I knew that Tulum had become a municipality last year, and that brought an influx of tax dollars and permit fees directly to the coffers and hands of the new municipal government in Tulum and with that the town seemed to be exploding from the last time I came through.

Since I watched Playa Del Carmen blossum from a seedling int he late nineties to a fullscale city of late; I know all the tell-tale signs of a town on the edge of a massive popularity explosion.

What were customarily lazy roundabouts dotted along the main highway, in which usually only one direction had any trafffic to speak of, have become intersections filled with tourists, Mayans, ex-pats and tradesmen all hurrying from one place to another, with fully uniformed police now directing traffic where we know traffic lights are on order and will shortly force those young men and women to other jobs in the police force.

I was welcomed to the town with various degrees of “topes” those wonderfully horrific speed bumps of varying heights and visibility, leading up to a funnel effect of traffic creeping slowly past brand newly-constructed police kioks, with police in shiney new uniforms surveying every license plate and vehicle contents hour after hour.

Once on the main strip, I turned down the volume on my CD player to absorb the sounds of the city – police whistles, songs of tradespeople selling their wares from custom-designed tricycles, honking from slightly exasperated taxi and collectivo drivers, music blaring from shop keepers enticing buyers either to or away from their stores as the case may be, or the tinkle tinkle from rented bike bells avoiding carousing gangs of friendly street dogs – it was Mexican music to my ears.

I just love being back in Tulum, and I just love watching this town begin its journey to being a beach town with an energy to be enjoyed and indulged in!

My friend swears by these “treatments” and has one whenever she has the time to enjoy one in town. She asked the clerk in the store about the fish and was told they were very special fish and cost about $250 pesos each, which is about $20 dollars mas o menos per fish…

Upon closer scrutiny of these unknown-til-now fish I realized they looked awfully similiar to those ones that can be found nibbling on your swimsuit and snorkeling equipment in many of the local cenotes.

My friends and I now enjoy our treatments swimming in any of the local swimming holes called “cenotes” that are found in the Riviera Maya. You will be nibbled on for hours by these wonderful little workers as you glide through the healing waters coming up from underground springs and caves.

There are many cenote sites along the Riviera Maya and very near to Tulum as well… Just to the south of Tulum on the main highway is a hidden little gem of a cenote still “undiscovered” by the tourist companies, and where one can enjoy a private swim and fish treatment.

Some of the other more popular sites are the “Car Wash” and Grand Cenote heading on the road to Coba out of Tulum.

It is so fantastic to think that one can enjoy a trendy treatment right outside your door, with nature greeting you and treating you to her finest of luxuries.

Undoubtedly one of the largest natural aquariums the Xel Ha Lagoon is a 22 acre wonder open for snorkelers to explore.

Since I have visited this lagoon many times, I know my favorite fish by far is the Sergeant Major fish, and it’s not the tiger fish, as many people seeing it for the first time think it might be called.

To the person who named them thought they looked more like members of the militia than the animal kingdoms, so the name stuck officially.

The Sergeant Majors appear to be quite domesticated, with the curiousity of your cat when you enter the lagoon. These comical little hand-sized fish usually swim in fairly large, tight-knit groups, and will literally surround you and swim with you, but remain just out of reach for those who feel tempted to try to touch one.

They eat larvae, small fish, algae, plankton and crustaceans. They will lay eggs on the bottom of rock shelves and will guard those eggs with some aggression if necessary.

They usually live in depths of water between 3 feet and 35 feet, so the lagoon at Xel Ha is the perfect habitat for them.

I was there the day a small child dropped her sandwich into the water beside me, and it was quite exciting to be caught in the middle of a Sergeant Major feeding frenzy!

They are very pretty fish, and are often painted in watercolors and oils. I think I will give one a try one day, too…

I just LOVE visiting the Riviera Maya!

The Manatees are an endangered species in Mexico and the Caribbean, so these two Manatees are well cared for and seemed very happy with life at Xel Ha, so much so that a little baby Manatee was born there a few years ago.

I didn’t know this, but the Manatee is the only vegetarian marine mammal… ‘Mammal’, you say? And that’s what I said when Manuel, my guide told me.

A female Manatee bears one baby after a 13 month gestation period every three years, so living to 60 years old and starting at age 8, they can have almost 17 babies! Incredibly weird is a nipple on the front edge of each front flipper, so I imagine it might make it difficult for any baby to eat on the run…

…Manatees are relatively slow moving, not because of their body fat, of which they have very little, but because of their evolution of having no known predators and eating plants (hence their name sea-cow) they really never needed to go fast anywhere.

