Mayan Riviera

 The Cancun-Tulum corridor was the original name for this area, but in 1999 it was renamed to what we know it as today, the Riviera Maya.  The actual Riviera district runs along the Caribbean coastline from Puerto Morelos down to Punta Allen which is just past Tulum.  Excluded from the Riviera Maya, is the original tourist destination of its own, Cancun. Cancun was a fishing village back in the 70's and today it is a city of hundreds of thousands.  It was created to cater to the tourists arriving to seek out sun, relaxation with a touch of Mexican flare. In October of 2005 Hurricane Wilma hit the resort city of Cancun as a category 5 and destroyed much of the hotel zone.  It wiped out beaches, hotels, homes, restaurants and many stores. The clean up and the cost of rebuilding of an area always takes a long time regardless of how much the government pitches in. The hurricane hurt Cancun tremendously and tourism slowed down, but down the coast Playa del Carmen was booming. The new hot spot was taking over the area as Cancun struggled, it was easier to build than to rebuild.  As I write this though, many years have passed and Cancun is back on the list of places to go.  So many people come here now but never venture into Cancun. A large number of the massive hotels, tours and theme parks are all located in the Riviera Maya.

 Cancun was a place Doug really wanted to go to, he waned to see the city for himself.  We have heard a lot of conflicting information about Cancun and so we wanted to form our own opinion. Away we went!!  Monday morning we took a taxi into Playa to the main collective stand and we all hopped onto the van heading to Cancun.  Rode the collective for 45 min into the city until we hit the end of the line in Cancun Centro.  I had research online what to do in Cancun and one of the must do was a place called Market 28.  We walked there navigating the streets with our trusty Maps Me (our bestfriend) and risked our lives on some sketchy sidewalks!!  Haha!  The market was easy to find  and only about 7 blocks away, short walk for us.  What we found was an oval shaped market that was created to confuse you!! There were rows and rows and rows of vendors all selling their stuff which all looked the exact same so it was hard to remember where we were, crazy place!!  We shopped around and found the prices not too bad, we found the boys some soccer jerseys and I finally found my Frida Kahlo shirt I have been looking for, she is my new obsession!! So happy!! :)  I can't shop too long so after our great buys we found the center food court and grabbed a bite to eat and listened to some local musicians as well. We then left to flag down a taxi on a side street, cheaper there than at an official taxi stand, a lesson we have learnt in our travels. Market 28 was a pretty cool place, so glad we went and experienced it!

 Next stop was into the hotel zone which is out on Cancun Island, we read about some smaller ruins that were there and we wanted to see them.  El Rey Ruins had about 47 structures  to see and when we went we were there with 6 other people.  It was beautiful place, so peaceful and magical!!  I personally thought it was so great and a big part of that was that there was no one else there, no tours, no crowds and no people in my pictures. The kids also had a blast discovering the hundreds of iguanas that were spread out over the ruin site.  They were everywhere!!! A little creepy for me but the kids loved them, so impressed with the site and what it had to offer. I felt like we found a secret little gem of a place that so many people miss out on. 

We spent about an hour at the ruin site and then we walked across the street and down a block to the famous public beach called Playa Delfines.  The famous Cancun sign is there which is so popular to tourist that people stand in line forever to get a picture with it, crazy if you ask me.  I took a picture from down on the beach, so I got a great shot of the back of it! lol  When you walk up to the beach area it is breathtaking, the water is the most spectacular colors you can't believe it is real!! Absolutely amazing! It was another windy windy day and the red flags were up but today the kids had enough of the flags and went in anyway.  They were not allowed to go past the first break and there was no undertow so it was safe, they had a great time playing in the waves. This was a beautiful beach!

We needed to make our way back downtown to catch our collective home wo to get there we decided to try out the local bus system, seemed pretty easy.  In the hotel zone there is only one road and the buses runs up and down it constantly, so we hopped on one just by the Cancun sign. To ride the bus, regardless of where you were going, it was only 10 pesos a person to ride, so cheap! We saw some markets we thought looked good so we got off the bus to walk around a bit, mistake on our part!. The markets in this area were not very good, super high prices and the workers were very aggressive towards us.  Back on the bus we went!!  We were on the right bus in a way, but it wasn't one that went exactly to where we wanted to go. I followed along on my map and we got off when we were close enough to our stop and we walked.  We had about a 7 block walk, but it was nice because we stopped at a few stores along the way and we also grabbed some food, Doug was thrilled to find some Chinese food!! lol We loved our day in Cancun, it was a real surprise place for me!  I only went because it was something Doug really wanted to do and in the end it was a day trip that landed on my list of favorite places.  It is a great city to explore and I feel we touched on many parts of it, some local life, beach life and a side of history that was amazing. Thanks for the push Doug!! :)

