Carolyn's 2cents: Playa Del Carmen, week 7- Isla Mujeres

Near the end of week 6, I came down with a cold, so I am behind in my Blogs. We are actually home now, but I need to write about our trip to Isla Mujeres ( eez la Moo hay ris). We loved this small island off of Cancun.

On Tuesday we took the ADO bus from Playa Del Carmen (48 pesos per person) and then a cab(60 pesos) to the Ferry dock at Gran Puerto. Even though I asked the cab driver to take us to Gran Puerto, we ended up at the other ferry dock of Puerto Juarez, we had no idea what they looked like so we were tricked! It was still a ferry dock, but not for the nice Ultramar ferry, this was for Magna ferry.
We did save 5 pesos each, but not quite the same ride! (5 pesos = 40 cents cdn)

this is Ultramar

This is what we got instead...........magna

Luckily this was the only disappointment of our trip, and a small one at that! This small island looks like a fishing village when you arrive. Of course there are salesman trying to sell you tours or rentals of scooters or golf carts, and there is shopping, but it just has a more laid back feel, we noticed a difference almost immediately. There are very few cars, some taxis but mostly everyone drives golf carts or scooters, so it is so much quieter.

We could not rent a golf cart when we go there, it was a busy day for the Carnaval celebration. (Now what they think is busy is 100X quieter than Playa Del Carmen) So we walked, had lunch at a beach front seafood restaurant, which was great and inexpensive(just as we like them). So we continued to check out the town, and some really nice beaches, and decided to stay the night.

We walked into a couple hotels and they kindly gave us tour and showed us the rooms, prices were good $128 US at the Avalon Reef Club, but the hotel was old and nothing special to put it nicely.

Avalon Reef Hotel....looks great from here, disappointing inside.

We decided on the Ixchel Hotel, $139 US for a King size bed, very clean, quiet and the beach was just like one in the Bahamas! Loved this place, we will go back for a week next time.

Ixchel Hotel from the water
http://www.ixchelbeachhotel.com/

Beach in front of hotel, facing west to watch the sunset, shallow, warm & fish swimming all around you

We sat in beach loungers and watched the sunset, then went to find a restaurant on their pedestrian only street called Av. Hidalgo. It is a smaller version of 5th Ave in Playa Del Carmen, but great looking places, all very reasonably priced, we had trouble choosing one. We tried a Mexican place called Don Chepo, 2 for 1 drinks and very good food. It would be fun to be here for a week to try more places, and so nice that they were not overpriced like Playa Del Carmen.

The next morning we had breakfast at the Rooster, and I had the best yogurt and granola I have ever had at a restaurant, covered in berries, sadly it was too big for me to finish it all! Then we rented a golf cart and drove around the island, took about an hour, stopping to see the sights.

We just love this Island, it is so different from Cancun, no all inclusive resorts, no Coco Bongo, so much more our speed.