Tjs Bigly Travels

This is my first blog post in the past year and a half.  It’s easy to point to the pandemic as the main culprit;  with travel being so highly restricted by various health measures it’s the obvious rationale, but I think it’s much more complicated than that.  Perhaps this gap in my writings is an apropos symbol of what feels like two lost years, that were filled with upheaval, restrictions, uncertainty and an accelerated social polarity that I’ve never seen before. Whatever the post-pandemic normal evolves into I am grateful to be able to start exploring again.   

Timing is everything and the truth is we could have taken a trip months sooner than we did, but that meant adhering to travel restrictions and testing measures that were still in place. Personally, it was hard to imagine subjecting myself to those types of hurdles when waiting meant we could take our first trip with less stress. It also allowed us to build our first post-pandemic trip around some personal celebratory events.

The big question is where to go on our first trip since the shutdown?  Although there is still many places on my bucket list we decided to plan a reasonable trip that wasn’t too ambitious, simply because we didn’t want to add any unnecessary stress or complicated plans; which ultimately led us back to Mexico.  You’ll recall that I did a post on Mexico Travels in 2019,  but I still had some unfinished business there and this was the perfect time to see those sights. 

We had two weeks booked for this trip and wanted to maximize our experience.  The plan was to fly into Cancun, rent a car and travel inland to Piste where we could spend some time exploring the local area.  From there, we would travel south back to Playa del Carmen and spend a few days in town. After dropping our son at the airport my wife and I would head north to Chiquila and catch a ferry to Isla Holbox for a week of beach relaxation. No tours, no all-inclusive hotels, no guides, just our own whimsical adventures.     

There’s no point talking about booking hotels in Mexico, a quick scan through any travel booking site and there’s no shortage of options.  We tended to book small, accessible accommodations that had pools and were moderately priced. However,  the rental car is worthy of mention. Most travellers have heard horror stories of renting cars in Mexico but in order to have the flexibility we needed a rental was required.  Fortunately, we had a very positive experience.  You’ll find that the highways are well maintained and google maps is very accurate for navigation.  There is a mix of toll and non-toll highways throughout the Yucatan and road signage was easy to understand.  Although the toll highways have less traffic, it was just as easy to use the more travelled non-toll roads and save the expense. Drivers on the highways are very gracious at letting people pass. They will typically slow to the right and put their blinker on as a signal for you to go by and I encourage you to reciprocate when others are behind you.  By law, gas station attendants have to pump your gas and there is an expectation you tip them. I would suggest offering 20-50 pesos is reasonable, depending on the service.  Of particular note, when you are approaching small towns you will encounter rumble strips followed by speed humps. They are not always well marked and sometimes placed in odd locations, but you do not want to hit these with any speed.  Lastly,  brace yourself for driving in-town. Local drivers are polite but it is the most aggressive driving I have ever experienced.  You need to stay with the flow of traffic or you won’t get anywhere and you’ll be a nuisance. As well, most towns have one way streets which aren’t always clearly marked, so you have to watch for indicators like how cars are parked.  I managed to white knuckle through my first town but after a few you start to grasp the unwritten rules of the road.  It was absolutely worth the experience to have the freedom of movement.   

Our first location was Piste, 220 kilometres from Cancun, chosen for its proximity to Chichen Itza.  Most people who visit this Unesco World Heritage Site do so on tour buses that arrive from larger centres for day trips.   This was exactly what we wanted to avoid. Piste is a lovely little community, with only a few main streets.  We stayed at a small hotel just on the edge of town, two kilometres from Chichen Itza.  While there, we walked everywhere. Supplies were easy to get at local shops and we enjoyed some fantastic meals at small pop up restaurants where the menus were simply barbecued chicken and pork.  These are the types of places where you can simply blend in, meet some locals and never feel harassed or bothered; very peaceful. 

As Chichen Itza was top of our to-do list, we walked to the site for opening first thing.  This was intentional on our part, and led to the perfect experience.  It will take you about four hours to meaningfully take in the ruins and arriving first thing in the morning allows you avoid the blazing afternoon sun and the hordes of tour buses that start showing up late morning.  The vendors are still setting up, so they’re not in full hassle mode yet and for the first several hours it feels like you have the place to yourself.  

