10 ProTips for Tourists and Expats in Mexico: Focus on Tulum

Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico lies on the Mayan Riviera, 130 kms south of Cancun, on the east coast of Mexico. It's a fast growing beach town with world class snorkel and scuba, with many expats and tourists, mostly from north america and europe.

Tulum also boasts some incredible Mayan ruins,

Chichen Itza Ruins

You can climb the Ek Balam Ruins

Ek Balam Ruins

Ek Balam Ruins

several beautiful white sand beaches, with clear aqua blue water

One of Tulum's Beaches

as well as hundreds of fresh water cenotes in the area. Cenotes are areas of the limestone that have caved in, revealling a small piece of an ernormous underwater lake found in this area right up to the Yucatan. A divers paradise.

Cenote Zazil-Ha

Ik-Kil Cenote

My wife, dog and I tried to migrate to Tulum from Canada. We lived there for 8 months before having to leave because the government had recently changed the rules for foreigners living and working in Mexico. These Protips come from our first hand experience in the Tulum area.

Tulum is a truly magical place. But no place is perfect, it has its negatives. We didn't like the abundance of stray dogs and litter, but there are great people there working on both of these problems. There is a permanent police checkpoint on the edge of town and another on the highway closer to Cancun. I guess that is a negative for some and a positive for others, lol. The beach received a pile of seaweed last year which made it less awesome, but the cenotes and lakes were a great alternative. Tulum has only one traffic light, but many speed bumps, and a 4wd vehicle is not necessary in that area of Mexico. Don't drink the tap water anywhere in Mexico, that's common sense, so it's not worth a ProTip.

Lake Bacalar

Lake Bacalar

• ProTip 1 - Learn some spanish basics before arriving. It will make everything easier for you if you learn numbers and a few basic phrases. Duolingo is a great app to learn, its like a video game, and makes learning fun. There is also a great travel t-shirt shown below, that could be used anywhere.

• ProTip 2 - Get the Waze app for navigating your way around. You may need a mexican phone chip and pay card to use it. Street signs don't exist in Tulum, nor in many other mexican towns and cities. Getting lost is easy. Get Waze.

• ProTip 3 - Gas station attendants will rob you. They have two tricks, but if you pay attention, you will be fine. The guy working the pump will attempt to steal your money, and the guy washing your windows will attempt to distract you. Pay attention to the pump. They often don't zero out the pump, before pumping, so you are paying for gas that you did not get.

The other trick they use is even more cunning. When you hand over your 500 pesos bill to pay, he will quickly switch it for a 50 pesos bill and hand it back to you. Many tourists will feel like they screwed up using this new money, or they will be too intimidated to argue, and fork over another 500. Pay close attention to all monetary transactions, but especially at the gas station.

• ProTip 4 - Bring your earplugs if noise stops you from sleeping. There will be music, dogs and roosters all night, then the bread man honking his horn at 7am, followed by advertisers driving around, blasting spanish through their megaphones which are mounted to their car, they sell everything from ice cream to electronics.

• Protip 5 - Don't flush toilet paper! You will shut down the entire town! If you do flush it, don't talk about it, you will be lynched, seriously. Just shut up. They take the tp flushing very seriously.

• ProTip 6 - Shop like a local. Mexico is cheap. Most things we bought were 20-50% of the cost we paid in Canada. The best deals are not on the main strip, use the backstreets, shop like locals, not like tourists. Don't be afraid to haggle, you will save a bundle, just by saying no.

• ProTip 7 - If you wish to live and work there, talk to at least two lawyers first. Wages are lousy there, but everything is cheap. If you wish to own a business, and work for it legally, including supervising or training, you will need to wait four years to become a permanent resident first. They changed this law just as we arrived. Lucky us. Punishment is instant deportation, although that could likely be mitigated by a hefty and recurring bribe.

• ProTip8 - Waiters will try to rip you off. Double check your bill for prices and the items you actually ordered.

• ProTip 9 - Driving is when the cops will prey on you most as a foreigner. Don't speed. It's not worth it. That being said, if you have money, than you can bribe just about any government official to break any law there, or so I've heard. If you don't have money, don't speed, don't drink and drive, etc. Even if you follow the rules, they may still try to extort you when driving, so this is how you handle it.

Always have copies of your passport with picture and stamp, and a copy of your drivers licence with you when driving. Never give a police officer the orignial. If you do, he/she will have all the leverage they need to get a bribe from you. They will simply threaten to not return it if you don't pay up, regardless of what your alleged offense is. Don't even keep your originals with you if possible. Most speeding infractions, etc will only cost you $20 usd if you insist it is all you have. Hide the rest.

• ProTip 10 - Don't be discouraged by any of this. You have the tools to handle yourself now. Enjoy the culture, the music, the food. It's very light on the wallet, and it's all amazing, as are most of the Mexican people and expats that live there.

We drove through seven countries to Panama after leaving Tulum, and I have much more to share on our new life in Panama, and ProTips from the entire experience.

• BONUS ProTip - Ask any questions you wish below, I'm happy to answer them.