Cancun was hit and a long day, after we used the collective to get home we then walked our way to get groceries.  By the time we got home we had been gone for about 11hrs, long day and we were beat!!  The next few days we stayed around the condo and did school and used the clubhouse to play soccer and basketball.  The kids are loving the opportunities to play so many different sports while we are here.  Friday we decided to explore another centote, this time we went to Cenote Cristalino which is about 25 min down the highway frome us, it is actually just before the other centoe we have been going to.  Cristalino is rated pretty high on Trip Advisor and we felt we should try a new spot, seemed silly to go to the same cenote over and over when there are so many beautiful ones around this area.  Kids didn't want to go but we went anyway!  There was no walk in like El Jardin, the cenote is right off the hiway,  just a short walk through the trees, the walkway was very nice and lush. The area was very well maintained and what we found at the end of the path was absolutely beautiful.  The open waters were crystal clear,full of fish and surrounded by mangroves, plants and caves.

We arrived by 9:30, earlier than expected due to the fact we hitch hiked our way out to the hiway again! lol  The cenote was so peaceful and quiet, we were the only ones there besides another couple for about 2 hours.  We had some Fish Therapy, snorkled in the caves and explored the underwater world. It was a bit more money to enter this cenote but it was still a decent price, it was 150 pesos for adults and the kids were 100 pesos. You actually had the option of using their lifejackets for free and to rent their snorkel gear for 50 pesos, I though that was a nice touch, usually you pay big money to rent anything here.   They also had lockers to use and had a small concession down by the water to purchase small snacks. Such a great spot, so thankful we went!! We love cenotes!!

We were contacted awhile ago by a family of a student that Doug taught last year back in Saskatoon, the Chester family was heading to Cancun and they wanted to meet up.  Saturday was that day!!  Their hotel was right in Cancun in the hotel zone, actually it was just down from the ruins we went to there so we knew exactly where to go to meet them.  They are a wonderful family and we were so excited to spend the day with them. We left our place at 8:30 by taxi, then grabbed a collective in Playa del Carmen which took us to a gas station on the hiway by the airport.  From there we flagged down another taxi who then drove us directly to the hotel. Phew! We made it by 10:01, we were only 1 minute late!! Haha It was awesome to see them and they were open to whatever we wanted to show them. They had not been off their resort at all, but told us that they felt comfortable to go off with us.  That is not always easy to do for people. Getting off your resort when you don't travel a lot or feel comfortable to try, can be very scary.  So we felt really good and honoured that they trusted us enough to leave with us! There is not much we are not willing to try these days. The ruins were basically across the street from their hotel and they ad no idea they were there so we took them to experience El Rey.  Their boys had fun finding all of the iguanas with our kids as we walked around the site. It is such a beautiful place, I think anyway! We then we walked across to Playa Delfines where the kids had a blast in the ocean jumping waves.

Doug and Ryan were approached by two guys on the beach who were wanting a video message from them to their friend back in Japan.  He asked them to send a wedding congratulations from Cancun from some Canadians, so they helped the guy out. Funny if you ask me, but glad they participated in the video, we then watched them walk down the beach asking other groups of people.  I think they were looking for people from different parts of the world. wedding wishes from around the globe! 

The beach was great and once the kids had enough we then caught the local bus and made our way to the north end of the hotel zone but we stayed on the popular Boulevard Kukulcan. Hotels, stores and restaurants run along this street and it goes on forever.  We got off  at an area we never made it to last time, I made the mistake of getting off one stop to early and by the time we got back on the bus we were to tired and needed to get going home.  This time though, we did it right!  We walked down to the ocean again to check out Playa Chac Mool which is rated the number two beach in the area.  Beautiful beach, but we didn't stick around for long.  We walked through some markets and fought off the aggressive vendors before we found a Chili's to grab a bite to eat.  It was an awesome day of visiting, wandering around and taking in the area.  Our kids LOVED hanging out with Drew and Marcus, such fun to be with such a wonderful family!! I bet Drew didn't expect to come to Mexico and hang our with his teacher from last year and his family! Haha Thanks Chesters for the awesome visit!!  Cancun twice in one week was something we didn't  expect to do but it was totally worth the trips we made in! 

