Cancun and Isla Mujeres (Day 25 - 22/1/14)

Sunrise over Cancun

Let me introduce you to Juan Carlos. This guy works for the resort. Yesterday he came and introduced himself to us after we got to our room in Cancun, and told us he would take us out to a nice breakfast at one of the resort's other Cancun venues as a complimentary extra to our stay here. Good service, huh?

Well, today is our complimentary breakfast day courtesy of Juan Carlos. The Duck thinks it's a meeting where the hotel will try to get us to invest in something. I vaguely remember Juan Carlos mentioning something about investment yesterday, but I naively assumed that he was just making conversation. He is very loud and chummy, trying to force a personal connection at every opportunity by latching onto everything we say and trying to link it to himself, illustrating how similar we are. It's weird but Duck and I do enjoy a free breakfast. 

It gets to 8am. We've been up a while already, having watched the sun rise over the Atlantic. Juan Carlos calls our room, and tells us to come down to his office so we can meet and go to breakfast. Sure.

Jetty near our hotel

We get down to his office and there are about 4 or 5 other Juan Carloses (Juan Carlies? Juan Carli?) meeting with other patrons. Most are older couples. We feel out of place. 

Juan Carlos brings out a contract for us to sign.

"What's this?" I ask.

"It's just some details, we just need your credit card and some I.D."

"We don't have those. They're in our room." I reply.

"Oh... well, you'll just need to go get it."

"Why?" (I'm confused by this whole conversation).

Juan Carlos slides his piece of paper towards me ever so slightly, "It's just for this slip of paper".

"What is this paper for?"

More evasiveness. This absolutely reeks of dodginess. Still confused and not really thinking straight, I hand over our travel money card. Juan Carlos looks at it and frowns, handing it back, "No... we need a real credit card". 

The Duck and I both lie, "We didn't bring out credit cards to Mexico. They're back in Australia". 

Juan Carlos laughs nervously and shuffles off to confer with his supervisor - a stern, no-nonsense woman who tells him just to get our I.D.

Still thinking this is standard procedure to get a free breakfast, I duly go upstairs to get our identification. While I'm gone, the Duck talks to Juan Carlos. He keeps trying to work on that 'connection' with us. He tells the Duck that he likes the outdoors just like her, likes people just like her, travels with a backpack just like her. He also feels it important to tell her that he was in the military.

I return with the I.D.s but before I hand them over the Duck shows me the all-important slip of paper and its fine print about a 90 minute seminar.

"So what's this 90 minute thing?" I ask.

"Oh, it's just after the breakfast, we tell you all about the hotel and opportunities for you". 

I nod slowly, then say, "We're not really interested in that".

He seems shocked. 

I continue, "Like... I think you think we're someone else. I thought this was something else, just a free breakfast, but I'm getting confused about what this is really about. We're not interested in investing in anything". 

"Oh, it's not an investment - we just want you to see the hotels and all that we have to offer, we want you to keep coming back here - to become members". 

I look Juan Carlos right in the eye, and give it to him straight. Nothing else is working here, "Look... we're not interested at all. We're never coming back here. Not because it's not a nice place - because it is - but we're not those sort of holiday people."

Juan Carlos looks broken. All his energy and invigorating conversation melts out of him. The look of disappointment in his eyes speaks louder than any of his phony friendliness. The silence that now sits awkwardly between us forces even more words out of me by way of explanation.

"I just feel like we're wasting each others' time. We're never going to buy anything off you. We travel to see new things, we don't normally come to resorts like this. We're never coming back to Cancun because we've seen it now, and next time we'll go somewhere else, somewhere new - a whole other country". 

Juan Carlos goes to his supervisor. He comes back, a new determination in his eyes, "It's just a 90 minute presentation. You will enjoy it". 

I'm in Cancun for two days. There is absolutely no bloody way that I am spending 90 minutes watching a business seminar. Duck interjects before I can say this, "We're only here for one more day, we don't have that much time to waste". 

