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Trip Report - First Timer to Riveria Maya - 4/22/2008 2:22:55 PM
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vtunimog
Posts: 1
Joined: 1/28/2008
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The 10th through the 18th was our first time in Akumal and we loved it. The trip started off well despite a somewhat rocky start very early in the a.m. in Boston (JFK was socked in with fog) while we sat in the plane on the taxiway for 75 minutes or so while we waited for clearance. Despite running from our arrival gate to a shuttlebus then a ride around the still pending new Jetblue terminal we were onboard the flight to cancun at 10 am for a 10:15 am departure. No problems. Cancun was a breeze but I must say I did not like the hordes of Vacation-Club vampires as you come out of immigration/customs. I truly thought the first group to the left was a visitor center. Then the nice folks at Eurocar offered to have me cancel my reservation with Hertz (who apparently decided not to staff their kiosk) , which in hindsight I wish I had. Hertz was conveniently across the street so we trotted off to see my not-so called friends at Hertz. I work for a really big insurance company of sorts and we are supposed to get the absolute best rate possible. So my paper in hand I go in and get a story about how they cannot confirm the rate, blah blah blah. The kind gentleman behind the counter says that the car they have for me is just coming in - a nice Chevy - chevrolet, sort of a sub-compact compact. It would have been cool with me but our luggage would never fit in. Of course he has a nice 2 door Jeep come in if I am willing to pay $15 per day for an upgrade. I say how about a 4 door jeep for $10. He does me a huge favor, and agrees. Great. I have insurance through Amex (insurance) and it has been confirmed for Mexico so I say no thanks. Another 20 minute delay. Long story short we get the keys, wait 20 minutes more while they clean the jeep. Meanwhile we are invited by the nice ladies at the exit to get a free map. After a couple of minutes of questions about where we are staying, what we want to do we are offered free tickets to Xcaret. I should have smelled that coming. Just for a brief 90 minute sales presentation. I would rather drink seawater first thanks. So we dodge this bullet and escape with barely our pale northern climes skin intact. We get our jeep and head out on 307. Akumal is a great surprize not only easy to find (thanks to the kind directions from Kay at LG) but it seems to be as picturesque as promised. We settle into our Condo at the Amanecer Akumal , which is bright, clean and new. The tiny dipping pool is interesting. But overall we are thrilled.
We cap off the day with dinner sitting in the swings at the La Beuna Vida. The kids love the swings and bar (with skeletons, gourds lights ) and have a blast climbing up to the perched tables in the treehouse like palapas. The next day we decide to pace ourselves and head for a tour of Aktun Chen - the place is nearly deserted and we have a tour with maybe 4 others. The underground Cenote in the last cavern is a sight to see.
We decide to head to Oscar Y Lalo's for an early dinner and some beach relaxation. We see the sign and what looks like the restaurant, but the guide says beach front not side-of-the-road front. We drive out towards Soliman beach and find a lone taxi by the Private Property sign. He tells us that Oscar Y Lalo have problem and move to the roadside. We go back and decide to have dinner but strangely enough no one is around but for a man who is apparently picking up sprouting coconut palms and putting them into a truck.
We head back to Akumal and have dinner at La Lunita - great dinner even if we did have to use a flashlight to read the menu. Super windy night though and at one point my wine glass nearly flies away.
The rest of the time was spent doing various activities including a great but short horseback tour of the jungle around Aktun Chen, our guide was great and even pointed out a great mahogany tree where two days earlier they had seen a puma resting in the branches. We spent some time at a hidden cave that was a hurricane shelter for ancient Mayan's (there was some carvings and an interesting pre-Hispanic altar) and for Chicle harvesters. The ride was perhaps 90 minutes with the brief tour of the cave. It was interesting to speak with our guide who , despite the fact he was guiding us through some pretty thick jungle and scrub, seemed nervous about being in the jungle at night and indicated he was from Playa and didn't like being in the jungle after dark. Overall, if you are staying in the area and wish for a quick and close horseback ride through the jungle then I reccomend trying out Aktun Chen. We did learn that the owner is currently clearing space around a Cenote for exploration and swimming/diving.
