Journey to Punta Allen

 (from our Mexico Road Trip, Nov 2015)

We had heard about this biosphere near Tulum in Quintana Roo- 780 thousand acres of untouched Caribbean wildlife, biodiversity and a few Mayan ruins- called Sian Ka'an and one of the only villages within the biosphere was- Punta Allen. On Punta Allen there are local village men that take you on tours to snorkel, see dolphins and sea turtles etc. Blogs we had read and tour guides we talked to said it is the best way to see that kind of wildlife in their natural setting. Sounded like a dream. 

Except.... for the fact that you can't go in a normal car because of the huge pot holes and puddles. Everyone we talked to and everything we read said that we would need an all terrain vehicle to get there or go with a tour group in ATVs. Even so, it normally would take 2 hours to go 54 km.  all the tours we saw cost $100 DOLLARS per person for a full day tour and we were searching for a cheaper way to get there. After we confirmed that our friends Elohim and Julie would be in town and would share the cost of renting a vehicle with us and after  several different research sessions we found an agency that according to their website would rent a jeep for $1000 PESOS - which we would split among the four of us for about $250 pesos or 15 dollars per person. Yes!!! We booked it.

Julio and I show up early to get the vehicle and to our dismay he says that they don't have the jeep we reserved online but have some sort of a minivan for us. Nooooo! This was not going to work for the road to Punta Allen. We dejectedly ask a few other car rentals in town about a jeep and no one has one or it costs $1700 pesos. We feel kind of defeated and call our friends and decide to go to Tulum anyways and look for more options and inspiration of what to do.

We get Tulum and one local guy recommended we take a motorcycle which we considered but thank God we didn't do because we later realized how much of a horrible idea that would have been. Another place suggests an ATV rental place.. Turns out they only do paid guides tours. Somewhere in our scavenger hunt we see a jeep parked on the grass close to the street and a budget rental car agency on the other side of it. The guys go in and us white girls (Julie is from England) stay outside while they try to negotiate a good price. They get it to $1200 pesos and we are happy with that (400 pesos or about 22 dollars per person).  We are off to Punta Allen, with just one condition, we had to get it back by five o'clock or else we would have to drive all the way back the next morning to return the car and get our security deposit.

Thus started the craziest bumpiest wettest ride you can imagine going through literal lakes on this dirt road for two hours.

The adventure was in the journey this day because Punta Allen hid all her treasures from us that day. The water was so cloudy from the previous days of rain that snorkeling was not advisable. Even the sea turtles who always are visible we were told by our guide were completely hidden from our view.  We did enjoy a crystal clear swimming area before heading back to our two hour return trip.

In case you are wondering, we did it back on time, at five, even though we did have to bribe a traffic officer with 20 pesos to do it.

On one hand it was a huge ordeal for  a disappointing ending at Punta Allen. On the other hand - thank goodness we didn't pay what the $100 dollars per person that the tours were charging. Plus we had a lot more fun getting there than we would have on an ordinary tour.


There is always more than one way to do/ experience something and I've learned to not just go with the first tour or to choose the most obvious way... Rather, get a few opinions,  listen, be a little stubborn, mess up, look for the hidden options, there will be pros and cons no matter what you do, and most of all enjoy the ride!