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Suenos Tulum, 11/4-11/14 2005 - 12/11/2005 4:15:28 PM
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pb2131
Posts: 1257
Joined: 8/29/2005
From: Chicago
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Okay, I know I promised a trip report sooner. Coming home was more depressing than I thought it would be, and working on my trip report just made me more sad! Now, the in-laws (who arrived for Thanksgiving a week after we got home) have left, and I'm feeling more adjusted to being home. I've put a little distance between me and our fabulous vacation now, so here we go!
DISCLAIMER: This is a LONG report. For those of you who don't want to read so much, you can find my quick list of "Things I learned on my first trip to the 'Roo," here.
For a list of what I was glad I had packed, what I packed but didn't need, and what I wished I had packed, go here.
For some of our pics, click here.
Pre-Trip Countdown
I think I spent weeks - literally - on the board, waiting for news of whether we'd be able to make it to Tulum. As I read posts where people reported receiving calls from folks who made it to Tulum and were able to place a call, I tried not to get my hopes up, just in case. I was glad for my trip insurance but annoyed that I might have to actually use it. I looked at pictures of Suenos, and hoped that the vegetation separating the buildings from the beach would protect them. (It did! When we were there, we talked about it - they commented that they think the folks who build and pull up all the vegetation to make a better view are crazy.) I did not email Kay or Katie but eagerly awaited word from them. I knew they were notifying people in the order of their arrival. Finally, the word comes: Suenos will be open for us!  "We're Going to Mexico!!!" I announced when mr. pb2131 came home from work. "Cool." Huh? Why aren't you more EXCITED! We are GOING!!! Hubby said he knew it would be fine - he didn't know why I was driving myself crazy the way I was.  Then came all the reports of the airport being damaged and flights not getting there. You have GOT to be KIDDING. My hotel could be fine, but I still might not get to go on my vacation? No way. I am getting there come hell or high water. Even if I have to go through Merida. (But I sure am glad we didn't have to, especially after hearing about nutmegstater's fun journey!) Then Northwest Airlines calls on Sunday, 5 days before we are scheduled to leave. Consolidating their flights, can you still go? Yes, I can! Great! They put us on the one flight that they'll be able to get out. Unfortunately it leaves around 5:30 in the morning. I don't care, I can still go! Woohoo!
Leaving at 5:30AM, we decide to have a cab take us. No "T" service that early, and dammit this is our honeymoon after all. So what if the wedding was over a year ago?? I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off for the two days before the trip -- down to AAA's main Boston office for travellers checks but OOPS forgot the checkbook. Get to go back the next day. Flip Flops! I need flip flops! Damn, it's hard to find flip flops in Boston in November! Oh damn, I'd better call to arrange that cab. I can do it tomorrow. Okay, I'll do it in the afternoon. Okay, it's Thursday afternoon at 4, we leave tomorrow at 6:30 am, I'd better get this done eh? Uh, oh, the ad says to call 24 hours in advance. Fingers crossed. Ummmm, can you pick us up at 4 am, I ask sheepishly? Sure, they say. Yaheee, we'll be on our way!
Departure & Arrival Day
Alarm goes off at 3:15 AM. I've gotten about 4 hours sleep, maybe. And not good sleep. Restless sleep. Pre-vacation sleep. Damn I hope the taxi guy actually makes it at 4. Can you believe it, 4AM and we are actually ready to go. We actually prepared adequately! Holy cow! And look at that, there's a ..... black town car outside??? huh??? Guess it wasn't a taxi company!  4am and we are off to Logan. No traffic, this will be the quickest trip to Logan EVER. Whooops, all the tunnels are closed for maintenance overnight, so we get a lovely tour of downtown boston instead. The driver chats us up. I am so excited I can hardly focus....
Arrive in Memphis, probably for the same flight that gextyr and ms gextyr were taking - only I didn't know that yet! Need food. Wow, this food court is crazy expensive. And wow I hope that lady in the flip flops and crazy hawaiian shirt who is talking and talking and talking and talking at the table next to us isn't on our plane. We *definitely* didn't see the same well dressed people that gextyr saw! Waiting for the connecting flight is excruciating.... when we left Boston I was excited, now I just want to GET THERE dammit.
We get on the bigger plane - it's maybe 33% full. Maybe. Almost empty. You can see the flight crew sorta looking everyone over and talking about it.
