The solo trip that turned into a girl's trip- Tulum, Coba and Valladolid

[AmoTulum]

So I'm back :wave:! I decided to start a new post, since I had to get my thread title right and pictures on here. So this is my 5th time returning to Tulum, and this was a great one. I'm not much of a trip report writer, I'm more about pictures, sorry not much of a story writer here.

Ok, so in the past years I've been down to Tulum, I had met two great women. One is a massage therapist the other was the old yoga director at Ocho. Both women were currently living in Tulum and when I told them I was going, they said I could stay with them. So I ended staying in a Villa in town with the old yoga director (we will call her Ann). An had a friend coming in from NY and was arriving the same day I was and so we both took a bus to Playa where Ann was waiting for us and picked us up.

ADO- is very easy to take. Flight arrived at 3:15 pm, we were the only plane that had arrived and therefore no lines at immigration. NONE. SCORE! I needed to catch the 4:15 bus to Playa, all is going well, until I get to luggage pick up. UGH! took 25 mins for luggage to get down, which I'm nervous about, bus leaves in 15 mins. It's now 3:55 finally get my luggage and head to customs- where everyone and I mean everyone is getting a red light- I get to it and get GREEN, SCORE again! Off like a mad person, to the ATM, get pesos, then off to ADO, where the teller calls the bus and tells them to wait for me, that I was on my way. Off I go, friends were already waiting for me in Playa.

Anyhow, easy transaction, easy ride, I was in Playa before I knew it. Then off to Tulum. I stayed with my friends at the villa and enjoyed it very much, felt like a local. Got to meet a ton of the Tulum locals and had a blast.

Here are some pics.....hung out at CESIAK. The beach there is fabulous!


http://tinyurl.com/yfdabzn



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[AmoTulum]

http://tinyurl.com/yld6zzehttp://tinyurl.com/yknajyh

[heenan]

"Pic Reports" are great! Keep the pics coming!

[beachreader]

Oh. oh. oh. This one was awesome!

http://tinyurl.com/yfdabzn

[Lynnette]

Simply gorgeous shot!!!!!


http://tinyurl.com/yfdabzn

[beachreader]

How do you get your horizons so perfectly straight? I'm really jealous.

[mayaflya]

How do you get your horizons so perfectly straight? I'm really jealous.

I dunno about AmoTulum, but Iphoto has a neat little edit button....straighten....that's MY secret!

[TnTWalter]

Wow. I wish I could take better pictures with my point and shoot....looking forward to more!

[tbpeaceful]

Beautiful photos so far. I hope there are more.

[minniemex]

How do you get your horizons so perfectly straight? I'm really jealous.

I am with Maya, I just use the straighten feature!

[ilovewyoming]

The pictures are a great start to what appears to be a great trip...Thanks for the tease, and please fill us in. with all the details

[ilovewyoming]

http://tinyurl.com/yhfw76d

[AmoTulum]

Antonio from CEsiaK, he's one of the tour guides

http://tinyurl.com/yjfw7e3
Us playing with his glasses....fun pictures!
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Mil Amores

http://tinyurl.com/yhgnocu
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http://tinyurl.com/yjk7sqmhttp://tinyurl.com/ykfosmd

This is Juan, who used to work the front desk at Ocho.

http://tinyurl.com/yc6uj3k

Ok, these are pics of Mil Amores. Juan was so kind to show us a room, I have more, but I will post the rest tomorrow. Thanks everyone for the great comments!!

[AmoTulum]

http://tinyurl.com/yhfw76d

I wish! No, our villa was in town. This is the villa at Cesiak :)

[AmoTulum]

How do you get your horizons so perfectly straight? I'm really jealous.

haha! Wish I knew. I have a Nikon D40, amateur, but really love it! It's a great camera. I'm slowly getting better. However, at times I just leave it on auto and it does the work on its own :)

[minniemex]

I like the others, are drooling over those water pictures!! Ahhhhh..................

[letele]

to quote Margo, "wowowowowowowow!" I love your pictures! More, please!

[TnTWalter]

fab villa!

