Renting a car in Mexico is not fun. It takes forever, picking it up, or dropping it off. So you best just get used to waiting in lines. Because it took us so long, by the time we got to the airport, they had to pull us out of the line so we could sneak in front of everyone to catch our flight. That’s how close we’d cut it. So we had nearly no time to eat.

We grabbed something quick and my turkey and cheese croissant ended up being ok, but R’s philly cheesesteak turned out to be atrocious. Note to you all, don’t get a philly cheesesteak at the Cancun airport. So when we got to Atlanta and had plenty of time to actually sit down and eat, we went to Chili’s. Yes, Chili’s. Here’s a not-so-secret secret. Whenever I’m at an airport and I need to eat, if there’s a Chili’s, I’ll eat there. Chips and salsa from Chili’s. Ok, it’s so not the same as when we were in mexico. The chips were thin and greasy and super salty. The salsa was runny. But we still enjoyed it nonetheless.
R’s quesadillas.
And yes dammit, I ordered me a salad. Why? Because I’d gone an entire week without eating any uncooked vegetables and my body was actually craving lettuce. And luckily, it was a giant plate of lettuce with a nice sizeable piece of chicken on top. I believe it was the southwestern cobb salad. The only bad part was that they forgot to put bacon on it and I didn’t even realize they’d forgotten until I was pretty much done. It’s a shame too, because it would have been that much better with heaps of bacon. Dang. But for my first real post-Mexico meal where I could relish in as many raw foods as I possibly could, it was perfect.

Akumal does not have that many restaurants. Because they had karaoke on wednesday nights, we stopped by La Buena Vida for dinner. It’s on Half Moon Bay and there are several dining rooms. One is on the beach itself, which is where we were. There’s also a bar which is covered, but also pretty much outside. There is an indoor dining area on the second floor. One of the coolest tables they have are the treetop tables. There are tables built into the top of the palm trees where they rope up the food / drink to you in a bucket. Pretty cool if you ask me. I’m not often a soda drinker, but when you’re in Mexico, you really need to play it safe and only drink things out of bottles and cans. I wanted apple soda again, but like other places in Mexico which are geared towards tourists, they didn’t have any. I was irked again, but settled on my second favorite choice, Fanta! Again, these are made with real sugar and not corn syrup. That makes them even sweeter than the ones we’re used to. When in any restaurant in Mexico, it seems you get complimentary chips and pico de gallo. This is a custom that I could totally get used to. Everyone in the US should do this too! We went out pretty late, and I couldn’t wait until we got to the restaurant, so I actually ate a real dinner at the condo. So once we got to the restaurant, I didn’t have much room. That’s why I just ordered the lime soup. R got a bowl too. It was basically tortilla soup but not as thick. It was a lighter broth. We both liked this a lot. R got the surf and turf. It was a giant piece of meat along with 3 huge shrimp that had been butterflied. It came with veggies and a potato with sour cream. R had asked for rice instead of the veggies, but they gave her rice along with the veggies. She wasn’t eating the broccoli and cauliflower, so I gobbled them up. After a few days in mexico, and not having eaten any vegetables, my body was craving them. And since they were cooked, they were totally safe to eat! Whoo hoo! Eating on a beach with sand between your toes, while looking at stars in the pitch black sky, is rather luxurious. Oh, and the karaoke was funny too.

Another actual town is Tulum, famous for their Mayan Ruins. These old ass ruins are along the Caribbean coast. The water is beyond stunning. If I lived at a place like this, I’d never leave. But somehow, the mayan civilization just kind of collapsed and disappeared. You know how everything in America is hundreds of years old at most? Well yeah, this stuff is thousands of years old. It’s another concept entirely.
The main strip in Tulum is along the only real highway, and is strewn with restaurants, shops, drug stores, diving places, and taxis. We wanted a snack so we stopped at this Pane, Pizza, E Fantasia place which looked crowded and popular. Well, it didn’t really end up being all that popular, it’s just that the place was so teeny tiny and so inefficiently run, that people had to stand in line for an extremely long time before being waited on. This would so not work in the US at all. But that’s ok. They only exist in Mexico. This place serves coffee, pizza, paninis, and desserts. There’s also free wi-fi, which is kinda awesome.
Since R took the last slice of plain pizza, I was forced to get the other kind, which was a veggie pizza with zucchini and squash. It tasted fine and was super cheap. I wanted apple soda, but they didn’t have it, so I hopped on over to a bodega and got myself a lovely bottle of manzana lift. And you know what? It was glorious.