In the air, almost there! Starting our decent - look at that blue blue water. Hmmmmm, look at those brown brown trees.....  They look like giant twigs. I knew we'd see damage but that's not quite what I expected. Such a wide area, too - just brown.
Get off the plane - oh boy am I nervous to try to speak any Spanish - I haven't had any for YEARS. The terminal area is *deserted.* I had my guard up for time share sharks - where are they? I don't know why I thought they'd hound me the minute I was off the plane but I did. There are folks around, but not many. It's around 12:45pm. Shops are closed except for 1, I think. Where are the sharks? Where's the button I have to press that tells me if I win the prize of entrance w/out a search? I just blindly follow everyone else. Okay, here we go. Okay, we're good. Got our bags. I don't know what comes next. Look for outside. Follow people. Oh, have to show this guy our claim ticket - we wait for him to look at the claim tickets. This doesn't seem very organized. I press the button: Green, I win! Kevin presses the button. Green, he wins! Welcome to paradise! Oooooooh, there are the sharks.... i don't see many for time shares but lots of guys eager to rent us a car. No gracias, No gracias, No gracias. A guy comes and takes my bag out of my hands before I can say anything as we head outside -- an airport employee? I can't tell. still haven't seen a guy with a name board for us. We'll just wait at the curb, but this guy has my suitcase in his hand. ****, he's going to want a tip and I don't have my one's handy. Ugh, swing the backpack around, can I find a dollar or two? People try to press us to rent a car from them, and the guy says "What company?" "Easyway," I say. "Easyway? No Easyway here..." right then - that is when we see him. PHEW! With limited Spanish I didn't know how I was going to convince this guy that we would just wait there if we didn't see him. Thank god. I wish I could remember the Easyway guy's name - I am so terrible with names. He calls for a car on his cell. He has two placards, but he doesn't seem to be looking for anyone else. The car comes and a woman comes to take us to the Easyway office. She teaches me to say "honeymoon" in Spanish on the way there. Asks us where we are staying, etc. We arrive at the offices, and Kev and I marvel at the fact that they are simply ignoring the big electric wire dangling across the driveway. The car fits right under it. Okay......
We get our car - a Tsuru, per Billiam's recommendation - it's clean, it's got a full tank, and we're off! Wait a sec - which way do we go? I remember Mayajerney saying something about which way is south from the airport.... hmmm.... well, we'll find it. Oh, and don't forget, to turn left you have to go over to the right hand side with your flashers on.... hmmmm, really? with this traffic you'd have no chance! that can't be right. Oh, look, there's a left turn lane. Phew! don't have to practice that move just yet.
This driving doesn't seem so bad. I was all prepared for the worst! People are going at a good clip, but it sure doesn't feel much different than Boston. Easier, in some ways - we only have to make 2 turns to get to our destination! Chances of getting lost are minimal! We figure out the half-lane thing pretty quickly and Kev just starts driving there so people can pass easily. We pass all the towns on mapchick's map. We try to assess damage, but it's hard when you haven't been there before so you don't know what to compare it to. All the Cancun resorts are easily seen from 307, and we were told that it used to be you couldn't see them as well. As others have said, billboards were totally mangled. I wasn't too sad about that, to be honest. There were piles of rubble in the median, as though a plow was used to clear debris from the highway and they left it all in the middle. The further south we went, the greener it got.
Following Kay's directions to Suenos - we arrive at the intersection with the light, only the light isn't actually working. Not sure of ourselves with the whole "how do you turn left if there's a light" thing (the second time for which the pull to the right to turn left rule didn't seem to apply), so we drive right through it, then do a U-turn at a rotary like thing a little further down.
Topes! Slow down! Thanks MJ for the post with all the signs - I knew exactly what was coming. Okay here's teh beach road, turn right.... my first impression was that the places like Copal were a lot closer together than I thought they were. I don't know why I imagined them as isolated, when I had seen maps on the board that showed place after place after place. But I just thought there would be more room between them. At that moment I was glad we were staying a little outside of the hotel zone.
