Akumal beach is a must see for anyone keen on swimming with sea turtles in their natural habitat.
A short drive north from Tulum the beach is hugely popular with tourists and there are a variety of ways to go about investigating the sea life. Either swimming directly from the beach, or by taking a snorkelling/boat trip out to designated areas just offshore. 

The turtles come to the bay to feed and nest among the sea grass that grows here, hence your best chance of seeing them is in areas with long sea grass that they will be feeding on.

We saw two turtles and lots of fish better seen in our video of Tulum here

Using public transport your best option is to get a Collectivo mini-van from the main stop on the northbound side in Tulum. Just tell the driver you want to go to Akumal and he should drop you right there. When you arrive just walk down the side road and keep going straight ahead. You’ll pass a variety of touts for tours and people selling/renting snorkels and life jackets. It isn’t mandatory to wear a life jacket, so if they tell you so just say no thanks and press onwards. We heard a lot of stories of aggressive selling for life jacket rental or entrance to the beach, however we went in low season and very early in the day so it wasn’t an issue for us.

Eventually you’ll reach a large arch across the road, just to the right is a reception for the Hotel Akumal Caribe, just walk into reception and say you want to get to the Lol Ha restaurant. You’ll walk right through reception and back out of the building on the other side. From here keep going straight and you’ll hit the beach, turn right and move away from the moored boats, you can stop at Lol Ha or continue onward to the areas with deckchairs. The deckchairs are reserved areas for hotel guests, but the beach in front of them is public, so you can leave your things here and just head straight into the water to find the turtles. The swimming areas and boating areas are divided by lines of buoys so just be sure to swim in the right area and you shouldn’t have any issues. We stopped off at Lol Ha on the way back to change and buy a drink.

The best advice we can give is to arrive as early in the day as possible – the beach is relatively shallow so sand is easily stirred up and the more people there are in the water the poorer the visibility becomes. We left Tulum around 7am and were in the water at Akumul by 8am. You need to be prepared to swim around a bit to encounter a turtle, we took about 20mins before we found our first. Groups of other snorkelers are a good indicator of turtles and you stand a better chance over the darker areas where the sea grass is growing. With our early start we spent about a half hour total in the water and saw a couple of turtles and lots of other sea life before heading back for the Collectivo just before 9am.

To get back to Tulum just walk back to the highway and cross to the other side (use the footbridge, not the road bridge) and wave down the next collectivo heading south to Tulum.

If you arrived early enough then you now have plenty of time left to do something else – you can stop off at Cenote Dos Ojos on the way back, or be back in Tulum by 10am and head to the ruins there for a look around.

Rules for swimming with the Turtles

• Do not wear sunscreen or insect repellent unless its reef safe
• Do not touch or swim too close to the turtles – this is illegal in Mexico
• Do not hound the turtles for long periods of time, stick around for a minute then move on

Basic info

• Collectivo cost: $35MXNpp each way from Tulum to Akumal
• No entrance fee, but buy a drink at Lol Ha and use the facilities
• Go as early in the day as possible <9am
• Bring your own snorkel & go pro or hire them at Akumal
• Don’t bother hiring a life jacket unless you feel you need it

Diving is one of Cozumel’s top attractions or “things to do” – and certainly was for us too!

There are a huge number of dive shops clustered in the main town within a block or so of the ferry piers and rates seem to be pretty much flat across all the different companies, so it really is down to personal choice.

We were given some recommendations by our AirBnb host and from those Barefoot Dive Centre were the most responsive, helpful and friendly and could offer a refresher course to revive rusty skills!

Cost for a 2-tank dive from a boat is $90USD (+$15USD for equipment) – and can be paid via paypal, card or cash (there is a 5% charge for card payment which is only done in Pesos so depends on your card provider and exchange rates if this works for you). To book on to a trip you need to make a $25USD deposit per person in advance to ensure a space, we made our first deposit via paypal in advance before we left the UK, then were lucky enough to book on to the boat dive by dropping in to the shop the day before to see if they had space (low season luckily for us).