I wasn’t surprised how thick and leathery our Manatee felt, but I was surprised to find that a Manatee has over 200 hundred bones under all that bulk!

They are huge marine mammals, and the longest Manatee on record was 13 feet long and weighed as much as my SUV at 3500 pounds, that’s incredible.

Manuel said that when the Manatee wants to communicate fear, especially to its baby they make a series of squeaky noises and that each baby can recognize its own mothers call.

Even though the Manatee has a brain much smaller than dolphin it is believed they are smarter than a cow but not as smart as a dolphin.

I find these gentle mammals quite charming. Even though their eyes are quite small they can see quite well, and they also have a flap of translucent skin they can use like an extra windshield against any sea water irritants.

I named my Manatee ‘Buddy’, and I will put the photo of him and I on my screensaver at home.

Imagine my joy when I saw these plants living high amongst the treetops at Xel Ha. They were not like the single little cutting that went on my fridge, but were like huge air plant ‘comunidades’ – communities, growing for hundreds of years. I found a little gardener working around the bottom of one of the trees filled with air plants and he explained many facts about the ‘Tillandsia’ that I found quite interesting.

First of all, Jose told me that the Tillandsia is a plant from the Bromeliad family; that exotic group of plants usually reserved for the tropics.

The nutrients of the Tillandsia are absorbed through the leaves. The roots are used as anchors only. They reproduce by seeds and shoots, or runners, called, funnily, enough, ‘pups’.

When the plant is ready to flower and reproduce, the leaves sometimes change colors, and even if the main plant dies in the reproduction stage, there are usually lots of ‘pups’ around for the species to go on.

They are the pioneer plant, as they are the first plantlife to grab onto rock walls and scrub where the less hardy plants cannot thrive.

Tillandsia is a primary ingredient in a homeopathic supplement to treat pollen allergies. It has also been used in a tea to relieve difficulties with rheumatism, diabetes and the gallbladder.

It is farmed, harvested and grown for the home decoration market, both as decor and in floral arrangements. The Tillandsia was even used for the stuffing the seats of the Model T Ford.

Most of all, though, I remember the dear little Tillandsia hanging on for dear life magnetically stuck on the fridges of my friends and I, trying to endure our dry winters.

What a pleasant surprise to see my little air plant all grown up and living high in the treetops in Mexico, at Xel Ha.

It is one of the most enchanting little insects in the Mayan Riviera, mainly because it doesn’t have a stinger.

In pre-hispanic Mayan society, honey with its wax was a treasured commodity for its many uses for society.

As well as a sweetener, honey has many medicinal properties and the Mayans used it for the treatment of eye and ear infections, as an antibiotic, for respiratory problems, intestinal problems and even for skin ulcers. Honey is also used in the process of making the Mayan fermented drink called ‘balché’.

In addition the wax collected by the ‘jobones’ is used to make the candles used for ceremonies.

With the importance of the ‘Xuna’an-Kab’ in Mayan society came its domestication and the Mayans farmed, harvested and commercialized its products. This business is still practised today in the Yucatan Peninsula today, although the popularity of the stingless bee has given way to the more aggressive behavior and production of the African bee.

A colony of stingless bees will produce 2 pounds of honey per year while an Africanized honeybee colony can produce 220 pounds. The difference is the quality of the two.

The stingless bee pollinates many indigenous plants in the Yucatan that the African honeybee do not visit, and with this pollen they produce a sweeter, richer honey. With the decline of the stingless bee population has come the decline of many indigenous plants in the Yucatan.

There are less than one hundred stingless bee colonies in the Yucatan compared to hundreds in days gone by. Luckily one of these colonies, living and working from hollowed out logs in Xel Ha are being preserved and cared for there and in June and December at the equinoxes, the ancient Mayan Xuna’an-Kab Ceremony is performed for their honor.

I actually overcame my morbid fear of the flying bee while standing next to the log home for these little defenseless marvels. Not packing any weapons, they flew harmlessly around me, until my fear subsided…. I guess I was stung too many times in my childhood.

I didn’t think I would get that added bonus to visiting Xel Ha today!

I entered the “Path of Consciousness”, as the Xel Ha jungle walk is called, and was enchanted to see that there were plaques with carved phrases and thoughts along the walk.

After having read “The Secret At Chichen Itza” about the legend of two royals falling in love with the same woman, I was curious to discover more information about the legend along the path when I entered “The Chacah Garden”.