My experience with the road beyond Zamas was.... well, interesting doesn't do it justice. I don't think any words do. I was worried about our Tsuru on multiple occasions. But we always made it through. This was when I second-guessed our decision to stay outside the hotel zone, as the drive to Suenos added a good 15 -20 minutes to any drive anywhere. There was a lot of damage to the road between Zamas and the next major stretch of cabanas/hotels/etc. The eastern-most side of the road (closest to the water) has been eaten away a bit, it's about 1/2 there. But these were some potholes like I've never seen before. They could have swallowed the entire car. I said to Kevin, "well, whoever suggested that the hurricane might have filled the potholes with sand was definitely wrong!" Seriously, the road was a pretty good disincentive to ever leaving the hotel.... by the end of the trip I was estimating the number of times we would still needed to drive down that road. Now, I'd give anything to drive down it again.
We keep wondering how much further to Suenos, how much further..... Then we're there. Phew! Hmmm. now how do we get in these big high doors? Other trip reports said that the doors magically opened, as they were waiting for them to arrive. But nothing is opening. Kevin gets out to check it out - and they must have heard him trying to fiddle around, as they came and opened it then. Our arrival is a bit of a blur - I see a blonde woman who I assume is Elizabeth. A young tan cutie is showing us to our room. He says he knows we wanted a hammock and that they have drilled the holes but the hammock isn't up yet - should be up in a day or two (and it was, the very next morning during breakfast!). But having seen the water, and our room, I don't really care about a hammock anymore....... it's just amazingly beautiful. OH I can't believe it. Alan (the tan cutie) brings me a margarita and Kevin a beer. We sip. We put our suitcases on the floor. We collapse on the bed and take a nap.
After a quick cat nap, we head outside to check things out, and I am just so happy. I have made all the right choices! It's just gorgeous. It will be even more gorgeous when the sun is out, I am sure. A light rain had just started right when we arrived (aiding nap-ability), it's still overcast. We need to find food. We know we can eat there for dinner, but I think we need to tell them/ask them first. We're a little too late - it's around 4 by now - and they need to know a little sooner than that in order to get food. They recommend Amansala - easy to walk to down the beach. We head down there - we are the only people there - and they have two options, chicken or fish, and no alcohol. I have chicken, kevin has the best fish tacos he had the whole time we were there. Wow - it's dark already, by 6:00. We head back to the room, and collapse. Do we use the netting? Not use the netting? We started with it, ended without it. It bugged me. Being in the junior suite, we had double beds and not king, and it felt a bit claustrophobic (and warm). But we were in paradise! We had arrived!
The Rest of the Trip
A day by day report seems pretty silly, since we didn't do much of anything except RELAX! We spent the first few days we were there lounging on the beach, walking the beach, and reading a lot. We met mr. and mrs. nutmegstater, and really enjoyed their company for a few days, and then were joined by more locos, powderskier and wyolaurae. The first few days the weather was pretty cloudy - sun off and on, but mostly cloudy. In retrospect, great days for going to Akumal for some snorkeling, but we were too exicted to do a lot of nothing on the beach. The surf in front of Suenos was pretty rough, and only nutmeg was water-savvy enough to spend hours bobbing up and down with the waves. We did attempt to attend a LG gathering in Akumal on Saturday night - I had figured any LGers would stay until they closed the place down, but when we arrived around 7, we saw a lovely "welcome LGers" sign but..... but where are the locos? I don't see anyone, no coolers, nada. We sit at a table and get dinner, then head home. It's raining again, maybe it kept folks away. We almost didn't find it, because we didn't realize that Akumal was through the big arches - I just thought that was a resort! Kevin was convinced we should go that way, and for once he was right! ha ha ha Well now we know for next weekend.....
A couple from San Francisco arrived Sunday night, and they had no car (crazy!) so they were pretty dependent on the kindness of others to get a ride into town. On Monday or Tuesday (I don't remember which! It's in my journal somewhere...), we decided we'd had enough lounging and should really do *SOMETHING,* so off we go with the San Franciscans to the Tulum Ruins. They were neat, the location was great, the guide not so great. "Vamanos, Vamanos! Andale, Andale!" The San Franciscans were determined to get something out of him, so they kept asking about the different Mayan gods. The clouds thicken as we walk around. We see lots of iguanas. The stairway down to the beach looks closed (a rope across it) - but we see footprints down there. How to get down? We decide not too. Wilma put a lot of big new rocks there. We figure we have a good enough beach back at Suenos and they clearly don't want people down there right now, so we just keep going. Take a few pictures. There are a others there with us, but not many at all. Maybe 20. There are some shops open in the main entrance area, and some closed. Doesn't seem like there was much damage - until we're on the little tram to take us from the main entrance to the ruins - where we see some places that vendors must have set up to sell their wares. They are totally destroyed. They weren't made of much but corrugated metal, it looked like, and there wasn't much left of them. Waiting for the next tram back to the parking lot at the end of our visit, we run under the roof of the ticket booth, and there are some tour guides waiting there as well. We chat one up, and he is MUCH more eager to share his knowledge of the Mayans. He's great. We ask him all our questions and he happily tells us all the answers. He was very cool. We wished we had toured with him!
