Visiting the Island of Women...by Amaru & Suzanne, January 11th 2009

We landed in Cancun, made our way to the ferry and then we reached our next destination, Isla Mujeres...

Our first impression of the island was that it was more developed than we had thought..... Sure, we knew that the island is packed during the day with day-trippers from Cancun, but we still thought the island would be a bit smaller.

We made our way to our hotel on the island, La Playa de Media Luna, and checked in. We were happy to see that the room was what we had reserved, a large room with a king size bed and our own terrace with a private jacuzzi... how sweet is that!!

So what did we do on the island, well.... not much to be honest, this was now our relax time with nothing else planned. We started by scoping out the famous beach on the island, North Beach, which turned out to be a very nice beach indeed.

A funny thing happened later on while we were having a late lunch... all of a sudden we see Nick, this guy we met in Belize City while we were having issues with the buses. Suz and I, Nick and his girlfriend Liz almost didn't get on that bus. Later on we also ran into them in Tikal while exploring the ruins. And now here we are on Isla Mujeres and once again we run into them.... it's funny how this always happens when you travel =)

We decided to meet up for dinner that evening and spent the rest of the afternoon either soaking in the ocean or in our pool.

We found a nice place to have dinner and had a great time catching up and swapping stories, they had already been to Tulum (our next destination) and they gave us a couple of good recommendations.

Since Suz and I had been up since 3am that morning (we had to catch an early flight from Havana to Cancun) we couldn't make it a late night but we all decided to catch up the next evening for dinner again.

The next morning we started by visiting the local doctor. Suz still hadn't managed to shake her chest infection and I just wanted a second opinion on my Bells Palsy. Well, Suz got some medication and I was told that it would go away eventually (can't wait) and that I should do some facial gymnastics to make it heal faster. I was also given some vitamin B to be taken via injections... not very nice!

Anyway, once we were done at the doctor's we went to the turtle habitat on the island. Here they help conserve the sea turtles by helping them hatch and grow up before they release them in the wild. Seeing and feeding all these turtles was quite a lot of fun...

Once we had enough of the turtles we made it back to the beach and relaxed for a few hours before it was time for dinner.

At dinner, Nick and Liz were telling us about this great snorkeling trip they had done during the day. I had been wondering if I should go snorkeling or not but since they were so positive towards it, I decided to do it as well.

While they had been snorkeling they had asked their skipper where he would go and eat on the island and had been given a recommendation to a very local restaurant. The restaurant turned out to be a hit, we ordered the garlic fish, garlic prawns and the (you guessed it) garlic squid.... and they were all delicious.

This was a place that looked very simple, the chairs were plastic, the kitchen looked really small but once again we're proven that you can have an awesome meal in a very simple surrounding!

The next morning I got ready for some snorkeling, found a place that would sell me a tour and off we went. I had selected a tour that's 4 hours (including lunch) and that apperently shows you the best snorkeling spots on the island. Suz didn't want to go, on account of her chest cold - so she was free to sit on the beach with a good book and relax!

Now, the snorkeling wasn't really that bad, visibility was ok and there was plenty to see. Unfortunately there was a strong current so it was difficult to stay in one spot for long. Also, due to some of their laws we had to have life jackets on while snorkeling.... seriously, what's the point?!? I want to be able to free dive...

One cool thing was that while we were waiting for our lunch to be prepared we were able to hold a shark.... Then lunch arrived and it was one of the best meals I've had in Mexico. The fish was cooked to perfection and had a great spicy sauce on it as well. So, something positive came out of this day as well!

The rest of that day was spent as we normally do, either on the beach or by the pool (oh, and every night we ended with a nice jacuzzi bath).

Isla Mujeres was quite nice and relaxed, during the days it filled up with day-trippers from Cancun, but at night most of them had left so it wasn't all that bad. The next morning it was time for us to move to our next destination, Tulum...

 

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