Both warrior brothers in the legend had enormous strength, but were completely different in disposition. The younger, ‘Kinich’, was nurturing and patient, while the older brother, ‘Tizic’ was wild and angry in disposition.

They fought a grueling battle over the shared love of a woman named ‘NicTeHa’ and at the end of the raging duel where heaven and earth hid, they died uselessly in each other’s arms. Apparently, in spirit, they begged for forgiveness and a chance to return to the land of the living to atone their struggle and see NicTeHa again.

Tizic was reborn as a Chechen tree, which has black sap poison that burns everything that touches it. Kinich was reborn as the Chacah tree, (also known as the ‘Gringo tree’ because the bark is red and peeling which I think is hilarious) and has sap which eases the Chechen’s poison. In the jungle they usually stand side-by-side, and solemnly protect NicTeHa, who died grief-stricken, and was returned to life as a beautiful white flower at their feet.

I also discovered that “The Chacah Garden” has been promoted as a natural “Walk of Fame” where celebrities who visit Xel-Ha can be invited to plant a Chacah tree and leave a quote engraved on a plaque at the base of their Chacah tree.

I love the jungles of the Riviera Maya, and I look forward to finding out more about the trees and plants of the region.

DON’T LOSE YOUR STYLE WHILE EXPLORING XEL HA – PART 2

First, let’s start by recapping where we are from PART 1. By now you have a nice beachbag or backpack that matches your smart swimsuit and it is fairly light and easily portable and it has everything you will need for your day trip BUT we haven’t talked about your clothing options and towel yet.

This is the most important point to remember when you are going touring.
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!

Second, a day trip is not the time to be spending lining up in the ladies washroom to jam your body into your swimsuit in a crammed stall or changeroom or to be lugging huge wet beachtowels around.

This is how you do it. There are some variations, but basically it is the same theme.

1) DO wear your swimsuit underneath your clothing. If you feel better wearing a one piece bathing suit, then I recommend this – find a bathing suit that looks like it is a one piece, but it actually two pieces. That way, if you have to go to the bathroom it won’t be so difficult and you will be more comfortable if you can open your suit at the tummy to let the air in under your shirt if it gets really hot.
Now if you have a personal hygiene issue with wearing your swimsuit, here is the trick – wear a small minipad in your swimsuit and just before you go swimming, remove it and put it in some toilet paper and a baggie until you get it to a garbage.

2) DO bring a pair of underwear with a matching bra (preferably without underwire), that is sexy and colors matching your outfit just in case someone sees them! Anyone who sees them will definitely know you have got it goin’ on! Put them in a larger ziploc bag, the ziploc bag you will put your wet swimsuit in if it doesn’t dry before you get back on the bus.

3) DO wear a comfortable easy to wear something on top of the swimsuit. This is what I like to do because it is so easy. I love those throw-over dresses that you can buy in the shop in the hotel. They are different styles and colors and they basically get thrown over your swimsuit. Easy. Pick one that matches your swimsuit, beachbag and sandals. Obviously don’t get a super long one – not good for climbing ruins and things if you are planning to do that. Just the usual length you wear – remember you have your swimsuit on – and it will match your dress if anyone sees it.

4) DO add a pareo. Now pareos are called all different names depending on the country you are in, saris, sarongs, wraps, but here in Mexico we call them pareos. THIS WILL BE YOUR TOWEL. They are fairly inexpensive, very light, very absorbant and very versatile. They also make EXCELLENT souvenirs for your friends back home, too! They come in so many colors and you will be sure to find one in your outfit for the day colors. Or, if you are reading this in the planning stage, you can find a nice light fabric in your local fabric store that rocks and all you have to do is sew a hem on the open ends and you have a pareo. The pareo is so cool because you can use it for all kinds of things before you actually have to use it to dry off after swimming… you can drape it around your neck to carry it, and it will also absorb any perspiration you have, after all it is the tropics, chicas! Or, I know sometimes it can get hot exploring so you can drape the pareo over your head and hold the two corners up, so you have instant shade! If you are getting sunburned, you can wear it like a head scarf to cover your face and shoulders and it’s so light, you won’t be like a furnace underneath!
If your dress you are wearing above needs a belt, voila, use your pareo!
If you need longer handles for your beach bag, use your pareo!
If you rent bikes in Coba Ruins for example, you might need an instant bungie cord to tie your stuff in the basket, use your pareo!
If you decide after all you will buy a huge souvenir for your friend back home and it doesn’t fit in your beach bag, make a sling and carry it in your pareo!
You can see what I mean about pareos, right?
Even if you wanted to travel really light, you could use your pareo as your dress wrap, there are tons of videos on youtube demonstrating how to put them on.

