Goodbye New Zealand! ¡Hola México!
Our flight left Christchurch at 7 am. At 4:30 pm the same day we landed in Cancún. Between the two lay 27 hours of flying time, though. So we had only one wish: bed!
Happily our Airbnb host collected us from the airport, so we did not have to haggle with the eager taxi drivers in a state of complete exhaustion.
Our Airbnb is in downtown Cancún, not in the tourist stronghold of the Zona Hotelera. A stay in Cancún is not really recommended, given the masses of tourists and the hotel complexes built wall to wall - ‘get out quickly’ is what most people say. For planning our next steps in peace, though, it was not bad at all! We also have the luxury of not having to squeeze the maximum out of every day of a time-limited holiday, so we even spent one night longer than planned in Cancún.
05.03.2017: Cancún - lots of sleep, nothing seen
Our day begins at 1 pm - the long flight and jet lag are taking their toll… Sadly, at a very promising vegan café next door there was no breakfast left at that hour, but there was this delicious vegan cheesecake. My first deliberately vegan dessert. Jan’s too, obviously.
Around 4 pm, after an hour and a half of back and forth, we finally managed to get ourselves Mexican SIM cards - and gained one insight: without Spanish you do not get far here. And we thought touristy Cancún would be quite a good place to acclimatise…
Back at our Airbnb the first thing I did was sign up for an online Spanish course.
And another insight: I am in mango and avocado paradise!!! That is definitely a strong argument for Mexico!
06.03.2017: Cancún - the El Rey Maya ruins and Playa Delfines
Admittedly: since we are under no ’time pressure’, what we would most like to do is give in to our jet lag and perhaps a general exhaustion and squander the days sleeping. Jan might not even feel guilty about it. But tyrant Jasmin decided it was time to finally do something again.
So we headed out to the Zona Hotelera. ‘Adventurously’ by public bus (and not by Uber, which Jan wants to call at every opportunity). On the ride we properly realise how ‘bad’ Cancún is and what an (American) package holiday looks like. Hotel complex after hotel complex after hotel complex. More than 10 kilometres of it! Most people probably never see the real Cancún at all. Alright, if I had paid 500 euros a night for an all-inclusive hotel, I probably would not leave it either.
Our actual destination, though, were the Maya ruins of El Rey at the end of the hotel strip. Certainly one of the less spectacular ruins in Mexico - but interesting for us as a warm-up all the same. The highlight of the visit was not the ruins themselves, though, but the many iguanas sunning themselves on the stones.
Also not to be sniffed at about the ruins is that they lie directly opposite Playa Delfines - which we obviously visited as well!
The swell was impressive! Nobody dared go into the water. Nor did we. It was forbidden as well.
07.03.2017: A day trip to Isla Mujeres
Right in front of Cancún lies Isla Mujeres - which has been awarded the title ‘pueblo mágico’ (magical place) and is therefore considered especially worth seeing. Its Playa Norte is also said to be the second most beautiful beach in Mexico. The ferry covers the 13 kilometres as demand requires - on this day roughly every 10 minutes. That hopefully tells you everything about the stream of tourists…
Once on the island we obviously headed straight for the aforementioned Playa Norte.
- fine white sand: check!
- crystal clear turquoise water: check!
- shade-giving palm trees: check!
- hundreds of other sun worshippers: check as well! Obviously…
At midday we strolled through the little lanes of the island centre, which basically consist only of souvenir shops, cafés and restaurants, but are sweet to look at all the same. Travelling ‘off the beaten track’ (which is all we did in New Zealand) looks rather different. But admittedly: we are enjoying treating ourselves well.
Back in Cancún I equipped myself with a bikini and two pairs of flip-flops (because the second pair came free…) for our next destination: Isla Holbox!