Cancún and the Riviera Maya, Part Three: Day Trip to Isla Mujeres, plus some Maya Miscellany

Note: This is the third of three posts about Cancún and the Riviera Maya. The series begins here.

Our two earlier posts kept us on the mainland, with day trips to Tikal/Cobá and Chichén Itzá. This one takes us first to charming Isla Mujeres, then concludes our Cancún series with some tips on Playacar, Xcaret and a muy caliente salsa club.

DAY TRIP 3: ISLA MUJERES

According to legend, the indigenous residents of Isla Mujeres were the Priestess of Ixchel and her ladies in waiting — hence, the Island of Women. Today, it welcomes males as well and is accessed by a short ferry crossing across Ty-D-Bol blue water from Cancún’s Puerto Juarez. Even accounting for mandatory and convenient valet parking in the ferry operator’s parking structure, it’s an inexpensive outing. On two visits to the island, we’ve enjoyed the basic itinerary of spending most of the day at the southern end, making our way up its rugged east coast late afternoon (perhaps they exist, but we didn’t find spots suitable for swimming on the rocky windward shore), catching the great vibe and brilliant sunset from Playa Norte (North Beach), and having dinner in town before heading back to the mainland. A few specifics:

• Part of the fun of Isla Mujeres, especially if you’re traveling with kids, is to ride golf carts around the island, stopping for chilled coconut milk & meat here or a dip in the water there. If you’re visiting during high season, reserve your cart in advance from any one of the numerous vendors. We had a good experience this last time with Rentadora Joaquin, primarily because they allow late-night returns (I forget the cutoff, but it was after dinner), whereas everywhere else we checked required returns around 5.
• The best beach snorkeling is at the south end of the island, but if you simply want to snorkel and soak sun without excessive accoutrements, you don’t need to go to the pricier Parque Garrafón and can instead go to the more spartan Garrafón de Castilla immediately to the Parque’s northwest. It gives you access to the same snorkeling — which is quite good — and has all the amenities you need and some you may not, including showers, chaise lounges, umbrellas, etc. For lunch just across the street, the atmosphere at The Joint beats the food, but the food is still decent.
• There are dozens of enticing dining options in town, so it seems hard to go wrong. For all I know, Casa Rolandi may be the Mexican Olive Garden, but their Pescado a la Sal (salt-encrusted baked fish) is a memorable spectacle for your table and a delight for your tastebuds, the calzone is on par with the best we’ve eaten elsewhere, and the cream of potato soup is a subtle pleasure.

RIVIERA MAYA GRAB BAG

Eco-Theme Park: I can’t tell what the original vision was behind Xcaret, which is a loosely-bound amalgam of marine biology, Mexican history, beach sport, tidied up Mayan fantasy-culture and other miscellany, whose closest U.S. equivalent is probably something like EPCOT. I’m not usually drawn toward things like this, but needed a day that didn’t require thinking or planning, and so we gave it a go. Through some combination of the low bar of my expectation and the exceptionally high level at which the place’s (indiscernible) vision was carried out, I came away thoroughly satisfied. And had I put even a token effort into charting out our visit around desired activities rather than following hunches ad hoc, we would have enjoyed it even more. (Translation: By the time we got around to the much-anticipated underground river swim, it was closed. If you go and it’s as-advertised, feel free to rub it in.) I’ll go so far as to say that this is a place that, notwithstanding its considerable admission fee, all but the snootiest 3% of travelers (or those with an ideological aversion to wild animals being used for human edutainment, as detailed in the excellent and sobering article on wildlife tourism in the June 2019 National Geographic) will enjoy a great deal, young and old alike. A few specifics:

• Be forewarned that although the park doesn’t close until 10, most things seem to shut down mid/late afternoon when the shows begin, so plan accordingly.
• Unless you’re with very young children who can’t snorkel in open water, avoid the lame snorkel inlet on the green trail, our day’s only disappointment.
• Similarly, unless one is repulsed by naturally-occurring meetings of land and water (such as, off the top of my head, the pristine shoreline that runs for miles and miles and miles in either direction from the park), I struggle to understand the allure of the faux beach area, given the not-inconsequential admission fee. It would be like hanging out at Disneyland’s acclaimed “Downtown Anaheim” attraction.
• Succumbing to the Jedi-like mind-controlling powers of a nearby pair of puppy dog eyes, I splurged on the swim-with-dolphins upgrade for my boys, and it was worth every penny. Decades from now, it may be what they remember most vividly from the entire trip. (Note that I haggled a 2-for-1 from the “Extra Experiences” booth just outside of the park’s main ticketing area.)
• A visit to Xcaret culminates in the evening’s marquee show, the “Mexico Espectacular.” Again, perhaps I was snobbishly especting really good community theatre, but this show was, well, espectacular. Sure, the Pre-Columbian segment could use some fine-tuning (The reenactment of Mayan “basketball” will be of interest to anyone who has visited the ancient ballcourts, but do we need to watch celestial fireball hockey for more than a minute or two?), and yet, even knowing next to nothing about the various Mexican states, I got chills throughout the second half when different pockets of the audience cheered as the traditional clothing, music and dances of their respective homelands were showcased in succession. In fact, I’m getting goosebumps recalling it right now. The dancing, while ensembles were perhaps imprecise here and there, was very good; the solo singers were absolutely top-notch; and the overall production quality, although expectedly more Atlantic City or Branson than Broadway or Vegas, left little to be desired.
• In short, no opinion on its neighbors such as Xenses or Xplor, but I give Xcaret two thumbs up, especially if you’re with kids.

Playacar: If you can swing it, New Year’s Eve on the beach at Playa del Carmen is exactly what you’d imagine. The food at Fusion Beach Bar & Grill was outstanding, the service exceptional, and the fireworks show and wandering entertainers completed the package. The pedestrian street, Quinta Avenida, has many helado/gelato options (e.g., Aldo, Häagen-Dazs, Bendito Pecado) and we were pleased with our choice of Amorino — although, having eaten hot Nutella-filled churros just before dinner, we had the good sense to limit ourselves to smalls.

Flea Market: Cancún’s Mercado 28 seems to get fawning praise from guide books whose authors have evidently never actually been there, and more tepid responses from travelers (including me) who have. Skip it, unless you’ve already scratched everything else off your list.

Dancing: Despite several lessons I took with my daughter and, in an earlier era, the exquisite patience of my salvadoreña girlfriend, I have yet to succeed in coaxing salsa or merengue out of my Anglo hips and limbs. But I love the music and the energy, and found Mambocafé to be everything I’d hoped for in a tropical music club. (Although, for context, the entirety of my experience on which this hope was based was gained in South Beach, Cincinnati and Salt Lake City — and two of those things, as you may have noted, are not like the other. Havana will happen someday.)

Dining: Look forward to the quality, variety and, if you stay away from the big hotels and resorts, price of the food. By comparison, lunch during our Denver layover, while fair by airport standards, was the least satisfying and most expensive of the trip.

Law enforcement: Beware of the changing speed limits along the Riviera Maya corridor, especially in the Zona Hotelera and on the bridges that lift the carretera (highway) above the major urban areas. (For further details, watch for my forthcoming post, “How to Succeed in Bribing Mexican Traffic Cops, Twice, Without Really Trying.”)

QUESTIONS FOR READERS

• Does Cozumel add much for non-divers who have already visited Isla Mujeres? I’m somewhat intrigued but on the day I’d earmarked for Cozumel, we voted to keep it simple and veg on the beach instead.
• Is Isla Contoy worth the visit from Isla Mujeres?
• If you’ve been to Xenses or Xplor as well as Xcaret, could you offer a comparison?