5) DO wear shorts and a button up shirt if you don’t want to wear a dress. Make sure they are light, and won’t stick to your body when you get damp from walking or leftover swimming. I recommend the button up for two reasons – you won’t get all tangled lifting it over your head and also, it gives you another option for ventilation if it gets hot – you can unbutton it and leave it open, because you have your swimsuit underneath!
I also recommend light shorts. Fitness pants can be good for two reasons – there is no bulky zipper and they dry really fast if they get wet. They cover more of your leg, so you won’t have to worry about too much showing when you are climbing out on the swim ladders at the cenotes in your swimsuit. If you are going ziplining, having shorts on either by themselves or under the dress is a must, because your dress will be flying! Also fitness shorts are good because, without pockets you can’t leave anything that might fall out when you are ruin climbing or going in and out of buses. Best to have everything in your beach bag.

6) DO wear a hat! Like I mentioned a lot of the ruins are in the sun with very little shade, so you will want to have shade on your face for a good part of the time. Remember the light as possible suggestion, and try not to bring a light color as you will be sweating and taking it on and off and you don’t want one of those unsightly sweat lines for all to see when you are off swimming. Also – good rule – don’t buy a hat that says something spanish on it unless you TOTALLY know what it says! Sometimes hat makers can have a good laugh with what they put on unsuspecting tourists heads. Get the kind of hat that has the velcro hasp at the back, because if you decide to go for the tan you don’t want it squished in your beach bag – just velcro it on one of the handles and carry it around. You might even want to have a safety pin to pin it there just in case.

7) DO wear sunglasses. I recommend the type that have the nose saddle holding them on, instead of the separate nose pads. You are going to be taking them on and off all day, for photos, for swimming, to see your camera lens in the sun, many many times, and those nose pad sunglasses always get caught in my hair, probably yours too. I highly recommend getting one of those cool croakies neck cords to hang them around your neck when you have to take them off and on all the time.
So now you are completely ready to show that being a traveling tropics girl doesn’t mean you don’t have it all together.

In PART 1 your stylish backback or backpack is filled so far for your day trip – camera, phone, plastic bag as wallet, plastic bag with a small amount of sunscreen, water bottle, compact, tissue, lipstick, mascara, maybe a hairbrush, elastics and for the first half of the trip anyways, apples, oranges and cookies.

In PART 2 we added your stylish undies and matching bra in a larger plastic bag and a safety pin. You will want to add a small non-transparent baggie to put your mini-pad in until you can throw it out. Your bag is still pretty light and you are not packing the kitchen sink. You will have time to enjoy the trip thoroughly and know you look stylish and like you have it goin’ on.

You are matching and stylish from top to bottom, from hat to sandals.

Don’t Bounce Your Style in the Tropics!

KCee thought it would be perfect for me for my exciting day at Xel Ha. I thought I would share it here in two parts.

DON’T BOUNCE YOUR STYLE WHILE EXPLORING XEL HA – PART 1

1) DO NOT bring a huge backpack that is ugly and makes you look like Marco Polo. In a style that matches your swimsuit bring a small stylish backpack or even a beachbag with long handles that you can use like a backpack. I like the small backpack better because it has pockets but the beach bag will do, too. As long as it matches your swimsuit.

2) DO NOT bring your wallet. Wallets are heavy – Put the cash you think you will need for the day (preferably pesos but American dollars are accepted mostly everywhere), some ID like your health card or social insurance card and a credit card in a sandwich size ziploc bag to keep it dry from the water bottle, wet towel or even in the unlikely event of rain. Leave your important identification like your passport and the rest of your cash in the safe in the hotel. Don’t bring another smaller purse to put in the big purse – it adds unnecessary weight and if you have two purses your ‘purse-instinct’ might let you leave one of them somewhere.

3) DO NOT wear hiking boots – they are UGLY, HEAVY, TAKE WAY TOO LONG TO DRY AND YOU WILL NOT NEED THEM! DO wear some nice sandals, of course comfortable without tall heels so you can walk in them without socks, yuck, and the best would be some that could get wet and would dry quickly… leather is okay, but leather doesn’t usually dry fast ~ even though the weather is perfect here in Mexico there are the odd puddles ~ and you want to be able to happily stomp through them not worrying about the state of the shoes afterwards! The Riviera Maya is the place to get back in touch with your inner child, not to spend in wet leather hiking boots!

