Yucatan Trip Report

Karin and I returned from the Yucatan and went rudely from 80 F to 30 F in the course of 8 hours - on the trip home we walked and rode a ferry, 3 buses, plane, and train (if only we had a bike and a car). The week went fast but the weather was warm, the sights diverse, and everything Mexican.

We flew into Cancun, watched as people stripped into their shorts and t-shirts in the airplane aisle waiting to get off, passed by the gauntlet of taxi and van drivers to find the $35 peso bus that was hidden on the far side of the airport to get to a bus station and then travel to Valladolid, about 2 hours west of Cancun. We stayed in the youth hostel of this relatively small town and traveled to Chitza Nitza, a popular Mayan ruins site. We met a British compatriot named Shaun on the bus the previous day and walked the ruins early mostly before the tourist and vendors got there…

Amusingly we saw a sign on a tree that said not to buy anything from the hundreds of vendors that have blankets lined up on the trails all trying to hawk the same stuff to you - it’s a little late for that…

That afternoon (Day 2) we took a bus to Tulum, got some money, and got to the beach by taxi around 5pm. The buses are great - the two hour bus ride cost $6 USD and we got to watch a violently bad kung fu movie dubbed in English with Spanish subtitles - expect 25-50 deaths per hour per movie on all Mexican bus rides. The beach is really isolated from the town and it’s hard to get around without a car so we settled on a last minute $50 not the best quality room and walked the beach before dark and dinner. The cabana owner seemed to size me up and give an answer according to his mood and my Spanish. How much? Mmmm. $50 USD. Is breakfast included? Mmmm. No.

Day 3 had us going back to town and up to the Cesiak offices near the Tulum ruins to find out if the Cesiak Ecoresort had rooms, which they did, and they called us a particular taxi driver that would give us a ride for $15 rather than the $40 that some may charge. Granted, it is far away from town but that’s a big difference.

Cesiak is a non-profit eco-resort and tour operator in the Sian Ka’an bioreserve, a UN world heritage site, that is powered by 3 wind turbines and solar panels, has a rainwater system, and generally tries to minimize its environmental impact. It was more expensive than some places but really nice, quiet, and isolated. The cabanas on stilts had tents underneath them that had great beds and furniture inside that…The hurricane’s last fall removed about 10 feet of the dune so some of the buildings are no more than 3 feet from the edge of the erosion - not good long term.

Part of the bioreserve’s charm and rusticness is that the roads are bad, keeping much development out. Later, our tour guide told us that could change since paving the road is under consideration and they recently got a $1 million USD tax bill from the Mexican government, intent on making more money and pushing out undesirable small operators. They are working the bribe system apparently but the story is still unfolding.

Here’s the view from the top of the main building where the restaurant is - you can see the sea on the left, the cabanas in the middle, and a salt lagoon on the right…

We spent a day relaxing on hammocks, boogey-boarding in the ocean, getting a little sunburned (apparently Karin’s sunburn was itchy, which made her crave backscratches like a heroin addict), and eating great food.

We took an awesome sunset tour to swim in a cenote (freshwater sinkhole), see the salt lagoon, an island that a lot of wading birds (herons, ibis, spoonbills, etc) nest on at night, and of course, a great sunset…followed by dinner with our new found friends.

On the trip, we met a great guy from Toronto, Bryan, who had a stellar camera and will be sharing pictures with us that he took. The next day we decided to rent a car to see Coba, a less developed ruins site, and snorkel in some more cenotes and we invited Brian along too - which made it even better. Having a car provides for a lot of flexibility in starting and stopping and going out of the way…not necessary for the whole trip but I’d recommend it for part…Here’s Karin and Brian climbing to the top of one of the highest points in the Yucatan. (Definitely rent the bikes in Coba - it’s $30 pesos and saves a lot of time.)

On the way back, we stopped at a little shack that had ceramic masks on the outside. On the inside was a professor who specialized in recreating Mayan ceramics and figures in exacting detail from old American history books on Mayan culture. It was really interesting…and there was a poochie puppy who kept attacking all the cats that were laying around.

The next day we went to another cenote with Brian before returning the car and parting ways to go to the overcrowded Tulum ruins…

Karin and I took a collectivo (van that picks anyone up along the highway) from Tulum to Playa del Carmen (for $20 pesos each - about $2 USD) and then a boat over to Cozumel to escape the crowds (trading them for pushy vendors who are impossible to ignore sometimes). We got there too late to snorkel in the ocean, which was probably the only thing I think we missed doing.

All in all, a fun trip, relatively cheap, we didn’t get sick, and we generally avoided the tourists, making a couple of friends along the way…The funny thing about Mexico is that a lot of the towns look run down and to the average suburbanite, scary. But in general, it’s a very safe place to travel and no one really seems to care that you’re a gringo walking around their neighborhood - but that’s where the interesting stuff really is…