Well, that was a lot of strenuous activity. We should lay on the beach for a while before we do anything else. We spend the next couple of days still doing nothing. We still have lots of time, we aren't going home until Monday! Finally, I start getting a little ancy. We really *should* do something else. Day trip to Chichen Itza, I say! We go on Thursday - I think. The best thing about Mexico is how you lose track of the days.... Up with the sun, we skip breakfast at Suenos, stop at the grocery store for some snacks, stop for gas (wait, how do you say "fill it up" again?). After avoiding some MAJOR potholes in the Coba road (which is being expanded), the road gets better when we get to Yucatan state. The potholes weren't as numerous as they are on beach road, but in a sense this was more dangerous because you'd want to start going fast again in between them - so if you were surprised by one, it could probably swallow you whole. What was more scary was seeing big huge semi's swerve to avoid them as they were heading towards you. AAAAAH! We see the prison on the way -- and I tell Kevin, "that's where we have to get the hammocks!" He seems shocked. "We're going to a Mexican prison for hammocks???" "Well, not INTO it. They sell them right out front. It'll be a good story to tell people," I reassure him. We keep going, make our way to Chichen. Can this be? There are like 6 cars in the lot, and no busses. Okay.... we quickly learn that the best time to visit Chichen is after a major hurricane hits Cancun. It probably won't be like this again for another 20 years. This time we skip the tour guide, figuring we'll buy a book in the bookstore. Kevin wants to be sure he can take his time walking around. No more 'andale' for him. One guy who asks us, though, also asks where we are from, and he kindly informs us that the Pats got clobbered by the Colts on the previous weekend. Well there it is, the Colts finally beat us. *Sigh* Anyway, at Chichen, Kevin is really enjoying the ruins. We marveled at the effort it took to build this great city, the architectural detail. We are astounded at the number of vendors and the fact that they all have the same stuff. Several older women embroidering handkerchiefs really want to sell me some. They are selling them so cheaply, I just want to give them money. I don't, though. What am I going to do with embroidered handkerchiefs? We decided to take a break to eat some lunch around 12 (remember we hadn't eaten the great Suenos breakfast), which was a bit of a mistake. It was really quite hot by 1, so we sped through what we had left to see from 1-2:30. At one ruin, I said to a tour guide who was waiting for his group, "muy caliente!" he just laughed at me. I asked what it is like in the summer, and he said "oh, about 110, 115." UGH! That's ridiculous! Thank god it isn't THAT hot. We head out at 2:30, after visiting a few vendors and getting a dress for mom, a dress for me (who knows if i'll ever wear it but it sure looked pretty - can you say "impulse buy"?), and a couple shirts. Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas this year???? 
Driving through Valladolid this time, we stop in the central square. This looks like a NEAT town. I like it. If I felt more confident with Spanish, it would be a great town to explore. Unfortunately, I am in my short jean shorts and a tank top (for climbing ruins of course) and I draw quite a lot of attention as I walk around the square to check things out. We look for the churches and the monastery mentioned on Mapchick's map. We never do find the monastery (I was eager to see it) but we stop at the big cathedral - it's closed. (Sad....) Heading out of town we see a smaller church and stop there - and just as we are about to leave (it looks closed too) we see women heading toward the door. She gestures in a welcoming way - inviting us in. It was great. We sat quiety in a pew for a minute, I asked if it was okay to take a photograph, and we left some pesos on the altar (where she put them). We listened as she rang the bells to call people to worship. I was a little nervous when no on came! I hope they came after we left. We didn't want to linger too long.
