All our luggage lined up waiting for the taxi to transport us 5 miles (8 Kilometres) to the bike shop. Quick story time – the woman taking this picture advised us to be very aware because we were now entering the real and authentic Mexico and to be always on our guard – and this was after we had told her we had been experiencing the real Mexico for 11 weeks before reaching the tourist zone and having our bikes taken in the tourist zone. We couldn’t wait to return to the real Mexico because we considered ourselves safer there.With the luggage loaded there are still minor adjustments to be made – something we continued to do each of the next 3 days together with ordering parts to be delivered to our hotel in Chetumel by Amazon. Throughout our time along this coastline we had abandoned our ‘random arrival at hotels hoping for a vacancy approach’ and had been booking ahead by 2 or 3 days to ensure we had a room in what is their high season.Don’t be fooled by the happy faces; we were delighted to be mobile again, however, we were really nervous about how the bikes would perform. It was exactly a week ago today that the bikes had been stolen – ironically from the most expensive and most secure accommodation we had had on the trip so far and fully covered by CCTV . This is the centre of Akumal. As with so many recently developed tourist areas along this coastline, eg. Cancun, Playa Del Carmen, Tulum they have a traditional town centre where the locals live and a relatively newly built beach front section across the main road where many of the tourists visit/stay. There are murals and monuments almost on every wall; our guess is that they have an artists exhibition annually such is the quantity and quality of the paintings. They are so creative in this town they also make these collections of bottle tops to hang on the fence of the children’s play area. The sign at the entrance to this place was Cafe and Bakery; we have never seen an establishment with such a well stocked bar. Come to think of it we’ve been in bars which are nowhere as well laid out as this cafe and bakery. Also, Champions League football was available if you’re interested in Liverpool being beaten 5 – 2 by Real Madrid at 3pm because of the time difference.The centre of Akumal – not exactly carnival time, is it? Many of the visitors are at the waterfront going on diving and snorkelling trips – not our cup of tea; tourists, that is. We much prefer making our own discoveries as opposed to those a guide is paid to show you. Interestingly this is another town not listed in the LP guide.Whilst we’ve been impressed with the murals we have discovered in each place we have stayed it is one of the that once we left Tulum the one and only road is down to one lane in each direction and nothing but dense bush either side. The views are not exactly impressive. There is, however, glimpses through the undergrowth where lorries access with gravel and stone for the foundations of a railway line being built to transport tourists only from as far away as Campeche to Cancun. At a cost of 20 billion dollars this has the hallmarks of some politicians vanity project. There are many aspects of the infrastructure that would benefit all tourists on which the money could be spent. For now the existing road is very light on traffic and has a good hard shoulder for us to use.A more colourful cafe/bakery/bar would be hard to find.
Mexico and Belize 