We did our refresh dive with Renata at Tikila beach – then a few days after a 2 tank boat dive with Javier, drift diving the Paso del Cedral and Yucab sites off the South West of Cozumel. Our refresh was just ourselves and Renata so there was plenty of time to go through everything, the boat dives were a ratio of 6 divers to one guide which worked well.

Having dived with some outfits in the past where equipment was more than a little dodgy which can be a bit of a worry, it was great to see all the equipment supplied by Barefoot was in good condition and all relatively new – so I’ve no hesitation in recommending them on that front.

You meet at 8:30am at the dive shop to get prepared and after a brief taxi ride to the marina south of town head out on a large boat with a couple of groups from other dive shops, there is plenty of room and a good atmosphere. We went out on the “Big Splash” where gatorade (or water) is on tap and the crew were really efficient and helpful in making sure everyone’s gear was setup and ready and in getting you in and out of the water as easily as possible. The boat had areas to store your personal belongings in relative safety from getting wet, as well as toilet facilities. Also everyone goes barefoot on the boat, so don’t worry when the crew collects your sandals/shoes in a big basket before you get on board.

Alongside lots of small tropical fish and coral our favourite sea-life spots during the two dives were:

• Midnight Parrot Fish (Claire loves parrot fish)
• Great Barracudas
• Green Moray Eel
• Yellow Stingray
• Sea Turtle
• Nurse Shark
• Puffer/porcupine fish
• Queen & Ocean Triggerfish
• Spiny Lobster
• Big Grouper fish

You certainly see a lot more by heading out to the reefs slightly offshore, so its worth the boat dive rather than just going from shore.

You get a picnic lunch on the boat during your surface interval (including fresh salsa and guacamole of course this is Mexico) and are back at the dive shop by 3pm. All in all the team at Barefoot make the whole experience really enjoyable and relaxed – we’d definitely recommend them to anyone thinking of diving around Cozumel or Playa del Carmen

Basic info

• Barefoot contact: barefootdiving987@gmail.com,
• Barefoot shop: 10th ave #198 between A.R.Salas and 1st st. Downtown, Cozumel,
• Costs: Refresher $70USD, 2 Tank boat dive $90USD, equipment hire $15USDpp/day
• Bring your log book, swimwear and flip flops/sandals

San Gervasio is a Mayan ruin in Cozumel, Mexico. It used to be called Tantun Cuzamil which is Mayan for Flat Rock in the place of the Swallows. It was a place of pilgrimage for women to worship the goddess Ix Chel, the aged jaguar goddess of midwifery and medicine.

The Spanish first visited Cozumel in 1518, then again in 1519 and both groups were well received. However in 1520 the Panfilo de Narvaez expedition arrived with several of the crew suffering from smallpox. The illness spread quickly across the island and three mass graves were discovered at San Gervasio where the victims were buried.

There are no large pyramids unlike the more well known Mayan ruins like Chichen Itza. Most of the stone structures do not have roofs or their upper walls. The largest structure is the Ka’na Nah, the tall house. This was likely the temple of Ix Chel and in the small room at the top of the pyramid it housed a statue made of baked clay and a priest was able to hide inside the statue and speak through its mouth to worshipers.

The arch is the main entrance into the site from the north and west through which the main religious pathway entered. This is a reconstruction and copies similar arches found at other sites in Quintana Roo.

The main plaza consists of 6 buildings centred around an altar platform and were used as temples, oratories and housing.

Going around the place is pretty easy as it’s a small, flat site covering only 1km².

You can take a tour bus to get to San Gervasio but it’s just as easy to hire a scooter or jeep and then spend the rest of the day exploring the other side of the island. When at San Gervasio you can pay to join a tour for $20USDpp and they appeared to be very engaging from what I could see.

Basic info

• Scooter hire 1 day with HTL: $20USD incl. all insurance
• Entrance fee to San Gervasio: in two parts totalling $10.5USDpp
• Additional cost for professional cameras/GoPro: $3 for copyright
• Opening hours for San Gervasio: 8am to 3:45pm
• Pack water bottles and bug spray