Back on the road, and to the prison just past Valladolid. We stop, and admire the hammocks. They are more expensive than I expected (I had researched it on the board after all!). All around 500 pesos or more. Well, they say these are the best ones, so.... Here comes a security guard carrying a bag, and he shows us this HUGE pink and yellow hammock. I look at Kevin. I'm thinking, "Pink? Really?" The security guard really wants us to buy this one. He is speaking in spanish a mile a minute and I hardly catch a word. I try to tell him several times we don't speak Spanish. He keeps ignoring me and trying to talk to Kevin. Oh, the machismo! I laugh. You won't get far with him, I think. He knows even less spanish than me! Well, he is insistent enough, and we are illiterate enough, that we end up buying the huge pink hammock plus one other. We decide to give the huge pink one to Kevin's sister for Christmas.
We timed everything on the trip pretty well - aside for the fact that I really really really wanted to visit a Cenote on the way back. But mr. pb2131 was getting a little tired of all the stops, after searching for churches in Valladolid and a stop at the prison, and it was getting dark fast. We decide to stop and eat at Zamas just as the sun is about to set (about 5:30!), and we get back to Suenos around 7:30. Say hello to folks who are still out and about, and go to bed early.
We took a few trips into Tulum pueblo for food, shopping, and banking. Had no problems cashing travelers checks. We brought about $1,000 in USD, and $1,000 in travelers checks for our 10 day trip (which also was going towards the rental car so we could get the cash discount at Easyway). It worked perfectly, we came home with a few hundred dollars left. Woohoo! We aren't broke! I wish we had explored tulum pueblo a little more beyond shopping. I noticed there were some churches on a map of tulum, and I would have liked to have visited one. We did watch some children playing ball on the outdoor court, and some girls taking a dance class (dancing to Madonna! aye dios mio!). We spent lots of money and made lots of friends.
We also made our way up to Akumal for the second LG part on the Saturday before we left. And this time we knew where we were going! Had a great time at La Buena Vida, and was glad to meet all the LG's - Kay, Gary, Whale, Gail, Gextyr, Greekbeachgirl, Maxiblnd, Lorelai, aj8830 (did i get that number right), and reuniting with wyolaurae and powderskier, who had left Suenos a couple days ealier for Casa Corazon. And I'm sure there were others.... It was a great time!
We spent most of the rest of our days post-Chichen Itza on the beach. The biggest decisions we made on a typical day revolved around food: where to go for lunch? where to go for dinner? (Oh, that was awesome.....) Kev got a little dehydrated and had a few cervesas too many on Friday night, when we had dinner with the San Franciscans before they headed back to SF the next morning. I had hoped we could snorkel on Saturday or Sunday, but I just gave up. I couldn't get Kevin off the beach, and it's hard to make a guy who isn't feeling so well go snorkeling. Much easier to lounge around with a book. And we had such gorgeous weather, it was hard to argue! But still, I was really embarassed that we would be leaving Mexico - and after spending so much on the equipment!!!! - without a single snorkel experience. No turtles! Blasphemy! How can I call myself a Loco Gringo???? Well, that's what the next trip is for, I say. There will be a next trip. It can't come soon enough!
On the day we left to come home, we stopped at the office at Suenos and signed the book and payed our tab. The room was cleaned out. We were on our way. We head out the big gates, and as we pull out onto the pothole road for the last time, I say "Do we have the passports?" Kevin slams on the brakes. (Well, we weren't really going that fast anyway.) "Sh**," he says. Quick fumble through the backpack. He thinks they are back in the room. Darn, we have to go back! Quick trip back to the room find the passports towards the back of a shelf. This time we're really leaving. Really. *Sigh* I kept hoping our flight home would get cancelled, but no such luck. We'll just have to schedule another trip.
One thing I noticed on the drive back -- much more traffic (a good sign of recovery) and even close to the airport, the green was already coming back to the trees. Electric poles that had been bent over when we arrived were now upright. It made me feel good to see how quickly life can return, especially the trees. I'm sure by now it's even more green....
Notes on Suenos
We stayed at Suenos Tulum for 10 nights. Pictures of this place just don’t do it justice. It was wonderful. It is located a bit further south from the primary hotel area on the beach road in Tulum. I think it is maybe 3km south of that area that has Copal, Zamas, etc. It made every trip down the beach road a little longer (approx 20-25 minutes to the intersection to go into Tulum Pueblo, with all the potholes). It is a more isolated section, which I liked. The places on either side of their property were either abandoned or works in progress, so they were not currently hosting tourists. There were properties within a 5 minute walk that had restaurants where we often ate lunch and dinner, so you weren’t TOTALLY isolated, but there was definitely much less action here than down by Zamas and Copal and that area. Of course, there were hardly any people there at all because of all the problems people had getting into Cancun airport, so it’s hard to tell how “typical” this was for an average November.
