We returned yesterday from Mexico, and what a wonderful and truly relaxing vacation it was — filled with sun, sand, warmth, Mayan ruins, underground adventures, and delicious food. Before I forget all the details, let me tell you about the highlights…

Sunday: New York City to Playa Del Carmen

I met mein Schatz at the Cancun airport after a horrid Jet Blue flight. We had decided to rent a car for the trip, which was a great decision and allowed us a lot of flexibility for travel. After a little back and forth about insurance coverage, we were given a convertible PT Cruiser. It wasn’t the most intuitive of cars to drive, but we did look pretty darn cool.

It took about 45 minutes to drive to Playa Del Carmen, a resort-y town popular with Europeans, where we were booked at the Aventura Mexicana. Playa ended up being more upscale and touristy than we were looking for, but we made the best of it by trying to stay away from the main tourist zones as much as possible. Our first evening, we settled in to our hotel and ate a seafood dinner at the beach.

Monday: Playa Del Carmen & Tulum

The skies were dark and threatening when we woke up on Monday morning. After our complimentary breakfast at the hotel, we decided to head for the Mayan ruins of Tulum, another 30 minutes to the south. These ruins overlook the ocean and are absolutely gorgeous, despite the dark clouds overhead. Just after we left the ruins, a downpour began, so we hid ourselves in a roadside restaurant and ate tacos, guacamole, and soup and drank some beers. We drove back to Playa in the dark (the sun sets at 6pm-ish everyday) and through a spectacular thunder and lightening storm, and breathed a sigh of relief once we made it back to the hotel.

Tuesday: The Beaches of Playa Del Carmen

Tuesday morning was lovely, and we grabbed a coffee and walked around town for a bit before heading to the beach. The beaches closest to us were packed with the lounge chairs of surrounding hotels and resorts, so we had to walk quite a ways to find a nice stretch of beach to spread our towels on. But once we were settled, it was quite lovely. We whiled away the afternoon swimming, laying in the sun, drinking beer and munching on tortillas chips and guacamole. After showering back at the hotel, we sipped margaritas on the hotel’s rooftop and watched the sun go down. The rest of the evening was spent having dinner at a popular Asian-fusion restaurant and heading to bed a little bit early.

Wednesday: Puerto Morelos

Having been a little disappointed with the crowds at the beaches in Playa Del Carmen, we drove a little north to check out the fishing village of Puerto Morelos. It was a wonderful little place, and we wandered along the empty beaches until we found a spot for lunch, and then spent the rest of the afternoon lazing on the beach (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?). We made it back to the hotel before night fall, and again watched the sunset from the hotel roof and sipped margaritas. (Hey, why stop a good thing?) We ate dinner at a very cheap local restaurant and sampled some homemade ice cream from a little shop close by, and savored our last evening in Playa Del Carmen.

Thursday: La Selva Mariposa & Coba

On Valentine’s Day we checked out of Aventura Mexicana and headed south to La Selva Mariposa, our “jungle bed and breakfast.” La Selva is located about 20km away from the beaches of Tulum, and is a lovely and intimate bed and breakfast run by an American couple. We were upgraded into the newly built suite, and enjoyed our own sitting room, patio and small swimming pool. And of course I have to mention our open air shower — it is quite a lovely experience to shower underneath the moon and the stars in the evening or the sun in the morning! It was a peaceful change from the crowds of Playa Del Carmen.

As nice as it would have been to linger, we instead headed to Coba, Mayan ruins that are not too far from where we were staying. The Mayan ruins of Coba are set deep in the jungle, and many of the sites have yet to be excavated. Since the site is spread out, you can rent bicycles to get around more easily. Of course, we couldn’t resist this, and it was so great to speed through the pathways and have the breeze to cool you off.

The biggest structure of Coba is the Nohoch Mul, which is also know as the Great Pyramid, and is one of the few remaining Mayan structures that you are still allowed to climb. We hoofed it up to the top of the 42-meter pyramid and were sweaty and breathless as we check out the amazing views. Getting down was a little tougher — I had to climb down backwards step by step in order to avoid looking straight down the steep steps.

