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