I requested a junior suite, on an end building (a little more private because there’s vegetation to one side rather than other rooms), with a hammock. Most people request the larger top floor suites for the better breeze and the great view, apparently. But I was glad to save the money (so I could spend it elsewhere!). We loved the ‘easy access’ to our room, and we didn’t have any problem getting a breeze as it was pretty windy the whole time we were there (and there was also a ceiling fan). I’d get the same room again if I could. I was told by the manager Alan that the best suites are in the end buildings – Selva and Luna (I think) – and he gives those suites to the folks with the longest reservations at a given time. I really don’t think there could be many bad rooms though – maybe the junior suite of the most central building wouldn’t be the greatest – but really, most of your time will be out on the beach or out and about doing other fun things, so you can hardly go wrong I think.
I loved our room on the end. We were in the Selva building. I guess you could be concerned that there would be easy access for someone who might want to get in, but we were careful (not careless) and instead it offered easy access for us, so we didn’t have to run up and down stairs every time we wanted to run to our room. We could lock the sliding doors, but not the screen door (or maybe we just never tried). There was a safe in the room (not every room has one) but it didn’t work after the first night. We weren’t too concerned though, and if we had asked them to, I’m sure they would have had it fixed. We just kept our valuables out of sight. We never saw anyone that seemed like they didn't belong there and were never worried about security issues.
We also just enjoyed having a little beach right outside our room w/ the lounge chairs and sand right there. A good reading and relaxing spot that did have a view of the ocean. It was like our own little beach. We also saw a few birds, too. There weren’t many birds though – We met Lydia(SC) at the airport on our way home, and she mentioned that too. Not sure if that’s a hurricane thing or what, but she said there were definitely fewer birds around.
Inside, it was just as pictured on the locogringo reservations page. Always clean and very cool décor. The bathroom was beautiful. The salt water shower did a number on my hair after ten days, but I didn't really care. Funny story: The toilet was painted with a scene of a family outside of a little hut w/ a palapa roof (we didn’t take a pic of it but I think someone else might have in another Suenos trip report from last year). At first, Kevin mistook the design of the hut w/ the palapa roof for a volcano and was very amused! The major difference between the junior suite and the top level suites was that the juniors have 2 smaller beds instead of one big bed. I also heard that the top level suites didn’t have dressers. We had a tiny little 3-drawer cabinet – I wouldn’t exactly call it a “dresser” – but it was sufficient for most of our clothes except for a sweatshirt and pants that we brought along for cooler nights or early mornings. I liked having the second bed – we dumped all our crap on it. The San Franciscans, who had a top floor suite, complained that they didn’t feel like they had many places to put “their stuff.” There was a kind of “head board” (not wooden) that had shelves that you could put things on (not really a headboard but it was just shelves at the end of the bed) but that was it.
After some discussion with nutmegstater & his esposa, and wyolaurae and powderskier, we concluded that there were probably 5 buildings with 2 suites in each, so a possible total of 20 people if they were full. I think Alan (the tan cutie, the staff person who we had the most contact witih) told us before we left that they have a keep of the rooms for themselves. When K and I arrived, there was only nutmegstater & his esposa present. A few days later, we were joined by wyolaura and powderskier (also LG’s obviously), as well as some non-locos Alex & Kim from San Francisco and John and Valerie from Iowa. I tried to conscript Alex & Kim but they thought I was “too obsessed.” After those folks left, 2 other couples arrived. So there were always some people around, but it never really felt like it. You could hang around with each other, or not. It was easy to find your own private spots to hang out and relax.
Suenos is an alternative energy hotel (e.g. solar powered). They do not use any electricity during the day, except sometimes they’ll play music in the dining area. I don’t have a good picture of this spot but it was a lovely place to eat in the morning. In the evening there are low level lights in the rooms and the bathroom as well as the ceiling fan. The lights are not powerful enough to read by. Don’t forget the booklight at the bookstore! This was only a minor annoyance, though, since we spent so much time during the day reading too. Invariably we’d go to dinner, get back around 8:30ish, visit the beach and stargaze for a while, then we’d just go to bed.
