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06/14/2017 12:00 AMDigging my toes into the sugary sand and gripping the ropes, I lean back on my bar swing ever so lightly since there is actually very little room to swing without crashing into the bar. While the bartender squeezes some small green limes for my fresh margarita, I squint across the terraced area at the top of the beach, my eyes smarting from the sun bouncing off the waves of the clearest blue water.
The beach bar is a short walk from where I'm staying in a villa in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico with friends and family. On the day of our arrival the caretakers prepared a welcome platter of sopes with shredded chicken, picadillo, and sliced avocados. We ate and drank, all excitedly talking and gesticulating at once, dancing around the patio and into the pool in our best attention deficit hyperactivity disordered selves about the things we want to do during our vacation on the Riviera Maya. The 10 of us were so psyched to be staying in a quaint town off the beaten path right on the sea, that none of us could decide what to do next. We range in age from 21 to 79, so our desires vary, but the beach was on everyone's wish list, and my top priority.
I hurried down to the closest beach to our villa and home base of Akumal. Hardly anyone is on this secluded beach lined with villas and vacation homes, unlike the main beach in Akumal town. The main drag through Akumal is lined with enterprising locals calling out to tourists to park their cars, buy glazed tiles, check out the souvenir shot glasses with little cacti in the bottom, sign up for tours of the Mayan ruins, swim with the dolphins, do organic yoga, get your golf game on, see the monkeys, dine on fish tacos, and eat ice cream. It's colorful and lively.
Every evening before dinner we meet up at the villa and share our adventures over chips and salsa and guacamole. During the week, some of our party went ziplining in the rainforest, others hiked on the cliffs of the pre-Columbian Mayan walled city at Tulum or toured the ruins at Chichen Itza, and another of our contingent opted for dental work. They had met some random travelers on the airplane who were taking their annual vacation to Cancun to whiten their teeth for a reasonable rate. Contacting the dentist and booking an appointment was a cinch. With Cancun about an hour north of Akumal, that night we met up about halfway at Playa del Carmen, a city with a mix of old and new Mexico--high-end shops and nightclubs on the beach, live music in the park, hole-in-the-wall eateries, and locals playing soccer on a school fútbol pitch. Gleaming white teeth against golden brown tans, it was easy to spot my friends in the dark and crowded city.
Speeding by the huge walled resorts dotted along the two-lane Carretera Felipe Carrillo Puerto-Tulum, otherwise known as Highway 307, I pass slower construction vehicles and remember visiting the area many years ago when the road was a single lane in each direction, and the local bus clattered over a barely paved road. With a Costco in Cancun and Chemax stores spouting up along the coast that remind me of Whole Foods, I'm curious to see the two faces of Tulum which inhabit the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula about 20 minutes south of Akumal. Even though the Maya survived the Spanish occupation of Mexico for about 70 years at this site, the old city along the highway feels colonial with its plaza, mercados, and bodegas serving up tourist kitsch and cheap fare.
To reach the boho-chic side of Tulum, turn off Highway 307 onto Avenida Coba and continue onto Calle Cabañas Tulum-Tulum and then onto Carretera Tulum-Punta Allen right along the azure waters of the Caribbean Sea. The road signs are either non-existent, hard to spot, facing the wrong way, or have another name associated with the road. For the persistent, this Tulum beckons the international crowd with its boutique resorts and spas, full service beaches, shops with a handful of expensive items, mezcal and tequila tasting venues, and restaurants designed like any found in major cities and resorts of the world but with a hippie vibe. It's early in the day, so I sip an iced coffee made with local beans and wander in and out of tiny shops so close to the road I have to move to the side to let cars and taxis pass.
We meander down a dirt road to check out the inexpensive glamping sites--safari-style tents with zip up doors and windows, a queen-size bed covered in eco-friendly sheets, a night stand and a sandy floor. Dozens of bronze bodies in skimpy bikinis lounge on outdoor beds chatting in myriad languages, drinking Mexican cervezas or margaritas, while world music umps-umps through speakers affixed to the palm trees at the edge of the powdery white sand.
My friends and I rent beds with shade tops, tables and chairs for the day at one of Tulum's beachside resorts. Miguel doesn't just wait on us, he runs our orders of lemonade and fish tacos back and forth to the kitchen. He does this for every party in his section of the beach. We stroll leisurely along the beach and swim in the warm blue waves, and sign up for deep tissue massages under make-shift tents erected in the sand. Later, we dine on calamari, mariscos, and other fresh seafood, our laughter competing with the sound of the waves wafting in on the breeze and cooling our sun-drenched skin. The exhausted among us head back to the villa, while a few of us pick our way down the pitch-dark street on the bohemian side of Tulum, holding out our flashlight phones and greeting passers-by with an hola or Buenas noches. Our ears help guide the way as we listen for live music, stopping to be serenaded under the thick canopy of palm trees.
On our last night, we are subdued and quiet, unlike the hyped-up herd that first day at the villa. We are more relaxed, but we haven't spent enough time at the beach, and even though some of our party went ziplining twice, it wasn't enough. I could go for some more fish tacos. So, we head out to Akumal to what is now one of our favorite restaurants right on the water with little treehouses perched in the palm trees, skinny ladders resting against their trunks, for a better view of the bay. As we feast on tacos and sip our final margaritas we plan a future trip to the dentist.