Monday 1 July - Wednesday 3 July

Playa del Carmen and Tulum, Mayan Riviera, Quintana Roo

Back on mainland Mexico, our first job was to find a bed for the night. Not a difficult job considering its low season (apparently) and PdC is dominated by Hotels, Hostals and B&B's. Truth is I got hustled......a nice enough room but the promise of wifi and hot water never came to bear, and for the price we paid, those are basics in my book. So after refusing me a discount for his fibs, we reduced our stay here to just the one night instead of two and rearranged our plans for the next couple of days. We had already booked our overnight bus tickets to Palenque for the Wednesday night, leaving from Playa del Carmen, but we wanted to check out Chichen Itza and Tulum before we left. So off to Starbucks for 'free' wifi to book the next nights rest in Tulum. We hired a little Chevvy Matiz the next day and drove 220kms, like storm chasers, head first into what seemed like a hurricane. The rain drops were like hail on that poor little car. Just 10kms out of Chichen Itza the rain was so heavy we both considered cutting our losses and just turning around and going back towards Tulum. Luckily sense prevailed and we snorkeled on.
Our reward for persistence was granted to us by free entry into Chichen Itza (due to us getting there so late), and a rain delay, but it also meant we had just 30 minutes left before closing time. Luckyily we're not historians. Was it worth it? Of course it was!
So back in the lime coloured and sized car and 150kms back to Tulum, unfortunately it was too dark, wet and cold to stop at a cenote (fresh water cave/sinkholes) for a dip on the way back.

We arrived at La Cigana hostal in Tulum, which was nicely nestled among palm trees and other exotic flora, just in time to feed the mosquitos. Dropped off our bags and headed out to a seafood cafe recommended to us called LosAguaChiles. Although priced out of our budget, we were craving seafood and glad we did, Donna rated the Octopus as her top order so far this trip.
An otherwise quiet, rainy night in our room called Frida (special mention cos Donna is very familiar with her work - the famous Mexican artist Frida Khalo).
In the morning it was back to Playa del Carmen and back to Starbucks shelter and 'free' wifi until our night departure to Palenque.