As I write this last part of the blog I am also packing up our stuff, departure day tomorrow!! EEE!

We have had a wonderful time here in the Riviera Maya and in Cancun.  The condo we rented was absolutely incredible with all of it amenities that kept us busy when we stayed home. Our security guard, Mariano, has been so awesome with the kids and spends a lot of time with the boys playing football. He is a big kid! I think in the month we have been here he has only had 3 or 4 days off, unreal! The kids have also met some other kids in our condo unit this week and have been playing Homefree outside with them, cute to hear them play regardless of the language barrier.  Only one of the girls, out of 6 of them, know English. So cute!! We feel like we have totally exhausted this area and what it has to offer us. We are leaving with no regrets and wishes of doing anything more.  We were able to experience some new things here with the cenotes, caves and underwater worlds.  Pretty incredible!! We love that we were able to explore and learn new things about nature and then some history with the ruins we went to while we were here.  Every place has something new to learn about and we feel so thankful for the opportunities we have had. We have had to really research things here to make things possible but we were up for the challenge. We are proud of what we found and it has been a great month. Time has flown by this month and we are on the move again. The countdown has been on for our next stop because we finally get to see the Boehms, our BFF (best friend family)!!!!! We can't wait to see them and spent almost 2 weeks with them! :) :)

Life is good, bring on Florida!

We are all safe, happy and our hearts are full!

Love from the Steel family!!!!XXXXX

Mayan Riviera

Hola!!  We have moved into our second and a little of the third week (by the time I post this blog) here in the Mayan and we have been going full throttle, we want to make sure we get everything done in this area before we fly out.  We always need a day or rest in between outings, so when we go we go! We had some great adventures last week and were very thankful for the opportunities we had.  The weekends are typically days we don't go out too much because we find it busier and usually pricier because of the amount of people out and about.  On Sunday we did decide to go to a beach just north of Playa del Carmen called Playa Punta Esmeralda, we went specifically that day because Sunday is a big family day for locals in Mexico.  We wanted to be there when they were, we like the vibe on the beach when we are around all of the local families and it is all part of the charm. We find it a better experience, we love the music, children and the smells of all of the local food carts or trucks.  We hit the jackpot that morning with our taxi driver who was so sweet and drove right into the parking lot, taxis are not allowed I guess but we had a rule breaker!!  We arrived at this hidden little gem by 9:30 and found the beach busy already! There is a small exposed cenote just off the beach which was full of children, nothing to big but it was pretty to see. There was another one deeper into the trees we went to look at but you are not allowed in it, a security guard, (who also was selling plant grasshoppers to tourists, haha) told us it wasn't safe.

We spent about an hour at Esmeralda before we decided to leave and walk along the beach all the way into PdC.  We walked for over an hour with stops along the way to rest but we did it!!  We then made our way to 5Th Ave and walked it all the way down to the south end. We browsed around stores and found our way to our favorite smoothie shop just off the beach on a side street.  Super yummy smoothies made fresh and with Mexican prices. Great long day, we walked 7KM! :0

Monday was a rest day, all day!! We were beat from our walking tour the day before se we laid low and schooled all morning and for most of the afternoon.  We rested up enough to make a plan to head out to a cenote just off the hiway about 30 min from here.  We had researched quite a bit about where to find one that was in our budget, there are so many in the area but so many of them are over $50 a person to get in.  We wanted the kids to experience a cenote and to see some of the underwater caves but we also knew they weren't ready to rappel down into a big cave to snorkel through some of the underwater river systems here.  We had read numerous reviews and we also talked to a local here who recommended  Jardin del Eden Cenote. It is known as a local hidden treasure and it also has amazing reviews about being affordable, safe, fun, authentic and a small taste of a centote on TripAdvisor.  All those reviews checked off our list of importance so we went to see for ourselves. The open cenote is about 1km off the highway so we taxied to the gates and then walked in after paying only 100 pesos for Doug and I and 50 for the kids. Very affordable!!

