Armchairshrink
23rd July 2007, 12:48 PM
I finally got up early enough to take a sunrise picture - and then went straight back to bed:
http://lh4.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAEFJ1_nI/AAAAAAAAAGw/P1kzHWb6Np0/s800/Mexico07%20320.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
Woke up a second time around 9am, as did my boy. To: a bunch of blood on his pillow. He had blood leaking out of his ear. Oh boy - I guess there really WAS something wrong with him last night! Now it's time to check out the Mexican health care system!
I'd read about the "CESA" (Centro Salud) in my guidebook but it didn't list an address. We drove to the (already sweltering) pueblo and asked around. Once again: people will give you directions when they have no idea. And how could the locals not know where the health center is? Finally the woman at the police/tourist information on the main road seemed to know what we were talking about. We followed her directions walking east off of the main road and then making a right. We were about to give up when we stumbled right on it. So now we wait.
After checking in at the little window, we waited, grateful the place at least had ceiling fans. There were two families in front of us, and after about 40 minutes the doctor saw us. He didn't really speak English and we only sort of speak Spanish. I know that Chris was really flustered and having a hard time communicating and at a few points I found myself correcting him ("esta semana" is when he said his pain started - oops! He also kept saying he had "fear" in his ear instead of pain.) Finally he was able to collect himself and the doctor was apparently as baffled as we were. He'd blown out his eardrum and we have no idea how! We hadn't gone scuba diving (usual culprit) and he hadn't used a Q-tip inappropriately or anything. The doctor said usually they heal themselves and that his hearing would probably return (he couldn't hear out of that ear either) but that he would have some pain and couldn't get water in his ear. So much for more snorkeling! He wrote us a prescription for an antibiotic to prevent infection and for high-dosage naproxen sodium for pain. He told us the flight home might be really painful, too. Great.
Still we were impressed with the efficiency and price - we only paid 60 pesos for the visit and another 50 for the medicines. No way that would happen in the states, even WITH our insurance. Starving and stressed out, we headed for breakfast at El Mariachi. I think we both had Huevos Mexicanos. The coffee was terrible (expected) and the food was kind of bland (not expected) but it filled us up and it was cheap. We got some bottled cokes to take back with us, too (bottled Mexican coke is the best thing ever, and it's pretty expensive at the taquerias up here).http://lh4.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAFFJ1_oI/AAAAAAAAAG4/BWGt5h_F8Lw/s800/Mexico07%20323.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/a%20href=)
After all that, we got back to the beach for a few hours.http://lh4.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAGFJ1_pI/AAAAAAAAAHA/yJe-viTOddQ/s800/Mexico07%20316.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
http://lh6.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAKlJ1_rI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/yfxQU1zxd2s/s800/Mexico07%20029.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
http://lh4.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLALFJ1_tI/AAAAAAAAAHg/ZTy_dsfODVQ/s800/Mexico07%20034.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
I'd been wanting to do the CESiaK tour but Chris didn't really want to pay for it so I suggested, foolishly, that we rent a kayak for cheaper and do our "own" tour.
Have I mentioned I'm not terribly athletically inclined?
So we drive down the Boca Paila road into the Biosphere reserve, paying our money to the guard there. CESiaK was a lot closer than I realized. A nice French woman there set us up with oars and lifevests and a guy took us down the trail to the dock. And...that was it. We were alone. On a giant lagoon. In the late afternoon heat. Why did I think this was a good idea again?
http://lh4.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLASFJ1_1I/AAAAAAAAAIg/inRDg-Db5Xw/s800/Mexico07%20103.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
http://lh3.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAT1J1_2I/AAAAAAAAAIo/Od1vk9inO7k/s800/Mexico07%20104.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
We had the kayak for 3 hours, but we only fumbled around in it for about 90 minutes. We had never kayaked before, and I would've liked some instruction as to how to efficiently paddle well, but that cost extra. Chris got the hang of it right away and did most of the serious paddling. I...could steer, sort of. We started out for the bird island we'd been told about but found ourselves in a current that kept turning us in another direction. After fighting it for a while we headed back. I'm glad I can say we did it, but I think next time I'll just take the tour. We didn't see a single damn bird or much of anything except for sun and water.