I have long had a fascination with architectural wonders.  Mayan ruins are the enduring legacy of  complex societies that thrived and flourished long before colonization. The skills that were employed to construct these monuments with rudimentary technology, by todays standards is absolutely amazing.  Chichen Itza is very well preserved and hosts one of the largest ball courts to have survived. It’s also recognized as one of the new seven wonders of the world. You’ll enjoy a nice walk to the Sacred Cenote, and if you explore the main temple grounds first, you can visit the perimeter structures mid-morning which allows you to use the tree cover as a sun block.  It is unfortunate that you can’t go inside the structures anymore, because being able to climb to the top was a great experience when we were in Belize.  If you do go to Chichen Itza on your own, there is no shortage of official guides at the entrance who you can hire to get a private interpretive tour.  We do our own research on places we want to visit so we don’t feel we miss anything by not having a guide, but more importantly, I don’t feel controlled or pressured by anyone.  My only criticism of this site is the number of vendors that line the pathways inside the grounds.  I absolutely support artisan markets, but sometimes it’s too much and in this case it does detract from the experience. 

If you are spending time in the area, then it’s worth a visit to the nearby town of Izamal.  There are several descriptive names for this town, often referred to as the “Yellow City,” or the “City of Hills”; it remains a popular place for Catholic pilgrimages. The Convento de San Antonio de Padua is a 16th Century Franciscan Monastery that boasts the second largest open atrium outside of the Vatican.  The monastery itself is build upon a Pre-Columbia Mayan Acropolis using the cut stones from the original Mayan temples in the area.  If you make the journey, a day in Izamal should be spent walking through the maze of streets and experiencing the unique blend of Mayan ruins mixed amongst Spanish Colonial architecture. Most of the town is painted in bright yellow colours, hence its moniker as the “Yellow City”.  You’ll find that the town has a very relaxing quality to it; you can explore without feeling bothered or harangued, with lots of options for street food, cafes and shopping. We managed to find a small cafe with an interior courtyard that had great food and the perfect place to enjoy a few cervezas. 

On the drive back to Piste we kept our eyes open for a cenote.  Essentially, a cenote is a freshwater sinkhole that can be cavernous or open-air.   The Yucatan is famous for these sinkholes and there are lots of tours you can find on-line; however, there are also lots of family owned cenotes you can visit that don’t draw the big crowds.   We found exactly what we were looking for, a small cenotes near Holca, called Cenote Chihuan.   The price was only 20 Peso’s each, and for that remarkable price, you got to enjoy the pristine waters of an underground cave cenote.  Upon entry, you descend into a narrow rock cavern down stone steps to arrive at a rocky outcropping looking out over the still waters within the cave.  The only sounds are the echos of your own movement and the faint drips of water seeping from the cenote walls and roof. Artificial light illuminates the crystal clear water allowing you fleeting glimpses of the catfish that call this environment home.  Trust me, there is nothing more relaxing than spending time soaking in these natural pools.  

After a few days of exploration in the Yucatan, we headed south to Playa del Carman.  The drive is several hours, but you’ll get to wind through scenic jungle lined roads, interspersed with small towns and villages along the way.  Traffic is very light until you start approaching Tulum and you’re back into the hustle and bustle of the main tourist areas.   We stayed at a hotel a few kilometres away from the centre of town and walked in every day to explore the area.  What can I say,  Playa del Carmen is tourist central. There’s lots of shopping,  restaurants and activities, but you’re going to jockey with the crowds and you’re going to get hassled along the way by shop owners and street vendors.  We did manage to find a restaurant on the beach that was so good we walked back again that night for dinner.  

While there, we decided to take a day trip over to Cozumel,  which has fast ferries that leave every other hour.  We didn’t have any expectations other than exploring the surrounding area.  The ferry lands right downtown and you don’t have to go far to find shopping and restaurants.   We managed to find an open air cafe where we ordered beer and appetizers for a few hours,  walked around town a little bit and then made our way back to Playa del Carmen.  Cozumel is well know for scuba diving and snorkelling and I suspect if you actually stayed on the island there are probably places to explore, but as a day trip, I would suggest taking a pass.  It’s simply an extension of what you find on the mainland.  Unfortunately,  our ferry ride back was late afternoon in choppy seas.  For many of the well drunk, heat exhausted passengers it was the perfect scenario for sea sickness.  I’ve never seen so many people need sick bags on public transportation; the outer deck proved to be a good choice for seating on the return trip. 

During our time in Playa del Carmen one of the things we did take in was the 3D Museum.  I highly recommend this immersive experience.  Essentially,  it’s a gallery of art work and allows you to take photos and selfies that become 3 dimensional illusions when photographed.  

We packed a lot into our two weeks, so I’m breaking this blog into two posts.  The first week highlights our road trip adventures, which culminated in us circling back to Cancun for our son to catch a flight home.  The second week, which deserves a blog unto itself, was our trip north to Isla Holbox, which was an entirely different experience.  

Mexico has an exceptionally rich and vibrant culture, surrounded by the architectural wonders and ancient antiquities left by the Mayans. I highly recommend avoiding the all-inclusive resorts on your next trip and setting out to explore some of the smaller towns in Mexico on your own.  I can assure you it is a totally different and enriching experience.