In 2005 Christine and I spent some time in Akumal which is about 10 miles north of Dreams Tulum. We had a very wonderful time there where we stayed in a friend of a friend’s apartment right on the beach. This area is well-known for its tortugas, or green sea turtles. When we were in Akumal we could sit on our third floor balcony and watch the turtles in Half Moon Bay. When we swam in the bay the turtles were rather curious of us and would swim very close so we had quite an experience. The other draw of Akumal was a wonderful, clear lagoon where we had great snorkeling, so we decided to try to visit that lagoon again since we schlepped our snorkeling gear, fins and all, with us to Tulum. When we were here in 2005, our friend showed us a way to get to the lagoon without having to pay the admission fee and I think we snorkeled every morning we were in Akumal. It was a great snorkeling experience which we hoped to recreate.
I studied the map and figured out that the lagoon was called Yal-Ku and that there is somewhat of a nature preserve around the lagoon. The website for the lagoon says this: Yal-Ku is one of the Caribbean corners with which you will surely be surprised on your way. In this underground freshwater outlet to the open sea, you will enjoy incredible views. Discover among colorful fish one of the most beautiful landscapes of this paradisaical coast of the Mexican southeast. While you swim in these irresistible crystalline waters, you will enjoy the life hidden by the roots of the mangroves, the birds in their habitat and a great variety of fish, in a place where two ecosystems merge where fauna and flora coexist between the salty and the sweet, two very different worlds.
We arranged for a taxi from Dreams Tulum to Yal-Ku. It was a 15-minute drive and I’m glad the driver knew where we were going because it seemed difficult to find. One thing that gave us happiness is we drove right past the building where we stayed, so I knew we were in the right vicinity.
We arrived at Yal-Ku just before opening time. I had read that the earlier the better because the lagoon gets crowded during the day as tour groups arrive. We checked in, stowed our stuff in a locker, and headed down to the lagoon. I recognized immediately where we had trespassed across private property in 2005 to get into the lagoon. There’s a big fence there now. But seeing the lagoon was like seeing an old friend.
The lagoon remains crystal clear. Mangroves line the lagoon and great mounds of coral and rock are sprinkled through the lagoon. About a half-mile from the entry point (the wooden platforms in the right of the photo above) you’ll get to the entrance of the lagoon to the sea. We snorkeled the length of the lagoon staying close to the edges because that’s where you see the most fish. And there is quite an array of tropical fish – parrot fishes, angelfishes, damsel fishes, butterfly fishes, surgeon fishes, etc. I wish our friend Eve had been with us to identify everything we saw. I also wish I had purchased an underwater camera. You could see many fish from shore standing a the lagoon’s edge, but by the time you found the fish in the view finder, they were gone. My one photo of a fish is below. Look closely and you’ll see a lovely blue fish with a yellow spot on the tail in the middle of the photo.
We snorkeled for two hours and thoroughly enjoyed every minute in spite of the large number of folks who were there. But after two hours we were both quite tired and ready to stop.
After we showered and changed, we walked back down to the lagoon to take some photos.
Along the walk to the lagoon 
Near Yal-Ku lagoon 
Snorkelers in the lagoon 
Near the lagoon
We decided to walk to the place we had stayed and see the significant development along Half Moon Bay. For a while we enjoyed walking and looking at things. We didn’t recognize much, but some of the newer buildings were fun to look at as they were very colorful and festive.
Bungalow window 
Very colorful building 
Colorful building 
Termite nest in the tree
We passed by a restaurant and decided we needed to get out of the hot sun, so we went into La Buena Vida and were seated in a wonderful shady spot right on the edge of the sea. We had chicken quesadillas with guacamole and el pico de gallo – very yummy! It certainly is la buena vida, the good life.
La Buena Vida 
Lobster anyone? 
View from our table at La Buena Vida
After lunch we thought we would walk into the little village of Akumal and see what we remembered. Unfortunately, we were a lot farther from the village than we thought. It was incredibly hot, sunny with little shade, and we we carrying rather heavy packs. Christine was not too happy with me and I kept say, “just a little farther,” thinking we’d see a shop where we could ask for someone to call us a taxi. We reached a checkpoint that had a guard and we asked him if he could call us a taxi, which he gladly did. Within about 5 minutes a taxi arrived and took us back to Dreams Tulum. Once back in our room Christine flopped down on the bed and fell sound asleep.
Our own little excursion today to Akumal and Yal-Ku was really great and we’re so happy that we did it. Some of the resort snorkeling excursions were either canceled this week due to rough weather (lots of wind here) or the snorkeling was awful due to churned up water. So our own excursion to crystal clear, calm Yal-Ku was terrific. And now I’m happy that we did schlep our gear and fins, even though I thought Christine was nuts to pack fins.