Cancun, Part 6, Isla Mujeres

Cancun, Mexico, January 2015

Isla Mujeres

The highlight of our trip was our visit to Isla Mujeres. It's an island located some 25-minute ferry ride away from Cancun. There are a few places where you can reach it, namely the Playa Tortugas and Playa Caracol at the Hotel Zone, or Puerto Juárez, if you're staying in downtown. The latter is noticeably cheaper, mind; the ferry from Playa Tortugas or Playa Caracol is $19 for a roundtrip, whereas Puerto Juárez is 146 pesos ($9,80). The ferry company is called Ultramar. The trip can be a bumpy one if the sea is rough and we got wet sitting on the deck. However, there was live music!

Isla Mujeres can be divided roughly to two areas: the more touristy north part and the quieter south. The main attraction to the south is probably MUSA (Museo Subacuático de Arte), an underwater art museum, where you can snorkel or scuba-dive down to see underwater statues. As cool as that sounded, we simply didn't have the time and/or the money to do it this time. So we opted for the north part and its sandy beaches and clear waters.

The beach

More of the beach

We found a spot with two beach chairs and a parasol. 220 pesos ($14,77) for two chairs for the entire day seemed like a bit steep, but what can you do? A Dave Hester -lookalike, even wearing his trademarked YUUUP! - hat took our money, saying he "didn't have the change right now", so he would be right back. Later I had to go and search for the guy to get my change, and I bet this is not an isolated incident. But when in Rome... The beach had a two bars serving it, and even a full kitchen. We ordered some shrimps and tacos to enjoy while at the beach. You can't beat the ambiance!

Swimming

More of the beach...

Isla Mujeres is quite a small island, really, and the touristy part of the north is relatively small with still a decent number of restaurants, bars and hotels. We took the most out of the island on our day trip, visiting a few restaurants to have a nice steak or two and feast on some sea snails. We also simply had to try tequila in Mexico. It's a must. However, we definitely overpaid for them, since the (sea snail) restaurant only offered an expensive for of tequila for 77 pesos each, whereas the cheap bar next to it had an offer of two beers for 40 pesos with two tequilas for free! So if you're not too fussy about the quality, you might want to look out for such offers. We also could buy beers to go and sipped them on the already dark beach, going for moonlight swims every now and then. To quote Marta: "This is the island I've been searching for."

To be continued...

Cancun, Part 5, Beaches

Cancun, Mexico, January 2015

Beaches

The best beaches are supposed to be in the Hotel Zone. It's best to do some research beforehand, though. We simply checked the map and aerial image and went to the closest thing to us that looked like a beach, close to the Puerto Juárez harbour. It did have some exclusive resorts there with private beaches (I suppose we were trespassing), but their quality was very poor to be honest. Lots of seaweed, not very nice sand and so on. That taught us a lesson that proper googling is required for the desired outcome.

We did enjoy a lovely day at the beach in Isla Mujeres, but more about that later on. We didn't really get a good look at the beaches at the Hotel Zone. They are supposed to be extremely nice, but also the waves are said to be very big. The beaches are facing the open sea, so the waves have a clear access to reach the unassuming swimmers. Now this might be a good or a bad thing, depending on your preferences. There are some beaches that are more protected and better-suited for families, however. But don't wander off to the other side: the lagoon between Cancun downtown and the Hotel Zone is inhabited by crocodiles. And not just "those tiny cute ones", but actually the "horrible big ones". There are warning signs all over and a few croc attacks have been reported over the years. Though this is nothing to be overly concerned about, it's still a good thing to keep in mind, when playing golf for example.

Not the best beach in town

Keep in mind that during the spring break the Hotel Zone is filled with American students. Quite literally girls gone wild. During that time it is probably not the best place for families with smaller children. The Hotel Zone is filled with nightclubs, bars and even the odd pub or two to keep the party going 24/7. So if you feel at home in the parties in Sunny Beach or Ibiza, maybe Cancun during the spring break would be right up your alley? Beach, sun, parties and drunk people.

To be continued...

Cancun, Part 4, Getting Around

Cancun, Mexico, January 2015
Getting Around

Cancun has a local bus system that one can use to get around. The routes R-1 and R-2 are basically the ones that most tourists would need, as they go through the Hotel Zone and all the way to the north of Cancun via the centre. There are bus stops, but in the centre the busses seemed to just stop where ever people would flag them down, so we went along with that. The fare to the hotel zone was 10,5 pesos (not sure about the other busses which don't go there, they might be cheaper). You simply pay the driver, nothing mystical about this. Also getting off is as simple as pressing a button. The same as pretty much anywhere else in the world. So don't be afraid of the busses.

As for taxis, first of all, don't count on them speaking English. It might be because we only took taxis in the downtown area, but we only stumbled upon one driver that spoke English. Luckily my Spanish is veeeeery good... Meaning two beginners courses at the university almost ten years ago. You also need to agree upon a price with the driver beforehand, so knowing your numbers in Spanish is definitely needed. The highest price we paid was $4 from the bus station to our hotel (the driver had to stop and check the address on the way), and the lowest was 25 pesos (about $1,70) from the hotel to the Puerto Juárez harbour, which is actually a longer way than the most expensive route we took.

The taxi drivers, as I mentioned before, didn't recognise our hotel's name. And Cancun doesn't really have proper addresses, or at least I'm having a hard time interpreting them ("Av. Lopez Portillo y Torcasita, sm63, mz22 L-11" was our hotel's address for example, and the fish restaurant Ciego, which I promoted earlier, had written down theirs simply as: "Av. Nader esquina con Rubia | a una cuadra de av. uxmal"). Put that on your GPS, will ya?

There was one time at the harbour when the only taxi present refused to takes us to our hotel for the amount of money we offered him and just took off. This was quite late in the evening, but we still decided to start walking back to our hotel (some three kilometres). We tried to catch a taxi on the way, but to our surprise the car (not a taxi) that stopped was a well-groomed middle-aged man, who just wanted to practice his English and give us a lift. Despite all the warnings against hopping on private cars of people you don't know, we decided to go on and accept the offer for a ride. And lo and behold: nothing bad happened! He took us all the way to the hotel, even though it was not even on his way and refused to accept any money from us. His reward ended up being a shy kiss on the cheek (not from me!).

To be continued...