Lucie & Rhys´s Honeymoon Adventure: Week 48 - Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Isla Cozumel (Mexico)

After spending the morning at the hotel in Tulum we headed to Cancun. One of our friends from Australia, Simone, was staying in a posh hotel in the hotel district and being only a couple of hours away we couldn’t resist meeting up for a night out. Once in Cancun we had to wait to check into our room in downtown and passed the time at a fried chicken restaurant and wandering around a tourist tat artisanal market, Mercado 28. I wouldn’t recommend downtown Cancun, it’s pretty tired and doesn’t have much by way of sights to offer, our night out in the hotel district however was great fun. I think guide books give the place a bit of a bad rep, if you take it for what it is, a beautiful beach on a strip of land purpose built for package tourists and all inclusive hotels with Las Vegas-esque bars and restaurant areas, then you’ll have a good time. We met Simone and her friend at their hotel on the beach and had a few drinks before heading on to Congo’s, with an open bar for a bargain USD$20. The next couple of hours whizzed by in a haze of confetti, balloons and vodka and then it was time to try to get a drunken Rhys home with as few stumbles as possible.

The next morning we woke late and checked out in time to grab a Macdonalds before the bus to Playa del Carmen. This time, thanks to Rhys’s parents, we weren’t staying in the downtown area and had booked a lovely little B&B a couple of hundred metres along the road from where Rhys’ mum, Ceri was staying in the hotel district. As we weren’t in one of the huge all inclusive hotels our taxi driver had a nightmare trying to find it and we ended up getting out, finding an internet cafe to check where it was on google earth and walking the rest of the way. When we finally got there we headed to Ceri’s hotel to see if she’d checked in. We hadn’t bargained on the security being so strict. They wouldn’t even let us past the gate to go to reception. Rhys had to call and find out her room number and ask her to come out to us. After a brief hello on the street we arranged to meet in the nearby Starbucks as Ceri had only just that minute checked in to her room. Security at our B&B was far more relaxed and the owner welcomed Ceri to come and sit with us for a few hours for a catch up before it was time for her to head back to her hotel for dinner.

The next day we were up early to meet Ceri at the gate to her hotel where she’d made friends with the guard who wouldn’t let us in. We caught a taxi into the town and a micro on to Hidden Worlds, a cenote park about 15km north of Tulum. We’d booked tickets online for a bargain price of USD$36 for the ‘Extreme’ package, (a discount of 40%) and after buying some biodegradable bug repellent, we waited for our jungle buggy to take us along the bumpy track to the main prep area for a series of activities based around the Takbelum cenote. I’m not sure Ceri really knew what she’d let herself in for but she donned her harness along with the rest of us and headed to the Aero Cycle, a bonus worth another USD$20 that our guides let us do because the rest of our group were doing it. The Aero Cycle is a kind of reclining bike that you pedal along a zip wire. The one we went on was about a kilometre long and took you high through the jungle canopy before skirting down into caves skimming the pools below while bats flew about. After the Aero Cycle we moved to a short zipline just as the heavens opened and we got completely soaked. The next stop was at another zipline but this time it took you into the mouth of the cave splashing you down in the pool below. Ceri took it all in her stride but decided that was enough adventure for one day when we came to rappeling into the cave. Next we were harnessed up for the Skycoaster, a short track that dives through the trees whipping you from side to side at breakneck speed before the final activity, snorkeling into the cenote. This was the bit we were really looking forward to and although the initial pool we jumped into was a bit scummy and open, as soon as we slipped behind the stalagmites and stalagtites into the cave system behind, by torchlight, we were much happier. All up it was good fun but not as beautiful as we’d hoped, we wanted to show Ceri how gorgeous cenotes were but it was more of an activity centre than a cenote park.

After our tour had finished the weather had started to clear and we decided to head on in to Tulum for a taco lunch. We popped in to a shop we’d found during our last visit to show Ceri the sink we’d fallen in love with and ended up measuring it up for her hand luggage and buying it, just what we need with another year on the road! Before we headed back to Playa we jumped in a taxi back down to the Tulum ruins so Rhys could show his mum around while I sat with the bags and the newly acquired sink in a little cafe. By the time we got back to Playa it was getting late and we said our good nights at the gate to Ceri’s hotel.

The next day was another busy day. Ceri walked over to ours for about 9ish and we made it to the ferry port in town for the 10am ferry to Isla Cozumel. Cozumel is pretty big compared to the other Caribbean islands we’ve been to at 30 miles by 10 miles and lies just 6 miles off the mainland. The island is a cruise ship destination and by going at the weekend it meant no ships were docked and it was far quieter. We had booked into a lovely little B&B in the main town of San Miguel and went to check in before packing beach bags and jumping in a cab to Albertos, a beach club recommended by the Rough Guide for organising snorkel trips. The lack of public transport makes the island quite backpacker unfriendly, but atleast there were 3 of us to split the taxi cost. We were a little surprised at how small Albertos was, more a shabby beach bar than a beach club and the tours were far more expensive than we’d hoped. Luckily though one of the waiters called his mate who would do the trip for much cheaper and sent us to wait a hundred metres along the beach for the boat to pull up. After collecting another two girls from a hotel in our glass bottom boat we headed out to our first snorkel spot at the Palancar Reef at a depth of 25-30 feet, our second stop was at Cielo and our third at Colombia Shallows, not all that shallow at 25 feet. We spent about 30 minutes at each spot swimming with our guide and although the coral itself wasn’t very impressive, we saw some of the largest fish we’ve seen since we’ve been away, lots of barracudas and groupers and visibility was incredible - I think the island and reefs are more cut out for diving than snorkeling but we all agreed it was a good trip and worth the money. Back on land we stopped at Albertos for a couple of drinks on the beach before calling a cab to take us back into San Miguel. After relaxing at the B&B we decided not to venture too far for dinner and stopped at a little local place on our street. A quick game of dice and we headed to bed. Ceri was out like a light.