Juan Carlos continues, "Here is what we do for you, we have a $500 prize pack..."

"No, we're just not interested".

"But you can win a cruise around Cancun". 

Through gritted teeth, I say, "We are never coming back here". 

Silence. More awkwardness. Juan Carlos goes back to his supervisor again. This time he comes back defeated. They hand back our I.D.s and we leave to have our breakfast at the hotel by the pool. It's a nice breakfast.

Streets of Cancun

Tacky, themed restaurant

These little terrapins were dotted around the hotel premises

22 minutes east of Cancun is Isla Mujeres. The ferry takes us out along the glowing azure Caribbean sea towards this 5-mile long island. It's a little wonder, with its own roads and taxis and hotels. Another hundred identical shops full of Mexican skull sculptures and crude T-shirts. Overpriced restaurants, yachts and a thousand loutish white tourists clamour around the small harbour.

Island life

 

We hire a taxi for a couple of hours and head south to Centro de Investigaciones Pesqueras, a Sea Turtle sanctuary. There are three kinds of Sea Turtles here (Loggerheads, Green Sea Turtles, and Hawksbill Sea Turtles); some have been rescued and others are bred in indoor concrete pools. One turtle is bent awkwardly into an L-shape. We become sad at first, thinking that it's dead, but then it swims to the surface and takes some air. This guy has been rescued from the wild and given a more comfortable home where he'll actually survive, which is nice. There's also a building nearby full of baby turtles, crayfish, horseshoe crabs, fish, seahorses, etc. Outside, in a walled-off pool of sea, we observe a shark lazily hanging out with a huge green sea turtle. Best buddies!

Note the bent back

That's a Shark

Horseshoe Crab

Albino Sea Turtle

Our other main destination is the southern tip of the island which ends in clifftops covered in rusting metal art sculptures and a small single Maya ruin. Duck and I edge our way around some crumbling pathways set halfway down the cliff face. We stand on the easternmost point of Mexico here, and see a green snake uncoiling onto the path before it decides to slink back inside a hole in the cliff face.

Afterwards we go back downtown on the island, spend some time beachcombing for shells, lay indolently in the still island water along the white sands o Playa Norte. It's a really nice day.

About 12 000 people live on this tiny island

Some of the houses on the island are quite pretty

 

The only remaining Maya ruin on the island is found at the very edge, the easternmost tip of Mexico.

 

Playa del Carmen (Day 23 - 20/1/14)

Playa del Carmen: Surfer's Paradise of Mexico

Yikes. The bus station is really overwrought. It's not a large station, and there are young American backpackers and older tourists all spilling out onto the road. We scoff some empanadas and try to navigate our way to some tickets and the correct bus. There are too many buses for the station, about 4 in enough space for only 3. Tulum seems to be breaking under the weight of the influx of tourists.

It's only an hour north to our next stop, Playa del Carmen. We're now in the thick of the Maya Riviera; it's a bigger city, very commercial, endless stretches of restaurants along pedestrian-only streets. It's a very far cry from all of our previous Mexican stops. I would liken it to Surfer's Paradise, only with a lot more white people. The other real differences are that Playa del Carmen has spectacular bleached Caribbean beaches, and the locals aren't really restricted by the same laws as we are back in Australia. You can put your feet in a tank full of carnivorous little fish that eat all of your dead skin off (we did this), hold a baby Capuchin monkey or pat a lion cub (yeah, we did that too, although I didn't really want to), or just lay on the public beach while waiters bring you drinks (guilty as charged). Everywhere throughout the city there are American, Canadian, European and British tourists in swimming costumes. I don't really notice any other Australians today. At one point we see a group of American women in matching pink T-shirts proclaiming that they are on a Mexican hen's party. Some of them are 60 years old, some are clearly about 15, and one has a pram with a baby in it. What kind of hen's party is that?! Why would you go all the way to a Mexican party zone with seniors and babies? Like, why go all the way to Mexico to have a crap time when you can just have a crap time at home?