But we survived!
http://lh5.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAUVJ1_3I/AAAAAAAAAIw/2JDMVLzJbSQ/s800/Mexico07%20105.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
We were pretty happy to get some cervezas and get down to the beach at CESiaK.
http://lh6.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAXlJ1_9I/AAAAAAAAAJg/VSbRMeWPZ9o/s800/Mexico07%20117.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
I was surprised by how much bigger the waves were here than at Tulum. I'd seen people complain that Tulum's surf is too strong, but from the land of undertows and rip tides Tulum's waves seemed perfect. CESiaK had waves big enough that some boogie boarding could actually be done here.
Since we'd heard good things about the restuarant there and it was already about 6:30, we decided to just eat there. We originally had a table facing the windy Caribbean side, but I asked if we could move upstairs so we'd have a view.
The service at CESiaK was VERY slow, I think partially because we had ordered dinner right before the Sunset tour came back for their dinner. Between when we first sat down and when we got our food was probably an hour. I didn't mind too much: we had drinks and it gave us a chance to take some pictures.
http://lh3.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAdlJ2AFI/AAAAAAAAAKg/Atf4I-gv-ZY/s800/Mexico07%20130.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
http://lh5.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAbFJ2AAI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/WYniiUlMdwI/s800/Mexico07%20123.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
http://lh4.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAh1J2AKI/AAAAAAAAALI/3AoDgnAVmeg/s800/Mexico07%20146.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)http://lh6.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAeVJ2AGI/AAAAAAAAAKo/crEBiWLoV64/s800/Mexico07%20136.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
We finally got our food after the amazing reddish sunset over the lagoon. I'd say the food was mixed. We ordered the queso panela asado, which was strips of delicious grilled panela cheese in tortillas with avocado. The panela is delicious but without a sauce or anything it was rather bland and kind of dry with the tortilla. I had similar feelings about the Tacos De Ensenada - the chiptole sauce wasn't as flavorful as it could've been and I was a bit baffled as to why we had flour tortillas at all. I'm used to corn tortillas and thought they were more common in southern Mexico anyway?
Luckily one did really was great - the cazuela de mariscos. It was so creamy and rich, more of a soup than a casserole, but very good. We couldn't find any fish in it - it seemed to just be shrimp, but we didn't mind much. Very tasty.
We got eaten alive by mosquitos up there, too. Maybe it's because the sea wind was blocked? We had backwoods DEET and kept slathering it on us while we ate but to no avail.
We got back to our room and as it was our last night in Tulum we decided to get one last round of drinks at Dos Ciebas. I hadn't been there at night yet and with all the candles it was really beautiful! We ended up having 2 rounds of their great pina coladas before heading back. This time I'd brought a flashlight, and as soon as we stepped back onto the beach someone ran up to us, which nearly scared the shit out of me.
Turns out it was someone asking me to turn off my flashlight, as there was a tortuga laying her eggs nearby. Once she realized we were American, she started speaking in English - turns out she's from San Francisco (we live in Oakland) and is spending a few weeks as a yoga instructor at Amansala. Small world! We carefully walk over to where the turtle is, and even without our light we can see the massive shape making her way up the beach. Wow!
We see another couple exiting Dos Ciebas too, with a flashlight on, so we run up to them asking them to turn it off and give them a big scare, too! They are also Americans from New York, and apparently they'd seen us at dinner the other night, then at CESiaK tonight, then they were staying at Dos Ciebas so they were confused why they kept seeing us! I hadn't noticed them at all, oops.
The tortuga did it's business pretty quickly and shuffled back down the beach. The NY couple did shine their light on her as she got back in the sea which we told them not to, and I thought was pretty annoying, although I was glad to get a chance to see the turtle. She was far bigger than the ones we saw in Akumal. We wondered if we needed to try to flag down the guy on the buggy to let him know where a nest is, but after not seeing any sign of him for a while we decided he'd be able to find the tracks and went back to our cabana. Our last night! We enjoyed the hamaca again, even if some clouds meant not as many stars as usual...
http://lh4.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAEFJ1_nI/AAAAAAAAAGw/P1kzHWb6Np0/s800/Mexico07%20320.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
Woke up a second time around 9am, as did my boy. To: a bunch of blood on his pillow. He had blood leaking out of his ear. Oh boy - I guess there really WAS something wrong with him last night! Now it's time to check out the Mexican health care system!
