Swimming with Turtles in Akumal and Dancing Salsa in Tulum
We travel to Akumal Beach, which is famous for its sea turtles. At first I’m a bit skeptical about going snorkeling, but after hearing Gertrud’s enthusiastic impressions, I decide to give it a try after all.
A one-hour tour costs 300 pesos (about 17 euros). Our small group includes two local guides and a Spanish couple. The equipment includes a snorkel, mask, fins, and even life jackets.
We swim away from the beach into the open water. The sea is crystal clear, and the bottom is perfectly visible. It doesn’t take long before we see the first turtle resting on the seabed—a fairly large one. Soon it slowly rises to the surface and sticks its head out of the water.
We keep swimming and soon spot another turtle, and then a third one. Along the way we also see a school of fish. At one point the guide points at something dark and flat on the seabed—a stingray.
We follow the guide into deeper water until we reach an impressive coral formation, where colorful fish swim between the coral structures. On our way back toward the shore we even see a large turtle swimming close to the beach.
It’s truly an amazing experience.
In the evening we sit in a bar called Waye in Tulum with an English guy and an Irish guy, watching a local couple dancing salsa to the band’s music. One of them comments:
“No European could ever dance like that.”
Hearing that, I stand up, walk to the bar, and ask a local girl who was quietly moving to the rhythm to dance. And it turns out I can manage just fine.
When the band finishes, it turns out that the girl, Laura, is actually the girlfriend of one of the band members. But she immediately sends me off to dance with her friend Renee instead. When I return to the table, Dean and Nile are quite generous with their compliments.
Later that night, as I walk back from the bar, the streets are almost completely empty. A girl standing in the middle of the road softly asks in Spanish where I’m staying.
I answer that I’m staying in a hostel, in a shared room.
She replies:“We could go to my place instead.”
I politely decline.
Even in this small town, it seems that the world’s oldest profession is present.
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