The next day we wandered into the main plaza having decided to jump in a cab to Parque Punta Sur, a little beach and lagoon area at the very south of the island. After a 30 minute drive we pulled up at the gate only to be told that they were trialing Sunday closing during quiet season and this was the first day of the trial. We were a bit thrown and hurriedly changed our plans to head to a beach club called Paradise Beach, closer to San Miguel. It worked out for the best, it was a decent stretch of beach with sun loungers and a lovely pool and inflatable obstacles and slides floating just off of shore - think mini-Total WipeOut. The best discovery though was the snorkeling around the pier. Rhys went off to explore and came running back to take Ceri to show her what he’d found. Hundreds of brightly coloured fish and rays all huddled in the shade of the pier. After two hours our cab driver was ready to collect us and we asked to be dropped at the Sunset Bar just south of Villa Blanca. After a quick drink we left our bags behind the bar and clambered over some very sharp rocks to a point a couple of hundred metres up where we could enter the water and float with the current back to the bar, the same spot a lot of boat trips took you to. Again it was pretty deep but there were a lot of shoals and little fish and some big man made pots placed to encourage coral growth. When we got back to the bar Ceri took a rest and me and Rhys carried on but this time closer to shore, it was a hundred times better than where the boat trips went, lots of colourful fish, lots of rays gliding about and even a leopard print cow fish (Tim, I think that’s the correct name for it...). Rhys couldn’t wait to show Ceri so we swapped and I sat with the bags and they went back in.

After we were done snorkeling we decided we’d walk back to our B&B, a good 40 minutes away and by the time we were back we were pretty worn out. We spent a couple of hours relaxing on the terrace before heading out for dinner. Having missed breakfast and lunch we decided we needed a decent meal, a treat from Ceri and Billy, and ended up in a little Italian on the sea front. It was honestly one of the best meals we’ve had since we’ve been away, the most delicious seafood pasta I think i’ve ever eaten in my life. We ended the meal with a shot of mescal to share having had a mini-lecture on it from some random guy who started talking to us on his way out, i’m not sold, it’s like tequila but served with chili salt and orange instead of salt and lemon. We all slept well that night after so much activity and we’d splashed out to get air con in the room.

At around 9am me and Ceri headed out for a little bit of shopping and to grab some breakfast from the bakery. We then had a couple of hours to relax on the terrace before it was time to head to the port for the ferry back to the mainland. After checking back in to our hotel we arranged to meet on the beach after lunch. We found Ceri and got away with using her hotels sun loungers for a couple of hours. The beach was beautiful, white sand and turquoise sea, as it is lined by all inclusive hotels it was pretty busy but there was plenty of sand to go round. That night Ceri had organised for us to be allowed into her hotel for dinner since she’d been away with us for 2 nights on Cozumel. When we got to the gate though they wouldn’t accept the permission slip she’d been issued and she had to go back inside to speak to the receptionist so we could get passed the doorman. We were issued with day entry wristbands and told we could only eat in the buffet, couldn’t go to her room and had to leave by midnight. After a quick drink in the bar Ceri smuggled us to the steak house where she’d spoken to the manager and had a reservation and we nervously sat down and hid our day bands hoping we wouldn’t get thrown out. It was fine though, they seemed to think it was our anniversary so we weren’t allowed the menu and then the lights went out for dessert and for a moment we thought they were going to sing to us. Dinner done we were a lot more relaxed. Ceri smuggled us into her room where Rhys drained her vodka optic into a water bottle. We headed back to the bar for a few cocktails (Ceri seems quite taken by pureed smurfs), popped our heads in the night club just out of curiosity, and got to the reception desk at 1 minute to 12 in time to have our day bands cut off before we turned into pumpkins.

On Tuesday, our last morning with Ceri, she came to our B&B to sit in the garden for a couple of hours before we had to leave to catch a bus to Valladolid. It was very sad to say goodbye but we had a great week and are so so grateful that Billy encouraged her to come out to see us. We took a taxi to the bus terminal and bought a ticket only to find out that we needed to be at a different terminal and only had 10 minutes until the bus left. Once in Valladolid we struggled to find cheap accommodation and I ended up leaving Rhys on a street corner while I found somewhere. We headed out around 7pm for dinner and were impressed with how pretty the town is, particularly the cathedral and the main plaza. Lots of pastel painted buildings and palm trees and in the dusk light it looked quite magical. We ate in a local food court just off the plaza and headed back for an early night.