Tulum memories…

Time for some Tulum memories… Well, so you’ve all seen the beautiful side of Tulum, Mexico. The influencer pictures all over the internet. I too saw those, and decided to spend X-mas and New Year’s 2018 there. Exactly 4 years ago.

I can’t even describe how disappointed I was.

Sure, the beaches are ok, and the cenotes well, they are lovely – best part – and the ruins, too. Well the ruins might be the past part actually – since I love ruins. But the rest? Nah… not my vibe…

I stayed in the town; sure I needed a stable internet connection which the beach couldn’t provide back then, but the main reason was I didn’t really feel like spending a small country’s GDP on a room (nor a tent!) on the beach. After all, I stayed for 1 month. The beach places were also all struggling with electricity, no power lines at the beach, which meant keeping the diesel generators running 24/7.

After all, Tulum is supposed to be a sustainable destination. Is it not? At least according to the story. I, however, did not feel convinced. The traffic down by the beach is also quite insane… So then what happens to the air quality down at the beach?

Is Tulum the coolest place to be?

There was also this tiny issue with me feeling like I didn’t fit in. Tulum is a “cool place to be”, as long as you’re of a certain age, wearing the “right” clothes, working with the “right” job, etc. I don’t mind standing out, or not fitting in – not all. We are all originals, and in a world full of copies it’s important to be true to ourselves. But that’s just it, I felt there were only “cool copies” in Tulum.

They were just the same people in different, but same-looking bodies. No originality.

My memories of Tulum is kind of overshadowed by this brown mass infesting all the beaches. Tulum had this huge problem with Sargasso seaweed, and it had been a constant feature for 8 months. Usually, it only shows up a couple of months per year, around peak season.

After some research I found out this seaweed thrives on fecal matter, so you draw your own conclusions…

Fecal matter leaking out is also a problem in the cenotes. Swimming and diving in poop… yeah, that seems like a dream, now doesn’t it.

It makes me sad, though, because Tulum used to be a beautiful place. Some parts of it still are, with national park just around the corner, which is sadly getting smaller by the minute, due to construction, even though there are laws forbidding it. The infrastructure haven’t been able to deal with the amount of tourists rushing in, and with the country being ”slightly” corrupt, there’s a lot of crap, bribing, and weird shit going on.

In conclusion, they destroyed it, and I think everyone is to blame here – the tourists AND the locals. I don’t know if they’ve managed to save it during the pandemic, or what happened. This was after all 4 years ago…

You want to read more on my thoughts about Tulum?

 

Have you been to Tulum? What are your Tulum memories? Have you been there post pandemic too? Has it changed?

After visiting Varkala, India I’ve been feeling an even more urgent need to show the dark side or the ugly side to destinations. Influencers show mostly only the good side, or the beautiful parts, that’s usually what people want to see I guess. But life is not only beauty, there’s also ugliness. So, in the future I will try and show more of the whole picture here on my blog.