Whenever possible we enjoying doing a rental car when we are on vacation. It’s so nice to not have to reply on taxis or going with groups to main attractions. We were able to travel off the beaten pack a bit and do some fishing at the Boca Paila bridge where we could see a lagoon meet the beach.

In the photo you can see the lagoon and in the back you can see waves crashing from the ocean.

We were also able to go snorkeling in a cenote called Sac Actun,which was stunning and off of the beaten path so it was not full of tour buses or people. It was so nice to be able to swim around all alone.

Here is a peek of the cenote. This is just the entrance, which doesn’t doesn’t do it justice. The deeper you go in the more amazing, but our cell phone fogged up in it’s case and we couldn’t take more photos.

Ok now on to my favorite part of the trip, the streets of Tulum! The little town is so cute! It is like something out of movie with amazing restaurant after amazing restaurant, chic shops and street vendors full of colorful mementos of Tulum. You can also go to Tulum Centro, which is near by and also full of shops/restaurants, but it’s not as picturesque.

Loved the colorful signage right before you enter town. There were so many hotels that aren’t listed here, but when you are at the beach at least where we stayed we had a private beach where I only ever saw about 10 additional people on it.

Serapas, serapas and more serapas!

Beaded items were available in most shops and I loved this belts. What we refer to normally as Greek key is also used a lot in Mayan culture and was featured on a lot of items.

Friendship bracelets:

Cute baskets:

Amazing hand made wool animals. The craftsmanship on these was stunning. I was obsessed! I may have bought home an extra 10 or so that will be featured this week if you want to pick some up for yourself.

Tulum is known for it’s hippie culture and in line with that was dream catchers everywhere the eye could see.

Mini beaded coin purses:

Otomi fabric runners, which I badly wanted to buy, but the prices in Tulum where super high! Everything was very expensive! Everything was priced in pesos, but when you did the conversions it was really American prices.

Many stores were filled with Day of the Dead items. I felt like I was in Book of Life come to life.

I did treat myself to a hot pink tablecloth!

Embroidery wall hangings and handbags:

Multi-color otomi fabric options:

Handpainted pottery items were also very popular:

Loved the dressing room curtains in this one shop:

Wool Day of the Dead skulls:

A huge shoe section full of boots covered in colorful Mexican textiles.

Many of these shops didn’t have names. You simply need to weave your way in and out of all of the shops to see what catches your eyes. From the front a lot of stores seemed like they would have the same items, but once I would go in you could find a couple of different items in each so it’s worth it to shop around.

Like I mentioned everything was really expensive, but if you shop around you can find a little variation in the prices and haggle your items down a little to make things more affordable. I wanted to pick up so many items, but I order serapes online for cheaper than what they were selling in actual Mexico so some purchases didn’t make sense.