Isla Mujeres

Isla Mujeres is an island just off the coast of Mexico, across from Cancun. It is popular with cruisers, one of the few places to safely anchor on this coast. We had originally planned to anchor there, but we enjoyed the marina so much we just stayed there for the week. The island’s main industry has to be tourism, seems like it has a small area downtown of about 2 long streets with many restaurants, Mexican souvenirs, that sort of thing, as well as multiple vacation rentals. There is only a small area for locals to live, I think many of them come daily by ferry from Cancun to work.

The marina we stayed at has multiple names, on most of the maps it is called Puerto Isla Mujeres. It has since been bought by Wyndam and although that name is on all the signs, the taxi drivers know it as Puerto Villa Vera–important to know when we wanted them to take us back home. A trip into town by taxi was 50 pesos. Current exchange= 18 pesos per dollar.

The marina was beautiful, safe, and not busy at all since this is not their high season. There is a guard shack at the entrance, and security patrolling the premises and docks as well. They have a pool with a little bar and seating nearby with menus to order food from the restaurant. Although the food was a little bit more expensive than in town, compared to American prices it was still crazy cheap. We stayed at this marina for 4 nights (arrived Tuesday midday and left Saturday night), were plugged in with 110 power, had multiple incidentals at the bar for beverages, a couple of snacks (fruit plate, chips, guacamole) and one lunch for all of us. Total cost– about $200 American dollars.

The food in Mexico is fabulous, but they would not recognize an American taco, even from my favorite taco place– Tijuana Flats. The meat is not made with El Paso taco seasoning mix, and they do not have typical American condiments like cheese, sour cream, lettuce and tomato. Instead the tacos are made with soft fresh warm corn tortillas, meat (beef, chicken, fish, pork, or goat), and then some toppings like onions, cilantro, peppers, cabbage, fresh lime, and avocado. So good!

One never ending source of amusement for us was all the sailing trips that drove past our slip in the marina. For as reasonable price tourists could go “sailing” on a catamaran. Basically as many people as can fit on the bow of the boat load up on a catamaran and then drive up and down the canal in the middle of Isla Mujeres playing traditional Mexican music like “Havana” and “Despacito”— they have Spanish lyrics in them– gotta be Mexican, right? Once or twice we saw some pass with the main up or a storm jib raised, although always carefully tied to keep it in center so no one gets hit with the boom or a jibsheet (and keeping them from actually “sailing”). Sometimes people start their voyage sitting, then when they return they are up and dancing on the bow of the boat. I am guessing there are alcoholic beverages involved in these trips.

But it did look like everyone was having a ton of fun, maybe a future money-making possibility?

We spent some time strolling up and down the streets. Whenever we got separated from each other it was usually easy to enlist help from the shopkeepers. I just had to say, “mi hijo” and raise my hand way above my head– Benjamin being so much taller than the mexicanos stood out in a crowd. There were rows and rows of stores selling souvenirs and various trinkets with restaurants interspersed. Like I’ve experienced in other cities in Mexico the shopkeepers and restaurateurs stand at the entrance to the stores and hawk their wares.

Most of the people got around on scooters and golf carts, and it was easy for the tourists to rent golf carts to get around as well. There were also lots of little red taxis, and then occasionally a regular vehicle. For $700 pesos we rented a golf cart one day. When I drove it I felt like I was playing MarioCart. I just needed to be tossing turtle shells and banana peels at the other cars as they passed me (and just like in Mario Cart I was being passed right and left).

I’m sure there had to be a speed limit, although there wasn’t much in the way of posted signs. Basically everyone just went as fast as they could go until they hit a teeth jarring speed bump.

We went to a grocery store while we had the golf cart. We haven’t found refrigerated milk anywhere in Mexico, only boxed milk. But overall there was a good selection. I was looking for food coloring…very interesting trying to describe it to the cashier. I know medical Spanish which is not practical in a Mexican grocery store. Either they didn’t have it or they didn’t understand my Spanish. Basically I said “gotas para cambiar el color de la comida” = “drops in order to change the color of the food.” Makes sense, right?

I ran into a bank to change money. The ATM gave me everything in $500 peso bills, and I needed smaller bills. I figured a bank could do this easily, right? Well I walked in and there was an electronic machine to take a number. Except I had no idea what each number was for (even google translate couldn’t help me with this one). So I took one of each.

I looked at the posted electronic signs, not even one of the posted numbers was even close to these. I stood around for a while, trying to listen to what numbers were being called. I finally asked someone if I was in the right line. He said yes I was, but that it would be faster to walk to a bank a few blocks down, their lines were smaller. And I had time to walk a few blocks, check out the other bank, and return if needed before my number would be called. We went to the other bank, no problem. Like he said, much faster. I’m sure everyone at the first bank was happy I left– their lines got a little shorter without a 53, 248, or 14 to answer the call.

On the south end of the island is a ruin of a Mayan temple. We took the golf cart there and looked around. Their are beautiful views of the coastline from there. It is also the most eastern point in all of Mexico, the first area to experience the sunrise every morning. There was a path that took you down from the temple to close to the water.

Overall we really enjoyed our stay in Isla Mujeres. Although it is definitely a town for tourists the people are friendly, forgiving of my bad Spanish, and it feels safe (although we follow general safe practices like not going out by ourselves at night or off the main streets). The prices are a welcome relief from what we experienced in the Bahamas last spring, and the food is fabulous!