Oh Tulum, I was there about 18 years ago, was so beautiful, hear it is much more built up now.

Yeah, unfortunately it is built up and there is now a bunch of private beaches attached to resorts... but there is still a public beach that is out of this world. And the nearby cenotes are amazing.

I visited during turtle season and snuck on to the beach with a little pop up tent and an LED turtle safe torch and watched the turtles nesting. Someone told me that the people who run tours to watch them would have tried to get me arrested if they saw me, as it seems some idiots a while back were disturbing the turtles.

I have to be honest though, I think they'd be trying to get people arrested simply because they want everyone to pay for their tours. Although I loved Tulum, there was some ugliness from the lure of the tourist dollar.

I've been interested in conservation since I was 4 years old and know exactly how to observe turtles without disturbing them... pitched my tent well back in the dunes, kept quiet, kept well back from the nesting turtle while observing it and used a LED torch etc. I even marked the nest sites for reference just as the sun rose, once the turtles had left the beach. A few hours later a 'conservation representative' turned up early and seemed confused by the sticks laying on the ground. The two reps removed my markers and then a group turned up and they spent the morning finding the nests from the turtle tracks and marking them with fences. I had a long talk with one of the reps later and kind of understand where they're coming from. All those people had paid money to join in the conservation activities, and this was partly helping to fund the ongoing protection of the area, plus increasing local people's income, which is cool. The lady I talked to admitted that it is a bit of a circus at times and was sympathetic to me wanting to have an authentic experience, but she reiterated what others had told me that I could be arrested for camping on that part of the beach, as it was protected.

Ha ha, the whole thing amused me as there was a beach rave 2 days before about a mile down the beach at one of the resorts, which must have been disturbing to the nesting turtles. But the police weren't hounding them not to have beach parties during nesting season because the resorts are a cash cow.

I only spent one night camping there as I didn't want to end up in Mexican jail 🤣 I did hike and camp in a place called holbox later on that trip which was much more chilled out. That was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I was basically wandering about with a compass observing nature and snorkeling until about 2pm each day, then I'd hike back to holbox and eat a tone of food then wander back into the wild and find a deserted spot near to a beach and pitch up. Up each day with the sunrise, nothing to complain about... other than sand flies lol. It was a real adventure 🙂

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