An Enormous GoPro

On Monday we took the tour to Isla Contoy that we were supposed to take on Saturday, which ended up being not the tour that I booked but a similar tour with another company that we were added into. This meant that instead of snorkeling at a reef and finishing the trip at Isla Contoy we snorkeled a small amount in another area of the water, spent some time at Isla Contoy, and visited - for the third time - Isla Mujeres.

Our boat was full of European tourists - there was maybe one other small group of American travelers on the boat. It was refreshing for us to be surrounded by other languages, but the guides had to repeat everything in six languages, which was quite the challenge for them.

Our first stop was snorkeling, which was in much calmer waters than the previous days. The guides all teased Jason for his sizable waterproof cased camera, which they called an enormous GoPro (some other people had cameras they took in the water, but they were always GoPros in waterproof cases, which was about ⅙ the size of Jason’s camera in his case). Our guide, Alex, took the group of people who spoke passable English on a tour of a somewhat shallow area with many fish, which he fed with “Mexican bread for Mexican fishes” to make them come up to the surface near us.

The shiny striped fish that we saw the most (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Many more fish on this trip (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eric with a fish buddy (Photo/Jason Rafal)

At the end of the tour we went to the edge of MUSA, which is an underwater museum off the coast of Isla Mujeres. It features stone statues of people and cars and various other things, many of which can only be viewed through diving. Our guide took us to a circle of six giant stone hands making the blessing sign that were at snorkeling level. We were not allowed to touch them, but we could dive down and look at them more closely. I swallowed about a cup of sea water by diving down to see them and not clearing my snorkel at the right time as I came back up.

Eric walking like an Egyption near the hands (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Heading back to the boat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After snorkeling we got back on the boat to join everyone who had not gone snorkeling (only about half had gotten in the water) for the ride to Isla Contoy. Throughout the trip we were pressured by the boat staff into drinking very similar tasting, lightly alcoholic drinks of various bright colors. They also played dance music and encouraged us to dance along.

Tropical fruit buddies (with an excellent photobomb) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I had been holding a beer, so my hand was cold (Photo/Eric Strom)

After about an hour on the boat, we arrived at Isla Contoy, which is a wildlife preserve north of Isla Mujeres. It’s highly regulated - no sunscreen is allowed on the island, and the 200 visitors who are allowed per day on organized trips have very limited access to three walking trails and a beach. The island is the most important seabird nesting place in the Mexican Caribbean. Alex took us up in the tower to discuss the island, then took us to look at the birds and the coast.

The name Contoy originates from when the conquistadors came to the area, pointed at the island, and asked the Mayans what it was called. The Mayans thought they were pointing at a pelican. The Mayan word for pelican is similar to contoy, so the Spanish misheard and thought the island was called Contoy.

Isla Contoy (Photo/Jason Rafal)

There was a large community of frigates mating on the island. Frigates are weird birds - they are amazing flyers, but they cannot swim or walk, so their hunting is somewhat limited. They grab fish from the surface of the water or grab them when they jump into the air. The males have a bright red gular sack that they inflate to attract the attention of mates, and they also make a loud clicking noise. Since it was mating season, it was rather loud.

A flying frigate (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the only tourist-accessible beaches on Isla Contoy (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

After walking around and learning about the island, we had a surprisingly delicious lunch in the picnic area before spending some free time on the beautiful white beach. At that point, we boarded the boat and went back to Isla Mujeres. We only had an hour on the island this time, and we didn’t feel the need to explore it again, so we went to the second floor of a bar across the street from the beach and drank some beers.

At the end of the trip, as we made our way back to the mainland, all the boat staff dressed up as either the Village People or superheroes and we all danced to YMCA, Gangnam Style, and another song I wasn’t as familiar with. Amusingly, all the European tourists knew the dances to the songs better than we did. It was surreal, but also rather enjoyable.

Being Tourists in Cancun

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)

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.