The beach at Suenos was fantastic. They did have someone come and rake up the seaweed in the morning – not for the first few days we were there, but he started a few days after we arrived and came every day thereafter. It was a big wide beach with lots of room for folks to spread out. The infamous palm tree in the pictures and previous trip reports is a little worse for wear after Wilma, as nutmegstater said in his report. You can’t drape your stuff on it anymore – it’s trunk, that used to be horizontal to the beach sand before turning vertical, is now buried under sand. But the tree is still there, which is nice. People often pulled a lounge chair underneath the shade it offered. Aside from that shade, there was another palm that offered some shade and was a favorite spot for mr & mrs nutmegstater. In place of beach palapas, they’ve built these cool lounging areas that you can see in my photos (linked at the top). They say these will be much more sturdy than palapas.It felt a little like laying on a trampoline! But it offered some shade which was nice.
The dogs at Suenos are fun. They’ll ignore you if you ignore them, but if you are at all nice to them and pay them any attention, they’ll stick to you like glue. We couldn’t walk down the beach without their accompaniment. Once, we even tried to trick them in order to get away without them – there are other beach dogs at other hotels that get pretty territorial, and we wanted to avoid any kind of problems. It was hard but we succeeded!
The toucan, for those who have been there or know if it, is no longer there. I don’t remember when Alan said it left. He thinks it has been staying at Posada Margherita instead. He did say there were a few toucans “around” but none had taken up residence there at Suenos and we didn't see them when we were there.
The management at Suenos was pretty low key. We interacted mostly with Alan. I think Suenos is owned by Elizabeth & Jorge, who were there every day, but Alan seemed like the guy in charge of really talking to & interacting w/ guests. He was very nice (and a little dreamy, depending on your taste!! ). For the most part, they’d help you out if you needed it or asked for it, but they didn’t dote on you. Elizabeth took the San Franciscans, who hadn't rented a car, into town a couple of times when she was on her way somewhere. They were very helpful to mr and mrs nutmegstater when they had some car trouble and ended up leaving their car at a restaurant down the road. And they put up that hammock for me, too. So they do want to make you happy if they can - they just aren't hovering over you to make sure you're happy every minute. I was glad for that!
We had daily maid service, and Elena always took good care of us. We tipped generously, usually in US$. I was glad I remembered the stack of $1 bills, per Maggie’s suggestion. I never had enough of the $10Mex peso coins or $20 peso bills to tip with pesos every day. One day, we got quite the towel sculpture, which was neat.
They also provided a water bottle a day, although I wish they had done 1 bottle per day per person. They were big bottles, but some days if you did a lot of walking, you went through more water than on other days. And the first afternoon we were there, they didn’t have any set out for us – it arrived the next morning. You might want to bring a bottle or two with you. In addition to the water bottles they also provided BIG and SOFT beach towels that were fantastic.
Breakfast is provided every morning at Suenos. We regularly received a basket of breads/muffins/pastries and a large plate of a variety of fruits with yogurt and nuts. The fruit plate had a mix of banana, grapes (not like our grapes though), mango, pineapple, honeydew, cantaloupe, etc. It was delicious. The bread basket was a mixed bag – sometimes you’d get a big delicious muffin, other times you’d get a cookie of some kind. Always, you’d get two pieces of very very dry and crunchy toast. The fruit plate was definitely the highlight! It was served with fresh squeezed OJ and coffee. By day 10, the lack of variety did get a little old. I was tempted to go elsewhere. But it was easy, and the view was great. I will say that we didn't eat as much of the fruit plate by day 10 as we did on day 1. The muffins, I think, are picked up fresh from the San Francisco (grocery store) that morning.... and they were usually good. I kinda wished I could have chosen from a variety of muffins but that seems like such a picky thing when you're in paradise. But I did hope to get a good muffin every morning and if I had a cookie instead it was a little disappointing. Just a little.
If you wanted dinner there, you had to request it by around 1 or 2 in the afternoon, and they would tell you what they were going to try to get (“Yeah, great, I think we’re going to try to get some lobster, or fish.”) The time we ate there -- we ate as a big group, actually, with the San Franciscans and Mr. and Mrs. Nutmegstater, and the Iowans joined us later -- we didn’t get the lobster but had some very good giant shrimp, as well as some rice and beans. It was very good. We only ate there one night, though. They had beautiful hurricane candles that made for a festive and romantic mood too.