We spent the next day at the Tulum ruins later in the day. I enjoyed walking around and the background against the gorgeous water but other than that I guess the hordes of people detracted from my enjoyment. While my wife and kids took a swim I explored the site and tagged along with an interesting group on a Mormon interpretation of the ruins. While I have no desire to infringe upon anyone's beliefs it did provide some very interesting hypotheses into the origins of the temples and intended uses and symblism. The park rangers/keepers escorted us out promptly at 4:45 pm. Back to the strange shopping mall/curios center at the parking lot. From there we travelled down the beach road searching for the highly reccomended Posada Marherita. The growth on the road seems pretty accelrated heading south with trendy eco-style resort after resort. We did not have reservations but it was a Monday night so my assumption was that at 5:15 pm on a monday evening an early dinner wouldn't be a bother , wrong. The dining room did not appear as described (I assumed a mix-mash of chairs and tables and somewhat rustic) what I found was a fairly well laid out dining area with nice dark hardwood tables and chairs. Sort of a Eco-Tourism chic. The owner was very kind and explained that he could seat us on Wednesday. I think it may have had more to do with my mentioning two adults and two children than anything but that is a just a hunch. Oh well next time. We drove up and down looking for a suitable place and finally we stumbled upon Mezzanine. From the whirling props from the wind generators to the rock bridge over the pool this place oozed coolness. Sort of a too cool for you and your kids type of place. The food was ok, the Thai-Yucatan fusion was interesting but the ambienace made up for whatever the food may or may not have lacked. My only complaint was a rather distrubing experience in the bathroom with some waste that should have been disposed of in the toilet but instead was in the trash can - I am not usually bothered by much of that nature after I all I have suffered through Turkish toilets and buckets on board sailboats, but there is a such thing as biodegrable toilet tissue. Sorry , I digress. Back to the Mezzanine. If you are looking for an intimate place by the sea for a cocktail or dinner this is your place, defiantely has a trendy off the grid, Yoga and urban refugee feel to it. The restaurants and resorts along this stretch of road are the antithesis of the mega resorts like the Mayan Palace and Bahia Principe, but they still have a surreal feel to them. Sort of a Mocha Soy Latte at the ballgame feel.
We took the next day and followed the overwhelming majority of advice and headed very early for Chichen Itza. The ride from Tulum North was interesting. Once past Coba the road becomes nearly a pot-holed track until you hit the Yucatan border. I don't recall seeing a single house for about 30-40 km or so and the amount of garbage on the road sides was astounding. I did hit a Police checkpoint just south of Chemax but was waved through. The directions to 180 through Valladolid was a bit confusing and we did end up on driving around the pretty city square a few times. We arrived at Piste around 8:30 am. We found an older guide named Ernesto who was very charming and told us we were smart for arriving before the tour buses. The tour of the site was interesting but I felt that Ernesto left out some details and almost seemed to rush us through wanting to get to the Old Chichen area so he could show us the Phallic symbols. It was all pretty amusing and for the most part our 5 and 7 year old found the tour to be tolerable and enjoyed hearing about the warriors and Chac Mool statues. He seemed to want to play down hints at any type of sacrifice and kept saying the Mayans didn't really sacrifice as much as make an offering. Overall I really enjoyed Chichen and wished we had spent more time. After the tour we left Ernesto and walked around to look at the vendors. When we walked in the vendors were just setting up a bit here and there, by the time we were finished I was amazed as there must have been at least 200 of them perched everywhere. While I understand the need for them to make a living I think that it detracts from the nobility and purpose of the site. We did enjoy the playful banter of "Almost Free" and "Cheaper than Walmart". We did buy a few trinkets and t shirts but mostly just talked to the vendors along the Sacbe. Overall I really enjoyed the tour but the fact that the Castillo pyramid is closed to climbing really detracts from the experience. The hordes waiting while we were exiting the site was really something to see. As far as I could tell there were at least 40 tour buses in the parking lot. We left in time to have lunch at the Hacienda (not the Hacienda Chichen mind you but one right in town on the left as you head west. It was interesting, we arrived just when several buses arrived. The assembly line buffet was passable but not great. The tour hordes were quite a mix-mash of Germans, Americans, Mexicans, a few Cubans, and a group from Quebec. We ate our lunch and escaped as quickly as we could. It was a surreal experience with a group of dancers on the makeshift stage and at least 300 tourists not paying attention.
