MAYAN RIVIERA, MEXICO
Playa del Carmen, Tulum & Isla Mujeres, Mexico Feb 24th - Mar 2nd, 2012
24.02.2012 - 02.03.2012
28 °C
Me & my best friend, Jo, traveled to the Mayan Riviera in Mexico for one week. We stayed at the Hacienda Vista Real hotel in Playacar (a suburb of Playa del Carmen). It was not all-inclusive, but did include a free pool-side breakfast each morning. It was only $85 per night, booked on Expedia. We felt we didnt need an all-inc resort, as we are huge sight-seers, and would never be at the resort to eat the 'free' food / beverages or participate in any of the offered activities. It was a 15min walk to the beach, which is probably the same distance as walking through a fancy schmancy 5 star resort anyways, lol!
Just outside of our hotel were these Mayan ruins. Pretty sure they were fake though.
The beach!
Not gonna lie, I was pretty excited for my Chunky Monkey!
I have to say, theres not a whole lot to do in Playa del Carmen, unless you love to shop for tacky souvenirs or sit at the beach. There is however, an array of exotic animals you can hold for a photo which they charge you $$ for, even though the photo is taken with your own camera, and is usually blurry & lop-sided. Definately not worth the $20 they were charging, but we couldnt resist the cuteness, and so spent an entire day walking up & down 5th Ave in search of wildlife. The first animal we came across was this adorable, blue-eyed 1.5 month old tiger cub!!
Jo bottle feeding the baby tiger. Look at his big paw!
Snoozing with a milk moustache
Next we came across a little Squirrel Monkey. He was smelly, albeit cute.
Me & a parrot
We found a guy with 2 iguanas ... a momma & baby Jo has 1 on her head!
Iguana kisses - I was terrified it would lick me, lol!
Look what we found next! A 5 month old lion! She was heavy!
I put my finger in the lion's mouth and she sucked on it like a soother! The guy said 'If you feel her trying to move your finger left or right (aka towards her teeth) pull your finger out!' Well duh! Just look at her eyes!
Entertainers on 5th Ave
Here is an odd looking spider we discovered!
I had the urge to try on the biggest sombrero I could find!
And the smallest, LOL!
One morning we took a collectivo to the Mayan ruins of Tulum for only 70 pesos! Significantly cheaper than booking a $100 CAD tour. The collectivo drops u off on the hwy, but just follow everyone else to the ruins ... everyone will be going in the same direction. Its only a 2min walk. There is a train that comes by every few minutes to pick up passengers and take them to the admission gate. The train is only 20 pesos, or u can walk the 1km no problem. At the gate its 57 pesos to get in. There are guides for hire, but we went in without 1 as this was my 4th time there. Guide, or no guide, its still much cheaper than a tour. The grounds are very manicured, and full of tourists. Theres not too much to see other than El Castillo perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the blue Caribbean, a few smaller ruins (none of which you can climb or touch), and a beach for swimming. If your looking for more history, try Chichen Itza. If your looking for pyramids you can still climb, visit Palenque! Theres 8 pyramids there, 7 of which can still be climbed! (This will be in a later post).
When the guards werent looking, I snuck under a rope and climbed behind this small ruin for this photo, mwahaha! (thats my evil laugh)
The beach by the ruins. If you only want to visit the beach, you still have to pay the admission, as the beach is inside the site.
There were iguanas everywhere!
One of the many pathways throughout the ruins.
After exploring the ruins a bit, we relaxed at the beach.
Huge cliffs & boulders on the beach!
Another day we took a bus from Playa del Carmen to Cancun (1hr, 30 pesos), and then a collectivo from Cancun to Puerto Juarez where the ferries depart for the tiny island of Isla Mujeres (10min Cancun - Pto J, 6 pesos; ferry Pto J - Isla roundtrip 140 pesos). Once there, we rented a golf cart for the afternoon and toured the island in style (500 pesos for the golf cart til 5pm).
The golf cart rental company provided us with a map of the town. We headed over to the Avalon Reef Club. We wanted to see the King's Pool, which is a natural pool carved into the rocky shore by the waves. Its located on the resort's grounds, but is a public spot ... you will be escorted to it by a guard, who then stands there and watches you like a hawk til you leave. But it was nothing exciting, I didnt even take a photo. The resort sure is nice though! I would definately stay there!
Just look at that water!
Welcome to Paradise!!
After a quick dip in the ocean, we hopped back on our golf cart and headed to Punta Sur, the southern-most tip of the island, where El Garrafon Park is located. It cost 200 pesos for a half day admission. Theres a few restaurants within, that are all-inclusive, alcohol is also inc, as well as zip-lining, snorkeling, kayaking, hammocks, infinity pool, etc.
There were some paths along the cliffs / ocean that we followed for some great views!
After our walk we had lunch at 1 of the restaurants ... nachos & cheese, and quesadillas ... and strawberry daiquiris
Then we did some zip-lining. If you've zip-lined before, then dont bother with this one, lol! But if its your first time, then its a good beginner course. I'd zip-lined before, and found it rather lame, but it was Jo's first time and she was terrified!
The view from the 2nd zip-line platform of El Garrafon[img=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/508675/IMG_1055-1.jpg
Well, thats all for the Mayan Riviera part of our trip. Stay tuned for posts on the ruins of Palenque, and Mexico City & the ruins of Teotihuacan
Posted by ChantelleS 11:34 Archived in Mexico Tagged wildlife beach ruins monkey mexico iguana del parrot playa tiger carmen mayan lion Comments (0)