Isla Mujeres.
We have been a couple times. It is the perfect place to walk and explore; to lay on a warm beach in the winter, to hide out for a week or three.
This is where we drank tequila with Jesus.
Eight miles off the coast of Cancun, it is easy to get to, yet a world apart from the overwhelming tourist hustle and bustle of the city. Not to say that it isn't touristy. It is, but less so, set apart, especially at night when the day-trippers return to the mainland on the ferry.
Flights to Cancun are pretty cheap. From the airport, you can catch a taxi direct to the port. The more "local" and inexpensive way is to take the red ADO Airport bus downtown, then grab the local bus, or taxi from there to get to the main port at Puerto Juarez.
The ferries run to the island about every half hour, and you have a choice of two companies.
Day trippers staying in Cancun can take a ferry direct from the hotel zone.
That is what we do: walk everywhere. There are a few taxis on the island, but most people use golf carts or mopeds to get around. Because we are there to slow down, we just never see the point in renting a moped.
At the tip of the island you find the remains of a small temple, and the lighthouse.
Here is a map.
There is no real danger walking the streets; I mean, it's not like you are going to be run over. There is a drive-through liquor store and they will pop the top on your beer for you. So I suppose there is that small possibility of being run down by a drunk tourist in a golf cart.
One day, on the far south end of the island, a car with a huge speaker drove slowly by, blaring something or another... When we got to the "stadium," there was a huge, outdoor rummage sale of sorts going on, and we spent a fun half-hour of not-buying anything.
The drop in temperature from the breeze is not huge, but it is a cool place to find some small relief in a sweltering July.
I would stop at the corner store (ironically, a 7-11) for a cup of coffee, then walk over to sit on the east shore about 4 AM. It was the only time of day I could tolerate a cup of coffee.
One day we met some boys walking their chicken along the wall.
The malecón shows the potential Isla has, and also takes you from the town center past some of the more real parts of the island.
You can look eight miles across to the high-rise hotels of Cancun, and see a giant Mexican flag flowing in the breeze. According to loco gringo dot com, the flag is 184 by 94 feet, made of parachute material. It weighs a 507 pounds (!) and supposedly took forty soldiers to raise the flag up the 344 foot flag pole.
Palm trees line the wide sandy beaches on the North, and the upper West side. This is where most of the sunning, swimming and night beach parties take place, and this section of beach is lined with hotels, guest houses and bars.
The beaches become smaller and more local south of the ferry dock and port, and we come upon people fishing and families picnicking there. Fishing boats are pulled up onto the west side beaches, and you can see fishermen gathered, repairing their nets. Along the docks there are a couple places to eat, and you can buy fresh fish right off the boat.
There is nothing better than spending a warm, winter's day on the beach. Our favorite is Playa Norte, the North end beach. The water is warm and shallow here; so shallow you can walk half mile out and stand with water only up to your neck. In fact, we pay a little extra to stay at Hotel Na Balam because of the walk-out-your-door-onto-the-sand location. Beach beds and hammocks are included in the price, and drinks and food are brought out to you. Unfortunately the cost has gone up from $100 to $150, and now close to $300 per night over Christmas. This is just one of the hotels in the area, so I think we will look for a different place next time. |
Chichen Itza has the famous ball court, observatory and pyramid, while Tulum has the spectacular, cliff-side setting over the sea. See the photos below.
You can even catch a flight to Cuba.
Scuba diving and snorkeling expeditions are available from many island operators. I went out one day to see the large, underwater art installation named MUSA which is just offshore.
So that is how we ended up, 21 December, the Winter Solstice, swimming in the sacrificial cenote and walking around trying to see the serpent very slowly crawling down the pyramid.
It was the night of the full moon.
The town itself is surprisingly compact, maybe four blocks by three, but chock full of good places to eat, both expensive "upper-end" places with reservations, and little hole-in-the-wall places that are not only inexpensive but innovative and serve delicious food.
At the north edge of town, across from the post office, is a great, drop-off laundry service. We just dropped our bag of T-shirts and shorts in the morning, and picked them up in the evening after a day on the beach.
About a block back to the west is the cemetery, with brightly painted shrines and candles, Mary trinkets and plaques; a wonderfully riotous hodge-podge of colorful memorials.
Just around the corner there is a food cart, housed inside of a garage-type building, and the guy makes great wraps.
Along the main street you can find coffee shops, fusion cooking, Mexican (duh!) French, Italian, Cuban and other foods, with the usual trinket stores wedged in between. If you are wanting a "tourist shopping" destination vacation, however, Isla is not for you. I figure there are probably enough places to last a dedicated shopper about one day, based on my own undedicated half hour stroll of the stores.
The prices are lower than on the mainland, however. For example, we brought home a hammock for $10 USD.
We were on Isla Mujeres for two warm, magical weeks over Christmas break. Christmas Eve, we ate a real Italian dinner, made by an Italian family, with good red wine imported from Italy. After complimenting Mama on her bread (she came out from the kitchen) we decided to walk through the town and enjoy the lights.
Down the main street, a block before the plaza; for some reason the spirit told me to turn right.
Halfway down, in a little, dimly lit storefront, Jesus hailed us from the shadows.
The street was pretty empty, and Jesus was pretty far into his "Samples-For-The-Gringos" bottle by then. We were the only gringos in sight, so he poured us generous sized samples, then drained the rest of the bottle himself.
Jesus obviously enjoys his tequila.
Surprisingly, so did we.
Neither of us are real tequila drinkers (except for making margaritas) but this was pretty tasty stuff.
It didn't take much haggling to get drunk Jesus down from his original price to his real price, and so we bought a bottle.
Then...
Jesus opened another bottle for us to sample again.
Generous guy, Jesus.