The Life of Brad: May 2023 - Punta Allen, Chocolate Tasting, Turtle Spotting and Secret Steak Spot

In this month I rode the rough passage to Punta Allen, tried all Pasion of Cacao had to offer, Spotted a Turtle, enjoyed many Steaks and had a perfect conditions Snorkel. It was a great month.

A good start to the month...I just love meditating in my apartment building's roof pool.

Perched off the side of the pool

With a great solar view

Inspired by Alex who had just returned to Playa we decided to head off to Punta Allen a tiny town at the end of a peninsula on the other side of Tulum. In 5 years I had not made my way there hearing all the time that the road in was horrible...and yep it sure is! 45 km that takes 1.5 hrs on a motorbike. And finally the little fishing village of Punta Allen at the end which is a one time visit type of place that has no grid electricity between 12am and 8am or something like that. Road rating C3R1/2T3V6.

Ready and waiting for Alex
who literally had no gas

A rider has their own style and protection level

Crawl through the now 3 times bigger
Tulum Hotel Zone, yuck

The national park taking $5usd off us.

Clearly the fee doesn't go to road repair

Some out of the way spots

Re-adjusting so things didn't fall off in the heat

What's this ahead?

Nice view

Caught up to Alex chillin

underpacked or overpacked?

33C or something like that

A section along the water
still 45 min/15km to go.

Got in to Punta Allen around 5pm needing electrolytes, hotel and food. The ride in was definitely a work out.

That's it, Punta Allen

East dock

Checking hotels

Where are my shades...oh yeah...scratched to shit

West pier for sunset

Rickety but great.

A boat sunk and sitting next to the pier

Back to the East for the Moon

Sunrise on the East side of the village which I'm guessing the population is about 500 people.

A few more moments and it was back towards civilisation.

Lazy bones dog

A light house with no entrance

Some natural electrolytes

Sand road in to the light house

Serious tourist to brave that road in

Too windy to have a snorkel unfortunately

15km and 30 min or so to go.

Shit, you lost your phone Alex...where?
Some where in the last 5 km...

Shitty side story: After taking about 30 min to comb back along the jungle road in search of Alex's Samsung S10 we decided to go to Tulum and try to GPS locate it since I had no signal on the road in order to help. At the store Alex used his gmail and password, but because the store computer was a new machine google sent him a 6 digit verification to either his phone or his yahoo account. Then at yahoo mail another 6 digit verification was to be sent to either his phone or his gmail...Oh no! After days of trying to recover either of his google or yahoo accounts Alex was forced to start all over again.

Can you imagine being locked out of your emails and all your contacts and starting all over!

Back in Playa for a chocolate tasting at Pasion de Cacao. Thanks for setting that up Barbara.

Founder Roberto

My breakdown and learnings

Coco beach pano just before getting in for a great discovery...A Turtle only blocks from my apartment!

Cute Colombiana Katherine

Guanajuato Victor

Lost in Transportation Brad

Koodoos to Victor who spotted our new turtle friend that we all got excited about.

Found a great Secret Steak Spot where you can pick you meat and bottle of wine and have it all at the grilling bar for supermarket prices...

NOT RECOMMENDED!

The steak is good though

Look at that

End of the month and probably the most amazing snorkel of the year. Love these photos and videos.

Following a flounder

so clear and colourful

And finally...watching the pro soccer players across the way and their intense coach who eventually got rained out and then I got blacked out (not that way! haha). Be sure to watch the video!