Being Tourists in Cancun — The Towering Travelers

On Friday, our first full day, we woke up at 4 am, walked to the meeting point at a nearby grocery store parking lot (the grocery store becomes important later) and, after waiting several minutes and hoping we had the right meeting place, boarded a bus full of tourists and drove across the Yucatan to Chichen Itza. Two gas station stops and several short naps later, our guide taught us a little bit about Mayan culture, language, and writing as we pulled into the parking lot as it opened at 8:00. Our guide was not Mayan, but was married to a Mayan woman, and he studied archaeology at school. The focus of the tour was less about how Chichen Itza was built (much of that is still unknown) and more about how amazing it is. Everything is aligned according to the planets and perfectly built to create tricks of light and sound. I’m not sure if it’s human, alien, or magic, but it’s pretty crazy.

A dog at a rest stop on the way to Chichen Itza (Photo/Jason Rafal)

El Castillo at Chichen Itza (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Stone carvings at the Great Ball Court (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The contrasting surfaces of El Castillo (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After spending a couple hours at Chichen Itza, we went to Tienda de Artesanias Chac Mool in a town called Kaua (which our guide said comes from the Mayan words for two tortillas) to eat lunch at a tourist stop that served traditional food and sold handcrafts. The food was very tasty; we had some of a plant drink called choya, which tastes a bit like a cross between grass and aloe juice, and we were also given samples of a delicious anise-flavored liqueur called Xtabentún. After lunch, we took the long bus ride back to Cancun.

Choya (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Saturday we were supposed to take a tour to Isla Contoy, a wildlife preserve, but the trip was cancelled and tentatively rescheduled for Monday. Since we now had an unexpected free day, we decided to wake up and take the first ferry to Isla Mujeres, a fairly small island off the coast of the Cancun area. We had heard that one didn’t need a lot of time to explore the island, and that a half day was a perfect amount of time (foreshadowing). Isla Mujeres is about four miles long, and it’s popular to rent a golf cart for a couple hours to explore. After trying to find a public entrance to the infamous playa Norte and failing, we found a seemingly reputable rental shop and took off around the island.

Walking along the beach to the ferry (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Near (but not on) Playa Norte (Photo/Eric Strom)

Isla Mujeres is an interesting mix of poverty, tourism, and beautiful coastal views. There are some resorts and houses that can be rented, and what looks like a fair number of second homes as well, but the downtown shopping area predominantly opens for the large numbers of daytime tourists who come over from the mainland to visit. Once you get out of the downtown area, everything starts feeling more permanent and lived in. We drove all the way around the island, stopping to take pictures, before returning the golf cart, having a beer at a beach bar, and taking the ferry back to Cancun.

Driving through the streets of Isla Mujeres (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Mirror group portrait (Photo/Jason Rafal)

What we think was a Mexican Spiny Tailed Iguana at the southern end of the island (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The bar we would end up drinking at…twice (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After returning to the resort, we hung out in the ocean for a while before deciding that we should book a snorkeling and boating trip in case the one on Monday was also cancelled. We went to visit one of the travel agents at the hotel, who said that all of the boating and snorkeling tours from Cancun went to Isla Mujeres. We were not thrilled about this prospect, since we’d already been there, but the alternative was driving a couple hours south for a full-day trip, so I acquiesced despite my fear of being stuck on a boat with a bunch of bros and we opted for a 6-hour trip that involved snorkeling and riding a catamaran.

So, on Sunday, after Eric and I spent a little time paddling around on the resort’s kayaks, we boarded a shuttle from our hotel at 1:30 and were taken to a port in puerto Juarez, which is the Cancun-adjacent town where everyone actually lives. There we boarded the boat, a bit cranky at the other 23 tourists present, and set off to snorkel. The day was partly cloudy and somewhat windy, and the water was choppy enough to make me (a person who grew up landlocked and has never felt particularly at home in the ocean) pretty nervous. Once I got in the water, though, I was distracted enough by the swimming and attempting to snorkel in the waves to actually start to have some fun. We were guided across a somewhat shallow area and saw several types of fish (I cannot name any of them). After several minutes of swimming around, or in my case flailing around, we got back onto the boat and drove to a shallower area right off Playa Norte on Isla Mujeres, where we were welcomed to jump back in and swim around without our floating belt and flippers. We had fun jumping off the boat and exhausted ourselves paddling around in the water. We had some more drinks on the boat and then landed at the Isla Mujeres pier. I wanted to rent bicycles to ride around the island, and Eric graciously agreed to stay with our stuff and have a beer on the beach while Jason and I took an hour ride in the late-afternoon sun on terrifyingly rotted road bike tires. As with all of our international bike rides thus far, it was lovely.

Nicole trying to ignore the nerves (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eric takes a dive (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason underwater (Photo/Eric Strom)

Fishes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole struggling to get her flipper back on (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole’s jump from the boat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eric’s jump from the boat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason’s jump from the boat (Photo/Eric Strom)

Biking through the streets (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We returned the bikes and watched the sunset from a bar on the beach before heading back to our boat, where the other boat passengers sat in the covered back of the boat to drink and stay warm. This mean that we had the pleasure of sitting alone in the dark on the front of the catamaran drinking beer and chatting with our guide, Eme, on the way back to the mainland. He told us stories about his adventures as a tour guide, including a drunk man falling off the catamaran and bailing clients out of “tourist jail” on the island for drinking while driving golf carts.

Eric with a coconut (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Sunset on the beach (Photo/Jason Rafal)

It’s rare that I get complete satisfaction out of a day. Despite my skepticism about the trip, Sunday was one of those days. Between the kayaking, snorkeling, and biking, I ended the day with full-body exhaustion and a new understanding of why people come back to Caribbean vacations again and again.