  Some cenotes are in caves and some like this one, the roof has collapsed and so the water is exposed to the sun and open air. There were a few platforms built around the water to sit on and to put your stuff while you snorkelled and discovered the amazing underwater world.  The reviews for this place were bang on!!  Beautiful, not crowded and the kids were so busy all day either snorkelling, jumping off the cliffs edge, we did the safety check, and catching fish.  Another bonus of this place was something called Fish Therapy, lol! The kids had seen it in Huatulco and now it is everywhere here, they wanted to try it so bad but we were not willing to pay for it and they were not willing to use their own money for it.  Big bonus was that the fish in this centote would come to you if you sat still and would eat the dead the skin off your feet, free Fish Therapy! Haha, it was crazy hard to sit there with them on your feet nibbling away, made me squirm!!  Eventually I got used to it but it took me awhile, thank goodness it was free to try. It made me laugh every time I would hear one of the kids say, "Let's go get some therapy!" Super awesome day exploring the cenote and the caves surrounding it!  We used the collectivo to get part way home once we walked out to the hiway and then we grabbed a ride home Mexican style once we hit our road into our development.  We were picked up by a truck heading our direction and enjoyed the free ride in the back home. Life can be so different living abroad, love it!! lol

Wednesday was another rest and school day, the kids had a lot to write about in their journal from our fun day out the day before and we were already planning another trip Thursday.  Some friends of ours we knew from Rhett's AAA hockey team back in Saskatoon were in the area and so we made a plan to meet them Thursday in the Puerto Aventuras tourist area.  We had caught the collectivo that morning to the Puerto Aventuras drop off point but this time the driver had taken us into the local town a block or so before he let us off. We had never been in that far and so it was cool to see but we wanted to see more of the town.  We spotted a fresh fruit stand and bought some mango chunks, (so yummy) and while we were eating a little Tuck Tuck pulled up beside us. We had time to kill before we met our friends so Doug asked if he would drive us around the town. So for 15 pesos we went for a tour in his cool ride!!  We love seeing the real life side of places so this drive around was awesome for us, really great little town with everything you can imagine. Peurto Adventuras is the second largest community in the Solidaridad, first being Playa del Carmen, it has the population of just under 6,000 people. Great fun, felt bad for the motor on that bike though!! Sounded rough!

After our town tour we then walked into the tourist side of Puerto Adventuras to meet the Smith family, the kids were excited to see some familiar faces.  We watched the ever so entertaining dolphins, seals and manatees before grabbing a bite to eat at a restaurant near the marina. We then caught a very expensive taxi van to drive us all to our favorite centote, El Jardin. Our family loved it there so much and we felt that they may enjoy the experience as well, we had an awesome time with them!  Sure hope they enjoyed the day as much as we did, it was great to spend time with them!!

Friday was our rest day before we powered up to tackle the longer day trip to Tulum which we did on Saturday.  Tulum is the site of a Mayan walled city which sits on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean. It was one of the last cities built and inhabited by the Mayas and it is one of the best preserved sites in the Mayan.  Tulum is a major tourist attraction in this area and that was very apparent to us very quickly once we stepped off our collectivo.  Doug and I were there 6 years ago when we came to this area without kids and we didn't feel it was very touristy but as we arrived on Saturday we saw that there was so much more development in the area than we had seen. When we got off the collectivo so did a lady who walked with us down to the main entrance, she worked in one of the information booths there and she was so nice and helpful. She started chatting with us and then gave us some Tulum tour tips. She told us where to go and she also warned us that the kids should be free, which we didn't know, glad she passed on her knowledge to us and saved us from over paying.  We passed by rows of markets, restaurants and a Starbucks a to find the ticket booth to purchase tickets to ride a tractor pulled trolley into the archeological site.  To walk in wasn't too far but the boys were free and Doug, Adison and I were only 20 pesos so we took the cheap ride. Kind of fun too!! ;)

The kids were free to enter the site and Doug and I were 70 pesos each, and we had to make sure we had the right amount because there was a huge sign in the window stating that they do not give change!!  They NEVER have change in Mexico, never. I believe many people over paid that day because of the sign, I'm glad we had smaller bills.  Even though we arrived fairly early (9:30) we still found ourselves in a sea of people and tours slowly moving their way through the trails and sites. The beauty of the site was incredible! The ruin site is so unique because they are on the cliff over looking the ocean, so amazing! We spent about an hour walking through enjoying the sights and the kids were loving all of the Iguanas everywhere. We had brought along our swim stuff and snorkel gear so we could enjoy the beach that was down from the site after we toured through but it was closed off.  It was a very windy windy day and the red flags were up, no way we could have went in that day.