On the way back we get onto deserted 180 toll road and off again at Valladolid - we get lost again and turn down a one way street much to the excitement of some motorists and passersby. A kindly policmen puts us on our way. We hit Coba about 2 pm right at the heat of the day. We tour the ruins with the help of two cycle taxi's - The two drivers race us from site to site at breakneck speed. At the Nohoch Mal pyramid we finally get to the climb the 12 stories to the top. My 7 year old stops half way up and will not move so the 5 year old and I continue up, while my wife coaxes our daughter back down. the trip back down is a bit more cautious than the one up. Thankfully we grab a couple of waters from the small drink shack and head back off. Our drivers pedal at the speed of light to get us back to the bike rental center where we try to pay them but they refuse and make us pay the staff inside the small hut. I would really like to have explored more but apparently the $9 fee is only good for 30 minutes. We instead explore some of of the group B ruins (I think that is what they are off to the south of the bike rental area). It definately has a different feel to it than Chichen and I almost feel that I am discovering some of the ruins myself. I notice in the jungle around the site that there are huge piles of stones just waiting to be uncovered. The round pyramid there is really quite interesting to see. After all this we walk down to the Town pier to observe two rather lazy alligators (3-7 feet) waiting for someone to feed them. Overall I would say that I really enjoyed Chichen and Coba, both were interesting I sort of wish I had spent more time at Coba with a guide and wish our guide at Chichen had not rushed through things. He seemed to have a schedule to keep.
The Jungle Adventure -
My daughter, despite an unnatural fear of steep stone steps (see Coba) loves adventure and early the next morning decided that she wanted to take a ride in the jeep onto the road leading from the Puebla heading north. I had noticed on a map that there was a supposed ruin somewhere to the northeast of the town. So across 307 we went through the town following two truck loads of men with Machettes into the bush. We drove nearly 8 km or so of pretty rocky road, nothing really that we wouldn't find at home but still the razor sharp limestone rocks made me nervous about cutting a sidewall and having to change a tire out in the middle of nowhere. Sadly the impact of people is everywhere, just when you think you have slipped some of man's tracks you come upon another pile of garbage. We didn't see much but for some Rancheros that seem to be leading nowhere. I am curious if anyone else has explored this road and if they found the ruins that alledgedly exist. We did get some strange looks from the locals working to clear plot lines and fences and we did get a rather amused look from a truck with police in it as we came out by the last large Hacienda/Compound before the town.
If I haven't put anyone to sleep I will post more later.
Cheers,
Chris
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RE: Trip Report - First Timer to Riveria Maya - 4/22/2008 2:58:21 PM
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wease787
Posts: 128
Joined: 3/9/2008
From: Powell River, B.C.
Status: offline
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Great report. Can't wait for the rest.
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RE: Trip Report - First Timer to Riveria Maya - 4/22/2008 5:01:40 PM
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Jamie
Posts: 2548
Joined: 3/10/2005
From: Southern California
Status: offline
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This is a great report, waiting for the next installment.
Sorry about your experience with Hertz, most of the folks on this board who have tried them have reported negative experiences. The Cancun site is probably a franchise and not affiliated with the US company.
Thanks for taking the time to post this.
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RE: Trip Report - First Timer to Riveria Maya - 4/22/2008 5:29:46 PM
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xelgoer
Posts: 13750
Joined: 2/27/2007
From: Eugene, OR
Status: offline
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I'm not asleep.. I am enjoying your trip and can't wait to hear more...
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Statistics show, people who have more birthdays, live longer!
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RE: Trip Report - First Timer to Riveria Maya - 4/23/2008 9:25:49 AM
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120taken130
Posts: 71
Joined: 1/24/2008
From: Minnesnowta
Status: offline
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Good work - keep it up!
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Let His light shine through you in all your days
http://forums.locogringo.com/forums/tm.asp?m=808386 - 2008 Trip Report
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RE: Trip Report - First Timer to Riveria Maya - 4/23/2008 11:54:44 AM
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breezeee
Posts: 33
Joined: 4/23/2008
From: Oklahoma
Status: offline
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GREAT TRIP REPORT!!!!! THANKS FOR THE EXPERIENCE.
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