Hey there! As many of y’all knew i was out of town few weeks back on vacation, and as always i try to take some time to train some muay thai, lo and behold, there was a muay thai gym in tulum so you know i had to drop in and check it out. IMPRESSIONS is my attempt at a muay thai lifestyle travel blog. you might have seen my first one of me in VANCOUVER B.C. Canada, i present to you my second one in TULUM, MX.
It was great to go back to mexico, to relax, to hang out, speak my native language and eat some of my favorite latin- american foods. check it out!
Tulum
About an 1.5 hour south of cancun, tulum is known for its ‘hippie, laid back vibe’ that is opposite of the consumerist, inclusive culture of cancun. Known for its pristine turquoise colored beaches, that wasn’t so much the case for us.
At the moment the whole caribbean is being affected by this massive seaweed problem called ‘sargassum’ and it’s washing ashore by the ton. What are usually beaches colored in hues of light blue are now a murky, dark brown color paired along with the stink of rotting seaweed.
Let me tell you, this stuff STINKS.
But there is so much more to tulum than the beaches.
There are:
Jungles.
Mayan ruins.
Wild life.
Cave lakes (Or cenotes as they are called)
AND.
More beaches. 🙂
And of course the downtown area with all the natives and the local food.
Since we were aware of the seaweed problem, we decided to check out the cenotes first. Basically limestone sinkholes with fresh underground water.
First one was a popular one called ‘el gran cenote’. Easy drive from the downtown, it consisted of two different cave lakes, the major, deep one and the smaller, shallow one.
Second one was a little more off the beaten path, trekking deep into the yucatan jungles. It was called tak el bal which is mayan for i don’t know what the fuck.
You pull up and they tell you to walk into this little hole in the ground, and you are sort of like ‘uh, ok?’
And then you take a look and are just taken back by the beauty of it all. The stalactites, The color of the water, the quietness and lack of natural light. Pretty fucking cool!
So as always i have to train if there’s a muay thai gym around, and fortunately, there was!
I was able to book a private session over at tulum fighters mma gym ran by coach cesar, a resident of tulum and former thai boxer in mexico. 50 years old and incredible shape, the training was fun, casual but tough. The weather definitely makes things harder but as always am very grateful in to get any sort of training, learning or padwork in.
You know, you leave Los Angeles, or the states, to sort of get away, but wherever you go you can see the influence that Los Angeles has on the local culture. If there was something i had to say about Tulum ‘proper’ was that it reminded me of abbot kinney on the beach. They tried their best to replicate the snobbiness and pretentiousness of that part of Los Angeles. The sort of bastardized bohemian culture mixed in with overpriced food and services, beautifully wrapped under the guise of the free spirit, free thinking hippie culture movement of the 70’s.
Yea. i’ll take a hard pass on all that.
Final thing to close the trip out were the mayan ruins along tulum beach. Pretty majestic and kind of cool to just plant your feet in the middle of it all and imagine yourself in that historical moment in time that the ruins were alive with daily mayan life.
That’s pretty much it.
My advice? If you have to, maybe spend one night in a hotel along the tulum beaches but i personally loved staying by the downtown and all the local food they had available. I think there was just a bit more culture to experience in that part of tulum. Great trip overall.
Go out and experience life. ciao!