Got up early and walked to Aqua World where we had our trip to Isla Mujeres scheduled. The tour group "Aqua World" was a very nice touristy company where you could book about a dozen different kind of excursions in the Riviera Maya area.
They served a continental breakfast. Well, they had dry pastries, okay fruit and orange juice while waiting for our tour to start. Sadly, about what you would expect. We then boarded the boat that went across the lagoon. As we exited the lagoon we went through a patch of mangroves, where we spotted a monkey! After we emerged back into civilization, we went under some bridges and then out into the open sea. They turned up the throttle and our boat shot across the waves. I can't express to you how much fun that was! That's not something I had done since my early days in Jacksonville. I loved it more than I can tell you. During the trip to the island, we were constantly offered "beer, tequila, fanta, coke?" so often that it was ridiculous and started distracting from the amazing view of the high-rise hotels fading in the distance and the approach of the rocky island shores.
Wikipedia describes Isla Mujeres like this: "Isla Mujeres is the name of a small island, as well as the town on that island, a short distance off the coast of the northeast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Caribbean Sea. It is about 13 km northeast of Cancún, at 21.20° North, 86.72° West. The island is some 7 km long and 650 meters wide. In the 2005 census the municipality had a population of 13,315, and the town had a population of 11,147. The municipality, which lies mostly on the mainland in the northeastern corner of the state, has an area of 1,100 km² (424.7 sq mi)." Wikipedia doesn't bother to tell you how beautiful it is, though. Isolated out at sea, it really feels like it's own little world.
We landed at the island dock and were led onto the beach where Aqua World had their own setup. From that location, we could do a variety of things. Jen and I opted to do the snorkeling tour. So back on the boat and around the edge of the island to where the snorkeling reefs were. After trying it out, I decided that breathing through a straw with my head under the water was not for me. But I enjoyed the view from the boat while Jen snorkled away and saw barracuda, a sea turtle and submerged Mayan ruins.
Once we returned to Aqua World's "home base", we ate a quick buffet lunch that was about as good as the continental breakfast had been. Then came the fun part... we got the keys to the GOLF CART we had rented for the next couple of hours. Now, renting the golf cart was too much fun, and something I could've done all day. Anyone who knows of my days at Universal Studios knows how I used to make up excuses to "borrow" the golf cart the advertising department had and drive around the backlot for hours. Driving around an island in a golf cart? Even more fun!
Golf carts are allowed to drive all over the island. The max speed limit is 40/kmh. We first tried to find the turtle sanctuary to no avail (but no worries, we had a close enounter with turtles. More on that later). It started to rain on us, but that didn't stop us. It reminded me of riding my bike around in the tropical showers in Florida as a kid. So I still like to play in the rain. Sue me.
The rain stopped as we drove to the south end of the island. We passed many houses and condos along the cliffs on the shore (some of which we would love to stay in someday). We passed Garafon, a water area with zip lines, snorkeling pools and a beautiful beach. Then we went to the park near the lighthouse that was one of my favorite areas in all of Mexico. Ix Chel Park is a small park that had many modern sculptures near the shear cliffs that dropped off into the ocean. At the far end of the park was the very end of the island. There sat a small pile of stones, remnants of a Mayan temple to the goddess Ix Chel (the "lady" in the name of the island). The paths led down stars to the rocky shore and wound around through holes carved into the cliffs by the waves. It was a true natural beauty. We stayed as long as we could, but were on a time limit, so back to the cart. We drove as far as we could on the ocean side of the island past beautiful homes and villages of huts, and into a small downtown area that was very authentic and in stark contrast to the "touristy" downtown area the tour led us to later. We ended up unable to find the road that was a shortcut back to the camp, so we ended up backtracking, but made it back just in time.
The next excursion was to the downtown area, so back to the boat. After another brief trip being endlessly assaulted with offers of BTFC, we were off the vessel and into the downtown section. On the way off the boat, I dropped my old-but-expensive Oakley sunglasses into the ocean. One of the guys on the boat offered to get them. This was the same guy who spoke little English but was very friendly to me when I was on the boat during the snorkeling tour (very proud to tell us of his 5 kids once he found out Jen was my wife - trying to encourage us, I suppose). At this point we were both tired and ready for a break. Although I found the architecture and culture of this area interesting, the constant verbal assault by the people running the markets became a bit much. After about 20-30 minutes, we settled in at a bar on the shore and had some nachos and diet coke and waited for the boat to return. The "people-watching" from this location was great entertainment (for the record, speedos should be banned, particularly if you are over 50, over 300 lbs and especially both). We returned to the boat for our trip back to Cancun. Some of our fellow passengers (5 college-age boys from the UK) started giving the staff a hard time. They had been drinking the enitre time they were on the island. They were threatening to dive overboard and even relieving themselves off the back of the boat. It was more amusing than anything, but we were all relieved to reach the shore.
That evening, Jen and I had a very quiet time going to a Mexican restaurant down the street called "La Destileria". It was very good, but that's because most everything had cheese inside of it or covering it. You can't really go wrong with that, can you?
After dinner, we went back and crashed very early. It had been a long day.
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