Gather and Nest

After four nights at Azulik, I was excited to get to a sweet room with electricity and a shower at Mezzanine.  Although, I realized just how hard it is to sing in the shower when you can’t drink the water!

We sprung for one of their new master suites. It has its own balcony overlooking the ocean and the restaurant below. 

The goodstuff:

• Good Food and Happy Hour every day from 1-4 with 2×1 margaritas.  If you’re in Tulum, I would definitely check it out.
• If you’re into it, they have quite a party on Friday nights
• Ample, accommodating staff
• A wide selection of fresh fruit smoothies for those who can’t have a cerveza
• “Hip” and clean atmosphere
• Small lit pool that changes colors at night, makes for a quick dip when you don’t want to run down to the ocean.

The other stuff:

• There is beach access but Mezzanine doesn’t ‘own’ any of the beachfront. So that means no chairs or umbrellas down on the sand. All of the chairs are up by the hotel and you just have to walk down to beach when you get hot. Not really a big deal, we just left some towels down there and went back and forth.
• The master suites were built over the kitchen and on your way up the stairs to your room you walk by the kitchen vent letting out all of that thai fried food smell. For me, being pregnant and overly smell sensitive, this was tortuous.  My husband even thought it was pretty bad, but he was more frustrated with the fact that being over the kitchen means the sounds of dishes and pots being thrown around when you are trying to relax.  Just something to think about.

Azulik 

The sea villas, in all their twiggy elegance, are perched upon a rocky cliff.  They overlook the magnificent sea, the white sandy beach, and well, during the day, lots of naked people.  We knew clothing was optional here. On our last visit it wasn’t quite as prevalent but this year it was all the rage.  It was slightly intimidating at first because I felt so overdressed at the beach in my string bikini, but we all worshipped the sun and the glory of mother nature together in peace.  All shapes, sizes, and ages, doing things you would do in your bathing suit:  run, tai chi, pose for pictures (one couple even used palms as props…clever), order food and drinks, meet and talk to friends and guys who solicit at the beach promoting their salsa night, and my favorite, lounge on beach chairs reading a book in ways you may not even consider with a bathing suit on.  I tried not to stare.  I just thought how uncomfortable it must be to get sand in some of those places and I hoped they put on lots of sunscreen.  Secretly, I admired their inhibition.  So when in Rome (or Tulum)…

If you head to Azulik, I would recommend beach villa 13 for the most privacy and if you want to be on the ocean spend the extra money for the honeymoon villa (#12). Those two villas I  have pictured on an earlier  post. They are the best!  If you want anymore info just let me know!

      We arrived at the Cancun airport at about 4pm and searched for our pre-arranged taxi service among the hundreds of drivers holding signs, trying to hustle you. Finally, we find our driver, a nice young guy who leads us to his car. It is a small, clean sedan that will take on our almost two hour journey to Tulum. He was nice and  tried to make some small talk in broken English and we tried out our poor Spanish. He put on a CD. Some traditional Mexican music came on, what you would expect to hear in a hotel lobby or at a cheesy restaurant. I liked it, it was exactly what I wanted to hear as we departed the airport and started on our way.

      The road from Cancun to Tulum is pretty direct, running parallel to the shore.  It starts out mellow, lots of traffic lights on a four lane road divided by a median. Things were about to change. The music switched to some sort of Spanish Rap/Rock, fast  paced, base pumping. Our speed increased, as there were no more traffic lights and construction on the northbound side of the road makes all four lanes together, without a median! Trucks passed small cars at high speeds. We zipped by a man lying on the side of the road talking on his cell phone.  I don’t mean in the grass…he was in the ‘breakdown lane’. For anyone in Portland, think man lying by the median on 26, or for our East Coasters, think Mass Pike or Thruway. Crazy. We were going about 90 mph, and people were passing us!  As if it couldn’t get any scarier, the road turns to just two lanes. Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ comes on. Perfect. 100mph at this point, cars are still passing, squeezing together on one lane! (’cause this is Thriller, Thriller Night, and no one’s gonna save you from the beast about to strike’) I notice my husband tightens his seat belt. I’m trying to focus on the sun going down and observing the scenery as it passes by very quickly instead of thinking who will take care of our dog if we don’t make it to our destination. (‘You’re fighting for your life inside a killer, Thriller Tonight’) At last, a set of speed bumps brings us to a slower pace. The sun has gone down, we make it to Azulik…alive!

Today we travel to Tulum, Mexico. Ahhh, the Mayan Riviera.

I can’t wait to see sparkling blue waters and feel the warm sand beneath my toes!

We are splitting up our trip, staying first at Azulik…

Azulik has no electricity, so it is kind of like glorified camping (glamping, as I’ve heard some say!) This will be our second time staying there.

A Sea Villa.

A Beach villa.

Friendly critters running around.

Mayan ruins.

Then we are off to Mezzanine, which is a hip boutiquish hotel a short ways from Azulik. Although we have never stayed there before, we have eaten at their restaurant and they make a mean fish taco. I’m looking forward to that!

I’m sure I’ll have a lot to share when we get back!