4) DO NOT get caught with uncharged batteries or a full chip on your camera or phone! Make sure you charge up everything the night before you leave – and download any photos you don’t need ~ you don’t want to be fumbling for your battery or deleting photos to make room as that spider monkey whooshes past you on your jungle walk! And – ziploc bag the stuff you don’t want to get wet!

5) DO NOT go without food! We have precious sugar levels to keep up! Even though Xel Ha has an abundance of snack stops and restaurants, it doesn’t hurt to have snacks that were free this morning in the hotel! Grab some hard snacks like apples, cookies or oranges from the breakfast buffet and have everything pre-washed with bottled water if it hasn’t been already. You can do like the Mayans and pre-peel the oranges so all you do is eat from the bag. Don’t bother with food like bananas and grapes as they get soft and squishy in minutes in the Mexican heat!

6) DO NOT dehydrate! Grab a lime or two from your hotel and squirt some in your water bottles ~ it tastes better. Maybe even add a little sugar. And this is another hint – a lot of people like to freeze their water bottles the night before, but I do not recommend this – first off, it will go from being frozen to lukewarm very fast and in the meantime unless it is in a ziploc bag it will make a mess in your beach bag or backpack with the condensation. Leave it room temperature, that is the best for your stomach anyways. (the plastic bag is still a good idea anyways though)

7) DO NOT have streaky makeup ~ no, no, no ~ chicas, this is why waterproof mascara was invented – in another small plastic bag bring a small mirror in a crash-proof compact, waterproof mascara for touchups, lipstick (that matches your swimsuit and backpack) and a couple of paper napkins for sneezing, cleaning or wiping. If you are a fashion queen you could bring a hair brush, but a small one. Bring some extra hair elastics.

8) DO NOT bring a huge container of sunscreen! Transfer a small amount of sunscreen into a small plastic bag or small bottle. Start the morning with some on, and you won’t have to reapply until mid-day through the trip, and probably only once.

So now you know what your backpack or beach bag is filled with for your trip. – camera, phone (turned OFF for roaming charges), plastic bag as wallet, plastic bag with a small amount of sunscreen, water bottle, compact, tissue, lipstick, mascara, maybe a hairbrush, elastics and for the first half of the trip anyways, apples, oranges and cookies. Not bad.

You are probably thinking what about towels, and swimsuits and changes of clothing and all that stuff?

KCee and her daughter have some really good jungle fashion ideas about that, too, that I will share with you in DON’T BOUNCE YOUR STYLE WHILE EXPLORING XEL HA – PART 2 next month!

I am so looking forward to going, and there is so much to see and do, I will share my experience over the next few blogs.

Surfing online I found there were a number of methods to book my ticket, and a number of different packages available, but I ended up booking through Toño, the really friendly  concierge at the front desk of Playa Azul, just down from the Coco Cabanas where I am staying. They even arranged my transportation to Xel Ha, which is only a short ride to the north about ten minutes north of Tulum.

The Riviera Maya sits atop the the Yucatan peninsula, which is a huge limestone shelf, and over the millenniums since its geological formation, rain water returning to the sea has carved out a myriad of underground tunnels filled with fresh water, rich in minerals and filtered from soiled elements. Some of these underground tunnels emerge before reaching the sea, creating large tropical lagoons that edge the Riviera Maya.

Only ten minutes to the north of Tulum is one of these spectacular lagoons called Xel Ha, which means ‘colored water’ in Mayan because of the breathtaking rainbows that are formed over this area.

Xel Ha is a 212 acre area of inlets, cenotes, lagoons and caves where over 100 species of birds, 230 species of plants and 90 marine species flowers and trees call home. Over 60% of the park is ‘reserved for nature’ and the rest has been meticulously designed for maximum enjoyment by visitors with minimal disruption to the natural environment.

At Xel Ha one can take in all the fruits of the area – cliff jumping, snorkeling with marine life, swimming with dolphins, manatee encounters and even a live stingray adventure – these participation activities are complimented with cultural events, traditions and ceremonies.

Facilities and services like restaurants, changing stations with showers, washrooms and lockers are abundant throughout the park, as well as rentals of anything one might need; scuba equipment including flippers and masks, strollers, even your own photographer!

Even though I wasn’t going with anyone in a wheelchair, the park is fully accessible to people on wheels, there is even a hydraulic lift to enter the floating river.

It will be an exciting trip – I don’t know how I will fit it all in one day, but I will get rested and start out early!