After the long summer in Seattle, winter just started to show its clouds, and we headed south to Mexico with Yigit for Thanksgiving 2015. We didn't have much to expect, just wanted to get away - exploring a new country with beautiful beaches sounds like a good plan. A friend of ours went to a road trip in the peninsula last year, so we decided to do a similar one as well.
First day - arrived to Cancun in the evening. After a relatively long flight we were pretty tired. Headed to pick up a rental car directly, so we can get to the hotel quickly. In the rental car office, they brought us the car, took its pictures, handed in the documents. Seemed like we're all set, and we got on the road. Yay, the vacation starts! :) Well, one thing was missing, once we get to the hotel, realized that we can't lock the car, because we don't have the key, ups! So, TIP#1: Make sure you ask for the car key when you rent the car.
Cancun hotel zone area is very, very touristy. We found a small local taco place in the city side, it's called "
El Socio Taqueria Naiz". Best tacos I had in the whole trip, highly recommended.
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| The taco place first night, tired, but happy to have food :) |
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| Next morning at the beach, Cancun Hotel Zone |
Next day, we took the ferry to the Isla Mujeres. There are ferries from the hotel zone to the island as well, but they run only a couple times of a day. The other alternative is taking the ferry from the downtown Cancun area, they run every half an hour, and leave from "
Gran Puerto". The port is about half an hour drive from the hotel area. There is also car parking provided at the ferry terminal, so it was convenient to drive and leave the car there. The ferry company is called
UltraMar.
Isla Mujeres, it's just beautiful! Small town with great beach. Playa Norte (North beach) is 10-15 mins walking distance from the ferry terminal, or a quick taxi ride away. We spent the day on the beach.
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| Just Beautiful! |
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| Happy to be on the beach! :) |
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| Night scene, Isla Mujeres |
The third day, en-route to
Playa Del Carmen. There is a small town called
Puerto Morelos on the way. We stopped there, it's a cute town, but nothing very interesting. We didn't spend much time there, and arrived to Playa Del Carmen early afternoon. We had trouble finding the hotel, drove back and forth in the city for a while. TIP#2: Make sure you have the name of the hotel, Google Maps doesn't always work well with the foreign addresses. We stayed at
Hotel Carlota, cute boutique hotel we found on AirB&B. We spent the afternoon at a beach club. The ocean was wavy again, but the weather is warm, still enjoyed the day. It was the last day of the annual jazz festival on the beach that night. So we ended up spending the whole day there :) Oh, and before I forget, we went to a Brazilian Streak house that night. I'm not a meat person, but still enjoyed the variety and the salad bar there. It's called
Bovino's.
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| Beach club in Playa Del Carmen |
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| Same beach, this time from Yigit's camera :) |
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| yup - we're tourists here with our backpacks! |
Next day, the fourth day, we had a lot to do. First, took the ferry to get to
Cozumel, another island about half an hour ferry ride away from Play Del Carmen. It's an island cruise ships stop as well, so there is whole bunch of touristy stuff going on similar to Cancun. We mainly wanted to do snorkeling there to see the world famous reefs. The reefs on the south of the island are better than the ones on the north. The reefs on the north are close by, and they take people in small fisherman's boat. We chose to go the reefs on the south side, and ended up getting a catamaran tour through a local seller on the ferry terminal. We had time to have breakfast on the island before getting on the tour. Found a cute looking place, called "
Corazon Contento" ran by a local family. Had pretty good food there, and ready for the trip!
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| And let the tour begin! |
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| Local agent at the ferry terminal - he arranged the tour for us. |
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| Hanging on the boat |
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| Nice beach we stopped by for food |
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| Sunset on the boat (a shot from Yigit's favorite camera) |
After the boat tour, we still had couple more hours to drive, next stop is Tulum. First picked up some coffee and pastries from
Chez Céline, and got back on the road. One thing to keep in mind is the mosquitos!! TIP#3: Make sure to have a mosquito repellent before heading to Tulum.
Fifth day - had breakfast at the hotel. A big bowl of tropic fruits, yummy! With the recommendation from out hosts (Brandy & Blaine) at the
Tunich Hotel, we headed to
Mayan Ruins of Tulum, and
Playa Maya beach. Ruins are right on the coast, pretty cool to see. But pretty hot as well, just a couple kilometers away from the ruins, there is the beautiful long white sand beach with palm trees along the side, just so pretty. Look for the signs with
Playa Maya on the way back from the ruins, the beach is not marked on Google maps with its name (
this is where it is).
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| Breakfast at Hotel Tunich |
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| Ruins of Tulum |
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| Playa Maya |
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| Playa Maya |
The next destination is
Calakmul for the night. It's an ancient Mayan city deep in the jungle hosting one of the tallest pyramids in the Peninsula. The fun part is that you can climb up to the pyramids! Because it's in the middle of nowhere, we planned to get there before sunset. Getting there was quite an experience, passed through small towns and villages, seeing the local people. We had internet connection until Tulum, however we lost connection once we started driving south-east of Tulum. TIP#4: If you're planning to get out of the touristic areas, don't trust your phone, and get a GPS. We had our hotel entered in the GPS already.
Hotel Puerta Calakmul, a boutique hotel in the middle of the jungle. By the time we get there, it was pretty dark, and there was no road at the location where GPS was telling us to take a left. After couple minutes of nervous silence in the car, we saw a road on the left, and took that one. There were a bunch of signs we could barely see with the headlamps. Luckily, the hotel had their sign! Following the arrows, finally arrived at the hotel, yay! We had dinner there, chatted with other visitors, and headed back to the room for sleep. This was a pretty long day!