Other Food
Over the course of 10 days, we ate at Amansala (3 times: 2 dinners, 1 lunch), Tita Tulum (once for lunch), Las Ranitas (once for dinner), Nachos (1 lunch), Zamas (2 dinners and 1 lunch), Casa Banana (1 dinner and 1 bad margerita), Don Cafetos in Tulum Pueblo (1 lunch), Charlies in Tulum Pueblo (1 lunch), Il Basilico (1 lunch), Suenos (1 dinner), and La Neva in Tulum Pueblo (1 dinner). Also had lunch at the fast food court at Chichen Itza one day. It’s hard to identify a favorite – Kevin had the best fish tacos at Amansala the first time we ate there, but then he ordered them again another day for lunch and they were totally different – different cook that day, I guess! Las Ranitas had excellent snapper – according to several folks – but it was by far the most expensive place we ate. We really enjoyed Zamas quite a bit. All the places we ate in Tulum Pueblo were good and had better prices than the places along the beach. Nachos was pretty cheap too, and good, with a great setting. Didn’t really enjoy Il Basilico despite a great review on the mapchick’s map, but maybe we should have asked for the house speciality!
So.... I think that about covers it! We had a great time. We wish we could go every month. If they really are going to build an airport in Tulum, you can bet we'll try to get down there as often as we can before that happens. For beach bums, you can't miss by staying in Tulum. For those who need/want more amenities, it might not be ideal, but for ten days it was paradise for me & my hubby....... Thanks to everyone who helped us plan -- all of you! This board was a great resource, and I felt confident and prepared the entire time. Someone was looking out for us, I'm sure, as everything went smoothly. Not a single hitch! A miracle, given all the other hitches for others who were affected by Wilma. I am grateful for every minute of it and can't wait to go back!
< Message edited by pb2131 -- 12/11/2005 5:46:25 PM >
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Tulum 11/05, 11/06......
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"Doom is around the corner." --Jim Cantore, 8/20/2007
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RE: Suenos Tulum, 11/4-11/14 2005 - 12/11/2005 7:26:45 PM
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Rindercella
Posts: 484
Joined: 11/3/2005
Status: offline
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pb2131 - awesome, detailed trip report! It sounds like you had a fantastic time and now you are hooked on the Roo! Glad you enjoyed your trip!
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RE: Suenos Tulum, 11/4-11/14 2005 - 12/12/2005 12:25:56 AM
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blondebritbrat
Posts: 297
Joined: 3/3/2005
From: Dallas,TX
Status: offline
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Thanks so much for this trip report and for the details on the restaurants. After I finish school I would like to do a vacation like this as well.
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RE: Suenos Tulum, 11/4-11/14 2005 - 12/12/2005 2:36:28 PM
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Billiam
Posts: 2299
Joined: 8/12/2004
Status: offline
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PB:
Wonderful report...I truly appreciate the work you put into it.
A few observations though
quote:
...the road beyond Zamas was.... well, interesting doesn't do it justice. I don't think any words do. I was worried about our Tsuru on multiple occasions. But we always made it through... The eastern-most side of the road (closest to the water) has been eaten away a bit, it's about 1/2 there. But these were some potholes like I've never seen before. They could have swallowed the entire car.
The road is usually like that. And the Tsurus will get through the worst roads with difficulty.
quote:
There are some shops open in the main entrance area, and some closed. Doesn't seem like there was much damage - until we're on the little tram to take us from the main entrance to the ruins - where we see some places that vendors must have set up to sell their wares. They are totally destroyed. They weren't made of much but corrugated metal, it looked like, and there wasn't much left of them
This was where the mercado was 20 years ago. INAH was worried that the exhaust from the tour busses would degrade the ruins so they built the new parking lot and mercado. The vendors were banned from the little huts next to the ticket office. What is left is gradulally being reclaimed by the jungle. For 20 year old lean-tos they are still in good shape.
Glad you had a fabulous time
Billiam
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RE: Suenos Tulum, 11/4-11/14 2005 - 1/21/2006 12:01:47 PM
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pepper
Posts: 1947
Joined: 9/16/2004
From: Big D
Status: offline
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topping
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