Fancy meeting you here.

When traveling with a Lonely Planet guide (actually any guide book), you often run into the same people over and over again. It was therefore a pleasant non-surprise to see the Aussie girl from the Palenque bus station sitting at the table next to ours the next morning. But the reunion was a bit bittersweet. Terry (that’s her name) told us that they were robbed that night on the bus. It wasn’t banditos but someone less obvious. While they slept on the bus someone had taken their bags from between there legs and carefully rifled through them, taking all their cash, credit cards, her bank card, some lip sticks, and an ancient mobile but leaving the other bank cards, cameras and lip glosses. And it was a sizeable wad the thief or thieves had gotten from them. Thanks to generous and helpful hostel owner in Merida they were able to report it and get everything cancelled. And since two out of the three of them still had their bank cards they were able to continue their trip. But after one night at Papaya Playa they felt like they were being robbed again. And when I heard they were being charged $75 US for their three-bed twig hut on the beach, I agreed with them. So they were checking moving into town until their flight to Cuba.

Adrian and I said goodbye and shook off the heebie-jeebies with a day at the beach. It was our last day in Tulum so where better to spend it. We alternated swimming with reading, breaking up the nothing with a cheap lunch of tortilla chips and salsa purchased at the grocery store the day before, and of course, happy hour mojitos and pina coladas. And don’t worry, a healthy slathering of sunscreen prevented any burns.

The weather got quite cold that evening (relatively speaking) requiring Adrian and I to wear our sweaters and long pants to bed in our well-ventilated twig hut. But also making us quite happy to move on from Tulum after 4 days.