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| Road to Calakmul |
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| Our patio at Hotel Puerto Calakmul |
Next day, day six, the plan is to go to the ruins. Had breakfast at the hotel, and because there is no food at the ruins, also ordered sandwich to-go for lunch.
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| Getting ready for the hike, let me put some sunscreen on :) |
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| Interesting plants in the jungle |
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| Ups, this is gonna be lots of climbing.. |
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| and here we go.. |
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| Yigit is already up there! |
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| View from the top of the pyramid |
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| Lunch time on top of a pyramid, pretty cool :) |
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| just so pretty.. |
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| Hello there! |
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| .. and some panorama |
After a long day in the
Calakmul ruins, the new destination is Campeche city for the night. It is about
a four and a half hour drive. Our plan was again to get there before sunset, but arrived in the evening (surprised?). Well, actually, driving at night in Mexico is not that bad, at least we didn't have any problems.
Campeche City is a small colonial town, guarded with tall gates. The gates were built after pirate attacks during 17th century. We stayed at
Hotel Socaire, small boutique hotel in the city with local architecture.
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| walking around & trying to find food at night |
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| Yummy Mexican drink - anyone knows its name? |
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| Colorful streets of Campeche |
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| Next morning in Campeche, first night out of the jungle, after a good sleep and shower :) |
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| Breakfast - chips in tomato sauce & pasta |
Seventh day - After a quick breakfast in Campeche, we got on the road again. We had Merida as the final destination for the night, but kept the day-time plans flexible. We had two options; drive to Celestun and see the pink flamingos, or drive to Merida directly and spend the time there. We picked the easy one, go to Merida directly.
While making this decision in the car, we got stopped by the police officer. So far we've seen policemen and sometimes soldiers stopping the cars randomly just to check. They stopped us couple times before as well, but they didn't speak English, so just let us go. However this time, the police officer spoke little English. He asked us for the documents, everything seemed to be fine initially. But he was keep asking for more documents, and asked for international driving license. We had US & Turkish driving licenses, but no international. He said that the law changed just recently, and we have to have the international license, the fee is 1000 pesos. Something was not right, we haven't read about this while planning the trip, so decided to call Hertz to get support. And Yigit was still talking to him trying to understand. When the officer learned that we're calling the rental company, the fee was discounted by half - only 500 pesos now..?! :) TIP#5: You can get away from unnecessary police stops & fees by not speaking Spanish.
So, we arrived to Merida with little delay. Checked-in to the hotel first,
Koox Casa de Las Palomas Boutique Hotel. Another small hotel in the city with unique architecture, recommended. I had high expectations for Merida, but there was not much going on, it's very touristy, and not as pretty as Campeche. Pink flamingos could've been a better choice :)
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| outside shower at the hotel - interesting :) |
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| Me navigating on Merida streets |
While walking on the streets of Merida with maps on our hand, people approached us telling about the city, places to visit and shop. We are still not sure if they were honest local people trying to help, or little agents hunting for tourists and directing them to the shops they work with. All of them ended the conversation with giving directions for the "right" place to shop in the city. We actually did end up going one of those recommended places, and later discovered the prices were higher than usual. If you want to do local shopping, I recommend Chichen Itza, lots of options at good prices. Well, I know it's supposed to be a historic site..
Our day at Merida was a lot of walking, back and forth in the city. Our restaurant choice was bad, a Mayan restaurant in the city called
La Chaya Maya. I don't recommend going there, pretty touristic, and food was not good. Went to a local ice cream shop, listened to worship at a local church in Spanish, visited the art museum, the first cathedral of Yutacan, listened a local band at a park where 50+ years old people were dancing (super cute!), and ended our night at a bar across the hotel. Next day, the plan is to stop by Chichen Itza, and one of the
cenotes.
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| Dome of Merida Cathedral |
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| People dancing with local band in the park |
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| Next morning, Yigit in Mexican style :) |
Day eight - Had quick breakfast at the hotel, and headed west to Chichen Itza. It is one of the largest Mayan sites in the Peninsula, also the most touristic one, it was very, very crowded! After our great experience in Calakmul, this was pretty different. There were a lot of sellers on the side, which makes you feel like in a bazaar, rather than being in a historic site. As I mentioned before, good place for souvenir shopping.
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| Chichen Itza |
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| Chichen Itza |
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| Chichen Itza - lots of sellers everywhere |
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| Cenote Xkenen near Dzitnup |
And the last night in Mexico, we didn't have any hotel reservations. Wanted to be free. Our return flight is again from Cancun, so we had the stay close to the airport. One of our favorite places around there was Isla Mujeres, so headed there after swimming in the Cenote. Before getting on the ferry, had dinner at our favorite taco place,
El Socio Taqueria Naiz, one last time. We decided to leave the car at the ferry terminal, so packed couple clothes for the night quickly, and caught the last ferry from the same terminal,
Gran Puerto. We spent the next morning on the beach, it was beautiful. The weather made it easy for us to leave though :) Clouds started to gather before we leave the beach and started raining cats and dogs while walking back to the ferry terminal. Well, we were lucky that it didn't rain during our trip!
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| last day - morning Isla Mujeres |
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| Last couple hours on the beach - Isla Mujeres |
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| Agh, what a rain! all wet! |
Well, it was an amazing trip overall. Beautiful beaches, historical sites, delicious food. I'm glad we did the whole road trip instead of getting stuck in an all inclusive hotel for the whole time. I'm excited about our next adventure! :)
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| Finishing up with the map of our trip (except the road to the Calakmul ruins) |
Hope you enjoyed reading!