The shop assistants are full-on here. They all have different tactics to try and get you into their shops. Some are overly friendly and ask questions like, "Where you from?", others are smart-alecs, "You been everywhere, even Disneyland?" Some try to lock you up in their shop and subtly block your exit (this happened twice to us, with the proprietor shunting us into a hidden back room and then trying to close us in there!). 

I think I'm glad we only have a few days left now. I feel like we've left the real Mexico behind us... the Maya Riviera takes U.S. dollars everywhere, is full of fellow tourists, and the Mexicans all speak English. What's the point of coming to another country if all you're going to do is hang out in a commercial district modeled on the worst excesses of America? It doesn't make sense to me.

Either an albatross or a frigate bird. If you know, let me know!

 

Lobster... oh yeah!

Ceviche is an uncooked seafood dish where citric acid is used to prepare the food. It's common across Central and South America. We can say we tried it now. Never again.

Tulum (Day 22 -19/1/14)

Ruins by the Caribbean

There's not much to do in Tulum, which suits me just fine. It's a quiet coastal town on the verge of developing into something much more commercial. You can feel that the locals are ready for it, there are a plethora of shops around that sell carbon copies of the same range of items. The locals are relentless in chasing me for a sale... "Almost free," "I give you good price on three cigars", and "Only a dollar". When I emphatically state that I'm not interested they still continue. A selfish Australian part of me wants to just shout "Get out of my personal space. I'm Australian, we need space!" I don't shout anything though. It becomes tiring, I refuse to make eye contact a lot of the time but it still doesn't stop the dogged haggling. 

The one thing that is worth checking out in Tulum is their Maya ruins. These ruins aren't particularly grandiose but they sit out on a beach cliff top, overlooking an impossibly blue sea. This is the Caribbean, the Atlantic Ocean... we eagerly head down to the small white sand cove to touch the water.

Gulf bridged. I have now touched another ocean. I have gazed out onto the Caribbean Sea and it's really beautiful.

The ruins are crowded with tourists, not as many as Chichen Itza but still a substantial amount. These ones are mostly loud and crude... every time I spy some wildlife a lumbering American or careless Mexican will shout and come crashing over, scaring it off. It's frustrating, but I also feel like a hypocrite complaining about it - obviously I'm a tourist too and this isn't my country. Should I be annoyed when I see a group of 20-somethings climbing onto off-limit ruins to pose for photos? Honestly, it drives me mental. Why can't people just be more cool about things?

One great thing about the Tulum ruins is that they're covered in Iguanas. These lizards seem to be claiming the city as their own, lounging on the ruins, pathways... yawning indolently as they get their photo taken. I estimate that we see at least 30-40 of these lizards.

I also spot an Agouti off a more secluded pathway, but no one around us seems interested in the shy cat-sized rodent.

Agouti are found throughout Central America. They are exceptionally strong for their size, and can open Brazil nuts with their teeth and hands. They are a relative of Guinea Pigs, Capybaras and Chinchillas.

After the ruins the Duck and I return to Tulum, drink pina coladas, get sunstroke, feel sick. The day spirals down gently as the sun sets in a palette of pinks and oranges. We take a taxi back to Luna Llena (our accommodation) and laugh as the driver makes an unannounced stop upon seeing some guy on a bicycle. He apologises in halting, sheepish English to us, and flags the bicycle-guy down. They talk for a few seconds, the bicyclist opens up his backpack and pulls out about 30 CDs. They discuss something and then our driver pulls out his own CD, and they swap discs before saying goodbye. Random.

Our hostel in Tulum. Dog came free with accommodation.

These shops are everywhere.

Nice Turtle street art.

 

These guys climbed up to the top of this pole and then dove off the top to spin around on some short ropes. Terrifying.