Eating with Carmen

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While in Tulum, one of the things we did was a walking food tour. Megan came across a company called Eating with Carmen (link here) that offered little food tours in Mexico. There were different cities and options to choose from. The Tulum option was $54 and took place in downtown Tulum which was where all the local shops away from the touristy area of the city. I was 100% for this.

We all met at a gas station around their main street and were joined by another couple from Indianapolis. From there, we walked over to a place called Tacos De Gulsados where we were given many options of tacos to choose from. Considering it was around 10 a.m., we all went with their juevos con salsa with Jamaica. This was everything I needed to start my day. As you can guess, the tortillas were made fresh on site. Everyone loved it, including the kids, who have never had a taco like it.

Next up, we started walking into the downtown area, where we stopped by Taqueria Maya. There, everyone was given a couple of different tacos to try. They all ranged from fried chicharron, chicken, pork, and more. My favorite was a pork taco that had a blackish color because of the sauce it was cooked in. I wish I remembered the name of it, as I’d love to find something similar here in Wichita. Once again, this was appreciated by our entire walking group tour.

After the tacos, we stopped by Los Buenos Tiempos which was a fresh juice and smoothie spot. The kids had smoothies while I went with a healthier juice recommendation consisting of orange, pineapple, celery, nopal and parsley. Basically, whatever our tour guide went with, I ordered. Our tour guide also offered shots of ginger to everyone. Everybody said no, which made me feel bad, so I took one for the team.

Following our juices, we went for a longer walk in the humid, hot weather of Tulum. We passed through many neighborhoods until we reached Tamales Don Tacos. For many people in the group, it was their first time trying tamales. One of our kids also got to enjoy a Mexican Coke.

We had some banana leaf tamales that I loved. People were starting to get full by this point, but I did my best to get in as much of the tamales as possible.

Soon after, we trekked over to El Rincon Tabasqueno which had the feel of an open market/food hall. There were many places to eat at, but our guide brought us to the aforementioned restaurants to get our heads on some chicken mole with chocolate sauce.

The dish was incredibly soft with a texture similar to crepes. The sauce was very sweet; there was no hiding the chocolate flavor. It was at this time, you could see people’s appetites starting to check out.

So, we went for a longer trek to walk off some of the food until we reached a market that I forgot to get its name. They gave us a little lesson on all the Chile and peppers grown in Mexico.

They even gave us some fresh coconut water to try. Watching it prepared was really cool and made me feel like I was on the show Survivor.

@wichitabyeb Fresh coconut water while in Tulum. #travel #fyp #vlog #tulum #coconuts ♬ original sound – wichitabyeb

For our last stop, we walked across the street to Paleteria Y Neveria for paletas. I went with a piña with chile which was pineapple with tajín. In hindsight, with how hot it was, I should have gone with something lighter and more refreshing. Unfortunately, spicy always wins when I’m ordering food.

All in all, we all had a great time visiting the less explored parts of Tulum by tourists. I’m all for the locally owned mom-and-pop shops, so this was such an ideal adventure for me. Our tour guide, Rodrigo, was fantastic. His English was excellent and we all loved his demeanor and happy-go-lucky attitude.

If you’re ever in Tulum or even other parts of Mexico and want to do something similar, check out their website: eatingwithcarmen.com.

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