After Coba, we checked out some recently opened cenotes nearby. The Yucatan Peninsula is filled with caves, caverns and wells filled with water — many of which you can dive, snorkel and swim in. We descended 100 meters underground, and mein Schatz swam in a clear body of water in the cave, with stalagtites hanging high above us. It was definitely one of the coolest experiences!

We enjoyed a dinner in Tulum pueblo in the evening before heading back to the B&B.

Friday: Chichen Itza & Valladolid

After a delicious breakfast on our patio, joined by the three dogs that live at the B&B, we made the 1.5 hour drive to Chichen Itza, which is one of the most well-known Mayan sites in the area. It was absolutely flooded with thousands of tourists, but the site is large enough to accommodate the crowds. The heat was intense and there was little shade, but we wandered around as our guide explained some of the buildings. The most famous is the El Castillo, a large and well-restored pyramid which was built to align with the equinoxes. You used to be able to climb to the top, but it was closed after an accident in 2005. Overall, I enjoyed Chichen Itza for its vastness and fortitude, but the crowded and the hawkers were tiring.

We passed through the colonial town of Valladolid on our way back to the B&B. The town was once a Maya ceremonial center, but now is a sleepy town painted in bright colors. Upon the recommendation of our host, we had dinner at El Meson del Marques, which was built in the 17th century.

We drove home in the dark, and one section of the road was quite harrowing — no lights, no reflectors or painted lines, narrow, and uneven. Again, we breathed a sigh of relief after we made it back to the main highway. We enjoyed the rest of the evening at the B&B, reading in our sitting room and listening to our little waterfall.

Saturday: Artisans & the Beaches of Tulum

Saturday morning we did a little souvenir shopping at a stand in the small town down the road. The owners were a German woman and her Mexican husband, and they had such lovely pieces that we spent quite a bit of time looking around and talking with the woman.

Afterwards, we drove to the beaches of Tulum. Honestly, these beaches were my favorite of the whole trip — quite untouched and not at all crowded, with lots of beautiful soft white sand. This is where we spent the afternoon before my massage scheduled back at the B&B at 3pm. And we were back at the beach by sundown, eating at Mezzanine while we watched the waves crash against the shore.

Sunday: La Selva Mariposa to New York City

We woke up a little earlier on our last morning, and made the final rounds of the B&B to make sure we captured it in photographs. We also enjoyed our breakfast and said our thanks to our hosts before we made our 1.5 hour drive to the airport in Cancun. Not too far away from the airport, we were pulled over for speeding. When the police officer told us we would have to go to the police station to pay a fine, mein Schatz kept his cool and negotiated with the officer in Spanish to “pay the fine” directly to the cop. After talking the cop down from 1000 pesos ($100 USD) to 120 pesos, which he swiftly pocketed, we were on our way. Whew! I was very thankful for mein Schatz’s Spanish skills, which were undoubtedly key to keeping the “fine” low.

Our flight back to New York was uneventful, but the immigration lines were LOOONG. Even on the U.S. Citizen side, which I normally speed right through, I waited for almost 40 minutes — only to be asked by the immigration officer why I had “so many extra pages” in my passport. He shut up and let me through after I explained that I ran out of pages in my last passport and wanted to avoid that this time around. Glad I waited in line for that. But even after my horrendous wait, mein Schatz still hadn’t made it through his “Visitor” line — where he was being harangued by some newbie who thought he should throw the book at everyone who came through his line. Sigh. After that we had dinner at a airport restaurant and milled about the shops waiting for mein Schatz’s late evening flight back to Germany, and then we parted ways.

Overall

I haven’t had such a relaxing vacation in a long time, and it was a real treat to enjoy the sun and the warmth and have no schedule to adhere to but our own. Plus, there is a lot to see on the Yucatan Peninsula, and I think I could travel through there a couple of more times before I would be satisfied that I had seen all that I wanted. But anyway, here are our photos, so enjoy!

Looking for more posts about Mexico?  Check these out:

• Tepoztlán
• Mexico City