We made our way back out to the entrance and caught the tractor ride out to the main area, we wanted to check out the markets and then figure out a way to get into the town of Tulum and to their beaches.  We stepped off the trolley cart and we were bombarded by vendors all trying to sell us stuff or get us into their restaurants, it was a bit much!  Very aggressive tactics were used, not a good feeling and certainly turned us off from entering their store. We grabbed a coffee and I went to talk to the guys in the information booth and they suggested a taxi ride into Tulum or go back into the site entrance and turn left.  From there you could walk down to a public beach and then walk along it to find a place to eat or hang out.  So, we hopped back on the tractor trolley and took the ride back into the site interance and did exactly what we were told to do.  We walked down about 11/2km to the entrance of the Santa Fe public access, it opened up to a beautiful sandy beach. So pretty!!  We couldn't go in there either because the wind was so strong, the ocean was just too rough but we did walk down a ways before turning up to go back to the trolley.  The restaurants there were not for us and we were also getting a lot of sand blown at us, on our legs and into our faces, too windy!! I'm sure it would be a great place to hang out on a calmer day, it was very beautiful beach though! ;)

Found ourselves back on the trolley, best money spent for that multiple use bracelet I tell you!! lol Found a smaller restaurant and we split a pizza, grabbed a few things from a market a bit further away from the other vendors, still pretty aggressive there so we didn't spend much time there.

Walked out and grabbed a collectivo, we decided to go to a small beach called  Xcacel which wasn't too far from Tulum and it was on our way home. We had read a few reviews recommending this beach because it had an open centote on one side of the main beach off into the trees and there is also turtles there off to the other side.  Sounded amazing and it seemed like an easy place to get to, just had to walk in about 1km from the hiway.  At Xcacel locals are free, but gringos have to pay, we have found this to be quite common on our travels.  It was not expensive, only 20 pesos per person to get in, boys were free because they were under 10.  It was a beautiful place but we were there on the wrong day, the wind was there too!!  No turtles, no snorkeling and no going in the ocean because it was red flagged due to the wind making the water really rough. We did get to go to the small cenote though which was super cute.  They made us wait for 10 minutes at the entrance before we could go in, they only allowed a certain amount of people in at a time.  Once we were in, we snorkelled around and discovered some underwater caves and some fish.  Pretty cool to see! We were whistled at after being there for about 15min and it was time to go. So, away we went!! 

We walked back out to hiway to catch another collectivo after we stood in the parking lot for 15min watching two massive iguanas fight! lol  Very entertaining and they grew quite a crowd, my money was on the brown one!  We figured since we were out and about we would fit one more thing into our already busy day. We thought we would head into the Puerto Adventuras area again to see if we could find this place called Solliman Bay.  We had heard lots about it and when we were in that area last week we saw a sign for it, curiosity got the best of us so we made the stop.  We all were starving and hot, so we grabbed the kids slurpees and beer for us at the gas station and then we ordered some fish and shrimp tacos from a local restaurant.  We had read it was very good and it was!!  They serve you your fish and tortillas on a plate plain and then you can go up to a salad bar stand to put on the toppings you want.  The stand was pretty much full of hot sauces, peppers and jalapenos!!  Too spicy for us wimpy Canadians but it was worth the stop! Very good food!

After we were fed and watered we walked into PA and walked and walked some more!!  We asked a few times about Solliman Bay and how far it was but our answers were all across the board. Some workers we stopped and asked had no clue some and and some thought it was only said only 10min way.  We finally decided to stop near the marina and faced the fact we may be walking forever and get nowhere. I was so tired and I was fading so I can't imagine how the kids felt!!  We turned back and toured around the animal area before we walked back out to the hiway to catch the collectivo home.  We were done, so tired of walking and being in the hot sun and wind so when we started our walk into our condo complex we cheered when a truck stopped for us!!  Walking another 1km home was something we didn't want to do so we were so thankful we didn't have to.  I'm sure if we added up our miles from that day we would be close to 8 or 9 km, a rest day was in our future!!

 We have been on the move and we have been exploring this Mayan Riviera for a couple of weeks now, it has been great! We have been checking off places on our list at a rapid rate, but we have more to do.  We have a week and a half left to put on some more miles and to discover more new things here. Time is flying by, I cant believe it!!  The kids are doing great with their studies and we are continuing to push them through their units.  A lot of their programming is coming to an end but it is amazing to me how much is out there to help us expand their studies.  Doug is a such a great teacher and I believe I'm a pretty good assistant so we as a team, are able to spend some good quality time with each of the kids. We take turns and switch things up for them all the time, we have a good system I believe. The kids may have a different opinion on what it is like to have their parents teach them, but we love it!! Lol It is all good!
We are all happy, safe and our hearts are full!!

   Love from the Steel family!!!XXXXX