I'd read about the "CESA" (Centro Salud) in my guidebook but it didn't list an address. We drove to the (already sweltering) pueblo and asked around. Once again: people will give you directions when they have no idea. And how could the locals not know where the health center is? Finally the woman at the police/tourist information on the main road seemed to know what we were talking about. We followed her directions walking east off of the main road and then making a right. We were about to give up when we stumbled right on it. So now we wait.
After checking in at the little window, we waited, grateful the place at least had ceiling fans. There were two families in front of us, and after about 40 minutes the doctor saw us. He didn't really speak English and we only sort of speak Spanish. I know that Chris was really flustered and having a hard time communicating and at a few points I found myself correcting him ("esta semana" is when he said his pain started - oops! He also kept saying he had "fear" in his ear instead of pain.) Finally he was able to collect himself and the doctor was apparently as baffled as we were. He'd blown out his eardrum and we have no idea how! We hadn't gone scuba diving (usual culprit) and he hadn't used a Q-tip inappropriately or anything. The doctor said usually they heal themselves and that his hearing would probably return (he couldn't hear out of that ear either) but that he would have some pain and couldn't get water in his ear. So much for more snorkeling! He wrote us a prescription for an antibiotic to prevent infection and for high-dosage naproxen sodium for pain. He told us the flight home might be really painful, too. Great.
Still we were impressed with the efficiency and price - we only paid 60 pesos for the visit and another 50 for the medicines. No way that would happen in the states, even WITH our insurance. Starving and stressed out, we headed for breakfast at El Mariachi. I think we both had Huevos Mexicanos. The coffee was terrible (expected) and the food was kind of bland (not expected) but it filled us up and it was cheap. We got some bottled cokes to take back with us, too (bottled Mexican coke is the best thing ever, and it's pretty expensive at the taquerias up here).http://lh4.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAFFJ1_oI/AAAAAAAAAG4/BWGt5h_F8Lw/s800/Mexico07%20323.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/a%20href=)
After all that, we got back to the beach for a few hours.http://lh4.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAGFJ1_pI/AAAAAAAAAHA/yJe-viTOddQ/s800/Mexico07%20316.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
http://lh6.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAKlJ1_rI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/yfxQU1zxd2s/s800/Mexico07%20029.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
http://lh4.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLALFJ1_tI/AAAAAAAAAHg/ZTy_dsfODVQ/s800/Mexico07%20034.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
I'd been wanting to do the CESiaK tour but Chris didn't really want to pay for it so I suggested, foolishly, that we rent a kayak for cheaper and do our "own" tour.
Have I mentioned I'm not terribly athletically inclined?
So we drive down the Boca Paila road into the Biosphere reserve, paying our money to the guard there. CESiaK was a lot closer than I realized. A nice French woman there set us up with oars and lifevests and a guy took us down the trail to the dock. And...that was it. We were alone. On a giant lagoon. In the late afternoon heat. Why did I think this was a good idea again?
http://lh4.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLASFJ1_1I/AAAAAAAAAIg/inRDg-Db5Xw/s800/Mexico07%20103.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
http://lh3.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAT1J1_2I/AAAAAAAAAIo/Od1vk9inO7k/s800/Mexico07%20104.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
We had the kayak for 3 hours, but we only fumbled around in it for about 90 minutes. We had never kayaked before, and I would've liked some instruction as to how to efficiently paddle well, but that cost extra. Chris got the hang of it right away and did most of the serious paddling. I...could steer, sort of. We started out for the bird island we'd been told about but found ourselves in a current that kept turning us in another direction. After fighting it for a while we headed back. I'm glad I can say we did it, but I think next time I'll just take the tour. We didn't see a single damn bird or much of anything except for sun and water.
