Our trip to Cancun

Day 1

Landed on Friday afternoon. Took the ADO bus from the airport. It was like 8$ per person to get to the city. Withdrew ~2000$ in pesos from an ATM at the airport. Don’t choose to convert when the ATM asks. Check online for which ATMs are good to use (in terms of exchange rate).

We stayed in the city, near where the ADO bus drops you off, near the intersection of Avenue Uxmal and Avenue Tulum. I’d recommend not staying in the hotel zone unless you are going there to get the all-inclusive experience and simply want to relax in a hotel all day. Staying in the city is better to explore the “real Mexico” (IMO). After settling in to the Airbnb, we walked to a small restaurant on Avenue Bonampak and grabbed a Michelada (highly recommend!). There were many restaurants here open late at night, like Botamero Tropical (now closed), where we got some free shots in exchange for writing a review online. There were many other restaurants on the street open late as well. The food was generally excellent at all places we tried.

Day 2

The next day, we took a cab from the centre of the city to the Ultramar ferry terminal to get to Isla Mujeres. Tickets were ~25$ per person. Isla Mujeres was highly touristy, with sub-par food, and since we didn’t rent a car/scooter, we limited our stay to the north of the island. The beach is worth visiting, especially if you live somewhere where you don’t usually get access to a beach. There’s some kind of park at the south of the island, but we didn’t check it out. After having some not particularly memorable food, we walked a few blocks towards the south, grabbed an ice cream at a local store and took the ferry back. We then took the public bus in the heat, which isn’t particularly enjoyable, but it’s another experience added to the list, I guess.

After cooling down in the Airbnb, in the evening we headed to Parque de las Palapas, where there was some kind of cultural festival going on, and around 10-20 food stalls set up. There were stalls selling clothes and other knick-knacks too, but the food stalls were the highlight. We grabbed a few tacos and sat at a table with a Mexican family - a husband, wife and her sister. They were extremely friendly and interested in chatting, and the sister even stayed in the US (Florida IIRC). I think about a minute into the conversation they asked us when we planned to have kids. If not for the Spanish flying around (which I’m glad to have gotten a chance to practice), I might have thought I was in India. On their recommendation, we got a marquesita (which we now absolutely love) - as they said that was an authentic Mexican dessert. It’s a crepe with nutella and cheese, which sounds weird, but tastes great. We also got an esquite, which was interesting, but not as good as the marquesita. Around 9 PM we headed back.

Day 3

After a quick coffee to start the day, we took an ADO bus to Playa del Carmen (this one we booked the previous day). We stayed ina somewhat modest Airbnb in Cancun (an apartment), but booked a proper hotel in Playa del Carmen (Hilton). We dropped our bags at the hotel and headed for the Akumal tortoise reserve. To get to Playa del Carmen, we took colectivos (local shared cabs) which cost around 50 pesos per person. These are significantly cheaper than taxis (~500-600 pesos per person) and getting comfortable traveling in colectivos made a big difference to how “local” our trip felt. Knowing some basic Spanish is also extremely useful, to communicate with the colectivo drivers, as I learned on our way back from Akumal to Playa del Carmen, where effectively we got a 20% discount on the colectivo price compared to some tourists who couldn’t speak Spanish (I translated for them). I think in general the price is mostly fixed between zones when using colectivos, so it may just have been a mistake.

I’d recommend skipping the Akumal reserve, as it was also extremely touristy. The water was very murky, due to tourists kicking up all the sand, and at least one person from our group wasn’t too comfortable swimming, so we didn’t stray too far from the shore. The instructor nevertheless let us know the hand signals for “shark”, “squid”, “stingray” and numerous other sea creatures. My excitement was dashed 20 minutes later, when she signaled the end of the tour, and we returned to the beach having seen a grand total of one turtle, and a lot of sand. When I asked my wife how the experience was, she said, “Amazing! We saw so many turtles!”, not realizing that we were swimming around exactly 1 turtle for the last 15 minutes. There are some advantages to having a poor sense of direction, I guess.

In the evening we walked to the local supermarket and did some shopping (I’m not even sure why), and then tried some of the local snacks being sold street-side (technically in shops, that were windowless). After a stop at a tiki bar, where we grabbed some drinks, we went to an upscale Portuguese place for dinner. You had to pay for bottle water. The food was good, but pricey.

Finally, we took a walk along the beach (not sure if it was before dinner), where there were many more tourists (& hotels). Long walks are nice. We grabbed an ice cream from Aldo’s (I think), which we later realized is an extremely popular chain.

Day 4

On the penultimate day of our trip, we went to Chemuyil, via colectivo, where we tried this Airbnb experience. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It was the highlight of our trip, and we got to see 3 different cenotes, biking to each. At the end, they sell you the photos that they took (bit pricey), but no pressure to buy. We bought it in any case, since the photos really came out great (they let you see the photos before purchase). I’ll leave out most of the details, so as not to spoil the experience for any readers wishing to try. FWIW, I’ve recommended this to at least 1 other friend who also loved it. By afternoon, we were back in Playa del Carmen.

After relaxing and grabbing lunch in the hotel, we stepped out around 8 for dinner, and walked all the way to El Fogon, which seemed like a popular local joint. There were almost no tourists here, and we got some more tacos and quesadillas (I think). The walk went through a few dark neighbourhoods, meaning next time I may stick to the main streets. Around 10:20 we got back to the hotel. Either this day or the previous day, we grabbed some more food in the hotel’s restaurant, late at night.

Day 5

Started the day around 9, and tried to go looking for some Mayan ruins at the Playacar Mayan Ruinas. Not too impressive, but interesting nonetheless. I’d skip it next time, especially if it’s extremely hot. Chichen Itza would be a better place to learn about Mayan culture. We then walked by the beach, which had Sargassum lined up along the shores, stinking all the way. After grabbing a coffee, we boarded the ADO to the Cancun airport, ending our short visit to Mexico!