Arriving back into the Yucatan, I felt overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the place – the traffic, the noise, the number of people and the lights everywhere. Our gut impression of Cancun was that we weren’t big fans, but in order to make an informed decision we decided that we needed to take a proper look around before we wrote it off. It also gave us a chance to catch up on laundry, restock some much needed supplies and make a few decisions about where to go next and what the plan would be.
After unpacking the bag we had left behind and repacking, we left a rather big and stinky pile of laundry with the hostel and headed out to get some food. We found a rather tacky looking Mexican restaurant serving large margaritas and settled in, only to realise we had left our eftpos card at the hostel and didn’t have enough cash, so Ty generously offered to go back while I nursed my drink and chatted to another kiwi who we had met on the plane back from Cuba, and who just happened to be sitting at the table next to us.
After unpacking the bag we had left behind and repacking, we left a rather big and stinky pile of laundry with the hostel and headed out to get some food. We found a rather tacky looking Mexican restaurant serving large margaritas and settled in, only to realise we had left our eftpos card at the hostel and didn’t have enough cash, so Ty generously offered to go back while I nursed my drink and chatted to another kiwi who we had met on the plane back from Cuba, and who just happened to be sitting at the table next to us.
Ty at the beach in the Hotel Zone
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Spring breakers lining up for the beach party
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Margaritas!
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The following day we headed into what’s known as the ‘Hotel Zone’. Cancun has two very distinct parts. Downtown, where the locals live and eat, and the Hotel Zone, where students in their thousands had come to celebrate spring break. Ty was sad to read on an online tourism guide for the region that for a real ‘adventure’ people should catch the bus into ‘downtown’ – how intrepid. The Hotel Zone is like a slice of the USA. Everything in the shops and restaurants is priced in US dollars, and the streets are lined with Holiday Inn’s, Ramada’s, Hilton’s, TGI Friday’s, and Chilli’s – with restaurants declaring that they sell ‘authentic Mexican food’ – um, yea, I should hope so! I have conflicting feelings about the area. While a part of me enjoys the idea of an all-inclusive holiday where all you do is eat, sleep and swim, to go there and then say you went to ‘Mexico’ is somewhat of a stretch.
There are a couple of quite famous clubs in the Zone which I wouldn't have minded checking out, but the entrance fees were $70USD per person. While that is supposed to include all your drinks for the night, we had spoken to Kylie in Cuba who said that you have to tip the waitresses to bring you drinks and if you don’t tip enough they won’t serve you. Given that that is pretty much a whole days budget for the two of us we had to give it a miss this time, but we did wander down to check out the spring break beach party which was entertaining to watch all of the 18 years old flaunting it in their best bikinis, waiting for Snoop Dogg to play the following night.
We decided we had seen enough of Cancun so the following morning hopped in a collectivo (like a taxi but they sell the individual seats) and headed south to Playa del Carmen. Arriving at the hostel we found that we had a 4 bed dorm all to ourselves, and brand spanking new mattresses! So excited for bed time after sleeping in crappy, well worn beds for the last 2 months!
Wandering down to the beach we were a bit disappointed to find that it was really windy, but we had a good time body surfing with the locals. Heading back to the hostel we stopped in at Walmart for some dinner ingredients (I swear we have been to more Walmarts in Mexico than I ever have in the States), before walking home. Turns out it was a LOT further than we remembered and it was really hot and humid so we were pretty glad when we finally made it back.
Next stop: Tulum
There are a couple of quite famous clubs in the Zone which I wouldn't have minded checking out, but the entrance fees were $70USD per person. While that is supposed to include all your drinks for the night, we had spoken to Kylie in Cuba who said that you have to tip the waitresses to bring you drinks and if you don’t tip enough they won’t serve you. Given that that is pretty much a whole days budget for the two of us we had to give it a miss this time, but we did wander down to check out the spring break beach party which was entertaining to watch all of the 18 years old flaunting it in their best bikinis, waiting for Snoop Dogg to play the following night.
We decided we had seen enough of Cancun so the following morning hopped in a collectivo (like a taxi but they sell the individual seats) and headed south to Playa del Carmen. Arriving at the hostel we found that we had a 4 bed dorm all to ourselves, and brand spanking new mattresses! So excited for bed time after sleeping in crappy, well worn beds for the last 2 months!
Wandering down to the beach we were a bit disappointed to find that it was really windy, but we had a good time body surfing with the locals. Heading back to the hostel we stopped in at Walmart for some dinner ingredients (I swear we have been to more Walmarts in Mexico than I ever have in the States), before walking home. Turns out it was a LOT further than we remembered and it was really hot and humid so we were pretty glad when we finally made it back.
Next stop: Tulum
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