Well, here goes: December 08

[beachreader]

I don't feel like starting in a linear fashion, but I do want to say to SoKaliBeachBoy that I'm sorry I didn't get all the way down to LVL to say hello to their kitty. I did, however, spend some quality time with Luna, the Queen of Cabanas La Luna. She's not much bigger than she was as a small kitten last March, but her coat is like silk and she purrs like a train when she deigns to honor you with her love. I'm guessing this means she's a happy kitty and Rene made the right choice in leaving her behind so she could live the good life!



There are also two charming puppies at La Luna these days, Foxy and Polar (guess which one is which):



Here they are in their cage, where they spend the night to keep them safe. Guess which one is clever enough to get out of the cage whenever she chooses, and which one happily begs to be released?



Believe it or not, they're litter-mates, though certainly from two different fathers. I checked with my vet back home, and she said it's totally possible, if extremely rare (at least here in the US). Knowing the life of a Mexican beach dog, I told her maybe not quite so rare down there.

Here's a shot of Foxy with Free, one of the managers of La Luna. Sorry I didn't get pictures of Loes, Gonzalo or Jacob, who was brought in to start the food service thing and also answers e-mails and such.




And a few shots of Captain Dale, one of the greatest beach houses ever:



From the beachside at dawn:



The king bed downstairs, which I really would call a king bed. I'm not very tall, but I'd say it was 7 feet wide and maybe 6.5 long--not much comfort for you over-6.5 guys, but that's pretty good in Mexico!



I've taken other shots of the loft beds, which I can post if anyone needs them, but here's a shot of the front loft bed from the ground floor. It's dark up there because it's daytime, they have several lights up there when needed. I think both beds are what we'd call doubles:



And the same view to the rear:



And that fabulous porch!



The porch from the big bed:



And the late-day view from the back hammock, between the rails:




And, somewhat randomly, the view of Christopher Columbus from our side deck in the morning (beyond it is the little space of Robinson Crusoe):



And, somewhat less helpfully, the view of Casablanca and Marrakech (upstairs) from our side deck in the morning light:




And here is the itty-bitty, teeny-tiny little baby ghost crab who appeared in our bathroom on two or three occasions. Here's one that shows his scale--note that the soap bar is a hotel-sized version and the washcloth is half-sized:




And here is the giant moth, who we thought was a bat when he was flying on the porch but proved his moth-ness when he appeared, in giant silhouette, in our ceiling lamp later in the evening. Seriously, he's at least five inches across:



Other than these guys, not a critter to be found other than a water bug or two in the bathroom (keep covers on your toothbrushes).


And that's enough for my first post, I'll think on what I'm going to post tomorrow!

[susan]

Thanks Beachreader. I am definately going to look into La Luna, the place looks really nice

[TnTWalter]

Great start! Thanks.

[Lynnette]

These are wonderful shots of La Luna. I could sit on Capt Dales front porch, with that fabulous view, all day long!! I just love the photos of the doggies & kitty....and you didn't see a snake! That's a funny story thinking the giant moth was a bat. I did just the opposite at Nah Uxibal. I was trying to get close to take a picture of the moth, that turned out to be a bat. Eeeeek!!

[minniemex]

Fran, I have one of that same moth!! They are huge!! I can see how you thought it might be a BAT!!

[heenan]

Great start and looking forward to more!

[letele]

La Luna looks fabulous! Can't wait to read more!

[beachreader]

Oddly, I didn't really take many more pics of La Luna this trip, so here are a few from March to show more of the property.

The beach beds are now brown vinyl, not white (I recommend bringing a sheet as Pepper suggested), and the Adirondack chairs are in the process of being painted bright Caribbean colors. They definitely need more beach beds, as when we were there, the place was full and there was a large group of women in the back house and they took to playing the towel game. I hate the towel game, especially when they'd lay the towel down and then literally not show up until lunchtime. On my last day, the day I was really looking forward to having my very own bed (my friends had left the day before), I didn't lay a towel down and went out to breakfast. I came back at 9:00 and there was a new couple on "my" bed! I was so disappointed, and all the other beds were claimed, either by people or by towels. So I'll suggest to La Luna that a) they need more beds, and b), they need to reserve beds for specific units if those units are occupied. You know what I mean? If I'm paying $250-$300 a night for Captain Dale, I want a beach bed!

Anyway, here's a view from the beach in March:



They've added a number of new palm trees, some along the fence lines, but two right in the middle of the beach. Apparently the owners want to put a gate there with an eye to putting in a fence, right on the beach. I will strongly encourage them NOT to do this. If I'm sitting on a chair, I want to look at the ocean, not a fence. They can hang a sign on the new palms, that's fine, and I know it's good to announce the name of the hotel from the beachfront, but not a fence. Besides, how would a fence affect the turtles in summer?

