Today was a day to continue the journey south. I'm in Tulum and I ended up here by colectivo bus, since the old banger wouldn't start and stayed behind in Playa del Carmen. On the way we even had a National Guard checkpoint to check documents and everything was in order, so we could all carry on. Now I'm enjoying the Moonshine Tulum Hostel, which is modern and also has a rooftop pool and cost me only about €10 a night in a dorm. This tourist life isn't easy, so many hours a day giving it my all.
Now it's time to carry on the adventure, I took advantage of the bus ride to catch up on my writing and give a sign of life. In the town of Tulum people cycle a lot, because from the centre it's still about 40 minutes' walk to the beach and the Tulum ruins.
I did try to rent a bike for 150 pesos for 24 hours, but you had to leave a deposit of 1000 and ID and I didn't have that with me, but the chat with the lady was pleasant and I said I'd drop by the next day to see whether I could rent the bike.
So I walked to the Tulum ruins and then from there to the beach. The afternoon was long and the loop was big, so to get back I stopped to look for a colectivo bus, but nothing, until I bumped into a Mexican woman called Antónia who was trying to get in, with a bicycle, to the area I was leaving, but after a certain time they no longer let people into the area of the beaches by the ruins. We stayed there chatting, me telling her where I was from and so on and her telling me she was going to meet a friend to pick up her motorbike, which had broken down there the day before. She explained where to catch the colectivo and we said goodbye, but not before she asked me for my social media contact so she could follow my adventure.
I got back to the hostel and, after having a shower, when I was getting ready to go out to dinner, I walked past a group of people at the hostel who were socialising and drinking tequila and beer. In the group there were Mexicans, an Uruguayan woman, an Argentine man, two Germans and a Dutch girl from the Netherlands (the new name for Holland). They insisted I stay and have a drink and I kept saying I was going to dinner, but there you go, I had the first beer and then a tequila, another beer, another tequila and a few more shots of tequila and beer.
In short, 3 bottles of tequila and a few packs of beers got drunk and we left the hostel, it was already 10:30 pm, all well oiled, straight to Bar Santini for a night of partying that ended at 4 am for me, the Dutch girl and the Uruguayan woman, the last ones standing. We stopped at another bar to finish the party and, on the way back to the hostel, we stopped at the supermarket, which is open 24 hours here, to buy something to eat.