But we survived!
http://lh5.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAUVJ1_3I/AAAAAAAAAIw/2JDMVLzJbSQ/s800/Mexico07%20105.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
We were pretty happy to get some cervezas and get down to the beach at CESiaK.
http://lh6.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAXlJ1_9I/AAAAAAAAAJg/VSbRMeWPZ9o/s800/Mexico07%20117.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
I was surprised by how much bigger the waves were here than at Tulum. I'd seen people complain that Tulum's surf is too strong, but from the land of undertows and rip tides Tulum's waves seemed perfect. CESiaK had waves big enough that some boogie boarding could actually be done here.
Since we'd heard good things about the restuarant there and it was already about 6:30, we decided to just eat there. We originally had a table facing the windy Caribbean side, but I asked if we could move upstairs so we'd have a view.
The service at CESiaK was VERY slow, I think partially because we had ordered dinner right before the Sunset tour came back for their dinner. Between when we first sat down and when we got our food was probably an hour. I didn't mind too much: we had drinks and it gave us a chance to take some pictures.
http://lh3.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAdlJ2AFI/AAAAAAAAAKg/Atf4I-gv-ZY/s800/Mexico07%20130.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
http://lh5.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAbFJ2AAI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/WYniiUlMdwI/s800/Mexico07%20123.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
http://lh4.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAh1J2AKI/AAAAAAAAALI/3AoDgnAVmeg/s800/Mexico07%20146.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)http://lh6.google.com/armchairshrink/RqLAeVJ2AGI/AAAAAAAAAKo/crEBiWLoV64/s800/Mexico07%20136.jpg (http://www.tulum.info/%3Ca%20href=)
We finally got our food after the amazing reddish sunset over the lagoon. I'd say the food was mixed. We ordered the queso panela asado, which was strips of delicious grilled panela cheese in tortillas with avocado. The panela is delicious but without a sauce or anything it was rather bland and kind of dry with the tortilla. I had similar feelings about the Tacos De Ensenada - the chiptole sauce wasn't as flavorful as it could've been and I was a bit baffled as to why we had flour tortillas at all. I'm used to corn tortillas and thought they were more common in southern Mexico anyway?
Luckily one did really was great - the cazuela de mariscos. It was so creamy and rich, more of a soup than a casserole, but very good. We couldn't find any fish in it - it seemed to just be shrimp, but we didn't mind much. Very tasty.
We got eaten alive by mosquitos up there, too. Maybe it's because the sea wind was blocked? We had backwoods DEET and kept slathering it on us while we ate but to no avail.
We got back to our room and as it was our last night in Tulum we decided to get one last round of drinks at Dos Ciebas. I hadn't been there at night yet and with all the candles it was really beautiful! We ended up having 2 rounds of their great pina coladas before heading back. This time I'd brought a flashlight, and as soon as we stepped back onto the beach someone ran up to us, which nearly scared the shit out of me.
Turns out it was someone asking me to turn off my flashlight, as there was a tortuga laying her eggs nearby. Once she realized we were American, she started speaking in English - turns out she's from San Francisco (we live in Oakland) and is spending a few weeks as a yoga instructor at Amansala. Small world! We carefully walk over to where the turtle is, and even without our light we can see the massive shape making her way up the beach. Wow!
We see another couple exiting Dos Ciebas too, with a flashlight on, so we run up to them asking them to turn it off and give them a big scare, too! They are also Americans from New York, and apparently they'd seen us at dinner the other night, then at CESiaK tonight, then they were staying at Dos Ciebas so they were confused why they kept seeing us! I hadn't noticed them at all, oops.
The tortuga did it's business pretty quickly and shuffled back down the beach. The NY couple did shine their light on her as she got back in the sea which we told them not to, and I thought was pretty annoying, although I was glad to get a chance to see the turtle. She was far bigger than the ones we saw in Akumal. We wondered if we needed to try to flag down the guy on the buggy to let him know where a nest is, but after not seeing any sign of him for a while we decided he'd be able to find the tracks and went back to our cabana. Our last night! We enjoyed the hamaca again, even if some clouds meant not as many stars as usual...