Here's the garden area from last March:



The bonfire pit is now gone, alas. There are now two or three of these stone tables, where they'll be serving food (unless you want it on your deck, which they'll happily do). There's a new kitchen hut behind this table, up at the edge of the wedding bower area.

The communal kitchen is still in place, so you can make your coffee (they have a french press) or whatever else you like, but please clean up after yourselves. We came in one morning and whoever had used the kitchen in the night hadn't cleaned up. Gross!

This structure is the communal kitchen, but you can't really see any of it. The stove is off to the left.




They've been serving breakfasts for a while now ($10 pp), and there's a menu in your unit so you can order the day before. There's also a dinner menu (I think $20 pp, for three courses), which you also have to order the day before. Lunches will be on-the-spot, which is going to be very nice. Jacob's menu for lunch will focus on sandwiches, ceviches, guacamole, salads, etc.

[Lynnette]

Oh dear....the towel game is unheard of, at least to me on the Tulum beaches. La Luna definitely needs more beds/chairs...I like your suggestion of assigning beach beds to specific units. A big no to the fence, too. Nueva Vida has a fence, but you are on the beach beyond it. While I don't like the look of the fence, I understand it helps with beach erosion.

[beachreader]

Yes, I'm OK with bits of fence at the base of the dunes to help with erosion, but not in the middle of the beach!

In fact, I think I need to compose my letter to Victor and Hanne Jesca before I forget.

[katea07]

I've been eagerly waiting your trip report! I'm glad to hear that Luna the kitty is still there. She was so cute when we met her in May and wouldn't leave us alone when we would eat at the stone tables. The new addition of the dogs are great too. My dog-loving wedding guests will be excited to play with them for a few days.

La Luna has seemed to change alot from May. I noticed in your pictures they painted the cabanas. Dale's is now bright green? I also heard they put in a guest bathroom somewhere.... I look forward to hearing of the other changes you noticed. I'll be there in about 7-8 weeks and can't wait!

[PhyllisB]

Yahoo! Great start Fran. I'm with you on the fence issue too, blech!!!!! And the towel game, no way!!!! UGH! Not in my Tulum! La Luna seems great, and Dale's looks like a fantastic cabana. I think I'm still more interested in the more secluded southern end. You know you like the seclusion when a dozen people makes you feel like there are too many people around, haha!

I also noticed that it looked like they'd painted the buildings. I just figured maybe they were always like that and I hadn't noticed before. I really do prefer the more natural blending into the environment kinda thing, but whatever.

[beachreader]

Yes, they did paint the buildings, and they did put in a very nice guest bathroom on the mid-north side of the property. That'll definitely help with wedding guests and such.

As for the towel game, it wasn't La Luna's fault but the fault of the women who were doing it.

On that last day when I was burned on "my" bed, I mentioned it to Free, and he said "we don't do that here", and walked over and picked up one of the towels and folded it over a chair so that I could have the bed. I still felt a bit funny, because that person did think that bed was "theirs", but I got over it.

And then, since the water was too rough that day for my taste, I ended up going up to the north beach anyway around noon.

[beachreader]

OK, speaking of the north beach, I did take a couple of trips up there to see what's what.

With all the fuss of the Profepa closures, all of the businesses except one seem to be operating fully as usual. It's kind of strange, b/c Clausurado signs are still in evidence everywhere.

Here's the tour:

Alas, the one true victim of it all, Mayan Grill is completely closed:








I'll give you all a minute to go get your Kleenex.



The bad news out of the way, everything else on the north beach seems to be hopping right along. Diamante K, that little place next to them that I always forget about, Mezzanine, everyone is cruising right along.

I parked at El Paraiso, which has a guardhouse and a rope across the driveway sometimes, but it's open anyway, tons of taxis hanging out there as usual. Here are the signs, remember the hubbub over The Tides?



Note the little Clausurado sign in the middle of this one:



The bar was swinging right along like the old days. Reggae was playing on the stereo (and salsa a bit later on), no techno in sight. It was a bit early for lunch, most of the people were out on the beach:




There was one casualty, that large concrete beach house they started building last year around this time is definitely postponed, so now it's just a big old eyesore. Too bad:



I walked up to Zacil Kin for a frosty beverage (25 pesos):





Cool little place to hang out, busy on a Saturday afternoon.




Kind of next door, a bit to the south, the El Mariachi beach outpost. Has there always been one, or is this new?



I would have stayed for lunch, but all the tables were full and I didn't feel like carrying it out and eating on the sand.

[beachreader]

So I wandered back past El Paraiso, kind of heading for Mezzanine to get some Thai and half-price margaritas for my last day's lunch.

La Vita e Bella was getting some palapa work done:








I turned and started down toward Mezzanine, which suddenly looked very very far away, and I was already tired from sand-walking from earlier that morning and my trip up to Zacil Kin, and deep-sand walking for much of that. Man, I'm out of shape!

Anyway, I got to thinking about how LVeB has pizza and a bar, and what the heck, I'll just step in here, have a quick lunch and snag one of their beach chairs for the afternoon.

