Diez: Tulum

At 5am we were very happy to board our Mexico-bound bus, and fell immediately into grateful slumber throughout the 11hr journey to Chetumal. From Chetumal we took an evening bus to Tulum, 2hrs south of Cancun.

At Tulum, we were lucky to get beds at the Weary Traveller Hostel with two Slovenians from the bus, Goran and Mirjana. It was Dec 30th and all the hotels were full, even the super-expensive ones by the beach. We only got our beds because of a tip from a taxi driver, and 4 dutch people who did not show up to claim their reservations. The weary traveller was a nice place: 100 pesos pp gets you a bed, shared internet, and free breakfast!

Breakfast was do-it-urself toast and eggs. We tried to make sunny-side ups on the large grill, but these eggs had super-large and fragile yolks, which broke upon impact. We ended up with scrambled eggs, despite Charmaine's self-declared mastery of the art of egg-cooking. =(.

There was also a free bus to the beach, where the tulum Mayan ruins were. For NY eve, admission was free for students! We spent a happy hr or 2 exploring the ruins (quite small, not very impressive) and admiring the blue blue Caribbean sea.

Walking back to the beach, we saw a small group of people pointing at a tree. Typical S'poreans that we were, we decided to take a look.

On a branch was a tiny bright green vine snake, but protruding from its mouth was the struggling body of a bird! The snake had it's mouth over the head and a little bit of the shoulders of the bird, but it still had most of its wings and body free. Over the next 15mins, we watched in sick fascination as milimeter by milimeter, the bird disappeared. Finally, it was simply a massive lump in the body of the snake.

cor.

crazy.

I tried very hard, but couldn't find any pictures on the internet of small green snakes swallowing medium-sized black birds. So no pics, sorry.

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After the beach we went back to the hostel to check email (They hung Saddam!!), pack, and catch a bus to Cancun. We had reservations at the Hotel Meson de Tulum (in cancun, not in tulum), in downtown cancun. It's an extremely friendly place. The guy running the joint is a German-Mexican named Oscar, called 'blondie' by the locals even though he is now quite bald. Although Oscar was born and lived in Mexico for many years, he has a tall hulking German frame, and perspires profusely in the sweltering Cancun heat.

Anyways, Oscar had a little BBQ for the hotel staff at about 10pm that night, and invited everyone to join them for sausages, bbq and pico de gallo. There was a group of mexican boys on staff who had guitars, an amplifier, and great singing voices. There was also a group of Korean girls there who clapped enthusiastically at the end of every song, and took many pictures. At midnight there were some fireworks to commemorate the New Year. Oscar broke out the champagne.

Feliz Ano!