Nanci said:
I know Tulum very well...It could have been a ray, or a flounder! They also like to sit buried in the sand. You need to learn the stingray shuffle if you are going to continue such activities...
Nanci
I learned to salsa, but as I had no intention whatsoever to return to the water, I chose to sit out the stingray shuffle dance lessons...
I'd love to return to Tulum to explore the pyramids more; there just wasn't enough time to see everything, but spending time at that resort was the most amazing de-stressing detox ever...it's actually now one of my two "happy places" when I stress out; I remember that amazing afternoon that I spent on a lounge chair right by the water, under a palm tree, listening to the water & feeling the warm breezes and just snoozing away...it was perfect...
The other happy place is on another beach, Sainte Anne, on the island of Guadeloupe...amazing...and there I *did* get into the water, a few times! I wore a very shiny silver swimsuit -- it was Victoria's Secret, so it was super-shiny like a new quarter! -- and an angelfish made a complete circle around me, leaping in & out of the water...and other little fish came to clean my silver toenails -- I have a thing for silver -- and it didn't hit me until later that they all thought that I was just a big silver fish. Thank God that nothing tried to mate with me...

I never wore that swimsuit again...
Though, when I was still adventuresome at age 17, I snorkeled out too far when visiting the island where Gilligan's Island had been filmed, in the Bahamas...and I went alone. I didn't realize how far I'd gone until I felt a cold stream envelope me & I looked down to see nothing but black below me. Yeah, I just about piddled myself because I'd never done something like that before...but I did see lots of little fish around me...and when I got back (like a madwoman), I heard that the barracuda were hatching...I don't know much at all about barracuda's living habits, but I do know that they're big & nasty and that's all I needed to know to not ever do something like that again!
And...it just hit me: while I don't know your heritage, just about every Mexican to whom I've said "Tulum" has no idea where I'm talking about...more people in this country -- I guess those who can afford a vacation -- know where I'm talking about...hmmm...