I had forgotten how slow LVeB can be, but more importantly I did not put two and two together. Um, Palaperos up on the roof, and I'm going to sit underneath that?

Here's my pizza and margarita, before it was covered with tiny little shreds of palapa, snowing down from the ceiling:



I changed tables four times and the guys were over me all the time. Ah well. I did get a fresh margarita out of it (I was 1/3 of the way into the one above before it was filled with brown stuff), and the pizza was just OK, so the little bits of palm fronds didn't really make much of a difference.

The second margarita, perhaps as an apology, was very strong, so I headed out and snagged a chair at the south end of the property. They generally charge for chair use (I even asked, saying that since I had eaten there, couldn't I use a chair for free?), but the one I took was all the way at the south end, and I believe was actually reserved for the bungalow above it.

Kind of ironic, since I was so ticked that someone had taken "my" bed that very morning at La Luna, but I could tell the bungalow was empty and I would have moved the minute someone came down. Not that I'm feeling defensive about my choice or anything.

I had a nice swim, the water was typically much better than the rough seas in front of Luna, and a good long nap, and eventually dragged myself back to Captain Dale for a shower.

Hmm, I just got a strange warning message, I'm going to send this and hope it goes through!

[beachreader]

Oh, one more pic of La Vita e Bella. It's not a very good one, I kind of took it because in the late-day light the new green tops of these trees were really beautiful, standing out over the dead stuff they were growing out of.

But it reminds me that there is this one unit at LVB, all the way to the south, with this greenery right next to it, and it's tipped to the south, facing away from the LVB chairs and beach.

I think it would feel very private down there.

[Obsessed]

Thanks Beachreader for the always great trip reporting!!

I just had to comment on that last picture of the pizza....I love how you took a few bites then put the slice back to take a picture!!!

[beachreader]

OK, back to the south beach. I took a walk from La Luna north to Maya Tulum one morning, lots going on in that neighborhood.

I had good sand for walking:




Here's Casa Tranquillo, right next door. This house is for rent (on VRBO, perhaps other sites as well), with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. It used to be bright red, is now a crazy yellow and orange. Nice beach area, and from the satellite dish I noticed, they apparently have TV, which surprises me.



If that stairway on the left side of the house is what I think it is, I bet they have an amazing view from the rooftop:





The big news on this part of the beach is this monstrosity:



It's a new building at Playa Azul. Free said it has gone up super-fast, in just a couple of months. It looks like they took that cool building they had before (here it is from last December)


And covered it with ugly stucco and quadrupled the space.

Here's the new beast from the other side, sorry the lighting isn't very good. You can see behind the big building that it looks like they've built new rooms back there in the same style.



Happily, as you can see a bit to the right of this picture, they still have the little old cabanas and beach beds they had last year:




My only hope is that will be a public restaurant and one more place to eat on the beach. It sure is ugly, though.


Then, a bit farther north, I was shocked to see this building:



It's right next door (on the south side) of Posada Lamar. This was that little property with the camper van and hippies I talked about from last December. This definitely wasn't there in March. I don't know what it is, but it looks a bit like a private home, doesn't it?

Here's another view. The square tower is the new building, the palapa to the right is the large beachfront unit at Lamar:




There is a lot of beach erosion in this neighborhood, stretching from here all the way to Casa de Miel. It's better at Hemingway and Maya Tulum.



That's Posada Lamar and Kin-Ha. This one is looking the other way in front of Posada Margerita:

[beachreader]

Lots of new construction at Casa de Miel, too. Last March she had three buildings of rooms, and I knew there was a plan to build a yoga space and perhaps a restaurant. I don't know about the restaurant, but the large building in the back here looks yoga-ish to me. They were actively building, so I didn't try to get back there to see better.



Here are the original buildings, with maybe another one tucked in there as well:




The seaweed situation at Maya Tulum is much improved. Still some, but this is wide open compared to what it was before:



You can see it a bit in the water at the far end of the bay, in front of the restaurant, but I'm very happy for Maya Tulum, which always seemed like such a nice place except for those unfortunate gifts from the sea.

[beachreader]

Completely random thought, brought on when I answered Bayzee's question about the coolers and I mentioned to bring a variety of ziplock bags.

Next trip, I'm also going to bring a few sizes of binder clips. You know, the really strong ones for stacks of paper? The milk comes in those rectangular cartons with no way of reclosing it, so the clip might help with that. I'd also use them for clipping up the mosquito netting, as the knots I make don't always hold high enough to get out of the way. They could be used as clothespins as well, since it gets pretty windy down there and clothespins (if available) are no match for the breeze.

We bought a sharp knife at the supermarket for like $2 and it came in handy all week long. I left it there, figured they could always use another knife, right? I might also consider buying a small plastic cutting board for the limes, but a bit of cardboard worked in a pinch.