Tulum, Mexico
Tulum was hardly a quaint laid back atmosphere like most of the articles say about it, in fact the military presence was huge due to the recent murders by mafia of tourists in the area. The town is growing so rapidly and construction is evident about everywhere. Some of the town was a typical grid pattern of streets while others were full of circles, one way and non-existant roads, we were lost almost instantly multiple times and i’ve never seen google maps so confused. Beach parking was difficult and the beaches were super crowded daily. Getting swindled by the locals was the norm here, we had two credit cards falsely charged, we were made to pay twice the amount many times to get into local ruins and cenotes simply because we were from America, some of them were proud to offer this special deal, lol. The ruins in the area were so crowded that we felt claustrophobic and amazed that they would even allow so many people in them at once. Other than getting ripped off many times daily, feeling like we were going to get run over in traffic, lost or shot in the mafia crossfire we managed to find some cool places to paddle, although it was not easy as paddling isnt exactly that popular here.
Just south of town we found three large cenotes to paddle in, all of which required a hefty fee to enter, approximately $10-20/person. The Nopalitos one was the easiest to access but the other two required quite the walk into them, about a mile and a half. We wanted to paddle the river that went through the conservation area there as they have boat tours that will bring you to the river and let you float in the crystal clear blue water in a remote area but we were told that we weren’t allowed due to the boat traffic of the local tour operators, never seen a conservation area that was boat only traffic! Its too bad because this river flowed all the way to the coast and looked like a great trip. Paddling in the cenotes was ok but not really worth the effort when all was said and done. Cenote Manati was pretty cool to paddle in, just north of town a few miles and about 3/4 of a mile long, you could paddle up and down and swim in the bottom portion but the upper part was home to a local alligator so it was a no fall zone…. he seemed like he could care less that humans were around daily. Paddling at the beaches was possible but pretty rowdy mid day due to the winds. Sunset paddles were the best!
Overall I would not recommend looking at Tulum as a place to paddle, or even stay for that matter.
