is now part of a Nature Conservancy reserve. |
 Punta Allen - this little fishing village is the last stop at the end of the old coconut road. |
 It reminded us a lot of Puerto Morelos when we first started going there. Not much more than beach and boats. |
 End of the road. |
 Lunch at the end of the road - we had excellent seafood and a great view at Xoken's restaurant. |
Back near Tulum, this panoramic view is of the beach near Zamas.
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 Sadly, it look like progress is coming to the area. This road to the beach was 2 lane crappy blacktop when we arrived. |
 By the time we left one side had been expanded and paved and the other side was almost done. It'll be a solid 4 lane road in another few days. And it looks like work is going to continue down the beach road. |
 Our last day at the cabañas our maid made us this pair of swans. Awwwww. |
 Sunset over the jungle and the end of a great trip. |