D40...I love that you can put it on auto....I might have to look into that someday....sadly my poor kids are missing out on great pics of them. LOL.

[AmoTulum]

More of Mil Amores.....

http://tinyurl.com/ybmf769
Love this:
]http://tinyurl.com/ycgwcr3http://tinyurl.com/y9uh4frhttp://tinyurl.com/ybrvm38

Playa Azul pictures tomorrow!!

[Jana]

The interior of Milamores looks really nice but I can't get over the cell block style exterior! Did you try their restaurant? I think it's open to the public - we've stayed next door to it twice but never tried it.

Enjoying all your pictures!

[minniemex]

I find it strange too what is hiding behind those straight white walls! These places are always full of surprises!!

[AmoTulum]

Tacos de canasta- So,just about every morning we had tacos de canasta for breakfast. Tacos de canasta are pretty much tacos in a basket. This woman, Sarai makes about 250 tacos daily and is open until they run out. They are located across the Scotia bank, on that side street, same one as the Fruteria Pol. They're on the corner, hard to miss. I had 4 tacos and fresh OJ for 30 pesos. Good stuff. Highly recommend them!

They make mole, pollo (chicken), queso (cheese), frijoles (beans), papa con chorizo (potato with chorizo) and chicharon (pork rinds in sauce) tacos. My favorite ones were the mole and the pollo, but really all of them :)They have a green salsa and pico that is delicious. They are a sweet sweet couple. I enjoyed talking to them every morning. So here they are....

http://tinyurl.com/ybwp5wt


http://tinyurl.com/ylnhn7b

[chamba]

TACOS DE CANASTA!!!!!! see you there!
Hi Sarah Hi Abel. I order the mole, pollo, y chaya!

[TheWindyCity]

Nice photos and great to see some new spots as well. Thanks for posting for us!

[CoconutShrimp]

Love love LOVE those water shots. Enjoying the TR so far, keep it coming please!

[letele]

Those tacos look delicious, thanks for the tip!

[AmoTulum]

TACOS DE CANASTA!!!!!! see you there!
Hi Sarah Hi Abel. I order the mole, pollo, y chaya! Gosh! I couldn't remember his name to save my life! Thanks! It's sad, because that's my brother's name too. Geez, I have a bad memory!

[AmoTulum]

Valladolid is a beautiful place full of color! They have repainted the town and it looks fantastic! I loved it here!

http://tinyurl.com/ybfcn4l


http://tinyurl.com/yba9uj7http://tinyurl.com/yev774nhttp://tinyurl.com/ydwxvax

This is Senor Mack, he's a local shoemaker. Great sweet man, with an awesome personality. Tried teaching us Mayan, that was a failure :)

http://tinyurl.com/yb8v85n

http://tinyurl.com/y8v4cwvhttp://tinyurl.com/y94yh8f

[AmoTulum]

So we took a trip down to Valladolid to visit a friend, Ariane, of Dutzi Designs http://dutzidesign.com/ . Ariane makes the most beautiful purses made out of recycled materials (burlap, leather, rafia, etc) and what I love the most is that she employs the local women to make these purses. We visited her workshop, had lunch and wine with her, and had a fabulous time. She's a beautiful woman (both in and out)! I highly recommend her purses and I believe she is now opening up her first shop in Valladolid.

This is the workshop....


http://tinyurl.com/yzkcty6


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This is Ariane

http://tinyurl.com/y9lq8ac

One of her fabulous employees made us empanadas de chaya with cheese. yummy!!

http://tinyurl.com/yd25ka4

[Jana]

I have this exact picture too! :)

http://tinyurl.com/yev774n

We were really impressed with Valladolid too. So much so that we may cram in a quick day trip on our next visit to Tulum (mostly to buy honey but I'd love to check out Dutzi Designs too).

[TheWindyCity]

What a great side trip! Had no idea Valladolid has changed so much positively. Your friends shop looks nice, not to mention having the homemade empanadas!

[sparklegem]

What a wonderful trip report!! Do you have the location of Dutzi Designs? I would love to visit it!