Coco Bongos

  Cancun, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
Thursday, July 3, 2008

San Cristobal

Tacos, Buritos, Fajitas, Enchiladas, Quesadillas, Mole, Tortas, Guacamole,  I absolutely love Mexican food. Oops got sidetracked by the passing waitress there.  Where was I .. oh yes, from Mexico City we took an overnight bus to the town of San Cristobal de Casas in the state of Chiapas.  I read an article about this place in National Geographic when I was waiting in a reception area, so thought it would be a good stop off on the way to the east coast.  The place is a lovely little town and has that colonial feel about it just like Colonia in Uruguay and Parity in Brazil, but unlike them places I had more time here and stayed three nights.  The place is dotted with churches in lots of different bright colours, a  real trait of the latin american churches and surely an influence from the Spanish.  It makes for a great look when combined with the surrounding equally colorful buildings.

San Cristobal Churches 1

San Cristobal Churches 2

San Cristobal Churches 3

Canon del Sumidero

Waterfall In The Canyon

Mexican Croc

While in San Cristobal we took a day trip to the Canyon Del Sumidero where we took a boat ride through the massive canyon and saw loads of birdlife including pelicans but also some crocs too (for some reason wasn't expecting these in Mexico).  There was also a big waterfall that looked like a Christmas tree.  On the way back we stopped of in a small town called Chiapa de Corzo for lunch where I had ham and cheese quesadilas (oh oh, I'm onto food again).  The rest of my time in San Cristobal I spent just chilling and enjoying the varying weather patterns from hot sunshine to tropical downpour, great place to stay for a few days though.

Palenque Ruins 1

Palenque Ruins 2

Palenque Ruins 3

From San Cristobal we traveled to Palenque which is famous for its Mayan ruins.  En route we stopped of at the Aqua Azul and Misol Ha waterfalls which were both impressive and nice to see, but joins the ranks of all the other waterfalls I'd seen over the last 10 months.  The Mayan ruins in Palenque were impressive too, huge stone pyramids and structures which you could walk up, surrounded by dense forest filled with monkeys.  The place wasnīt too crowded with tourists either which made it better as you could wander round the ruins in near complete silence adding to the eeriness of the place. 

Cancun Strip

Turquoise Cancun

From Palenque we did another overnighter bus to get to Cancun on the East coast.  Not quite sure what I was expecting from Cancun but what I found was a hugely commercialised beach resort with masses and masses and masses of resort hotels.  If you're a major hotel chain then you are here in Cancun.  And the main patrons of the place are by far and away Americans.  The beaches, where we could get to a part not owned by a hotel, we're quite average although the turquoise blue Caribbean waters were great to see.  We stayed in the downtown area which I thought was better but to get to the beaches you needed to get a 20 minute bus to the hotel zone.  The one really good thing about Cancun though ... a nightclub called Coco Bongos.  I read about this place before we got here and HBO rated it as the best nightclub in the world and well it was really really good.

Coco Bongos

Inside Coco Bongos

More Coco Bongo

It cost $40 to get in ($50 if you couldn't bear waiting 5 minutes in the queue) which is pretty expensive for a backpackers budget but this included a free bar (I was already calculating in the queue how much I had to drink to get my money back).  Coco Bongos is not just you're ordinary nightclub though, as itīs kind of a show as well.  At regular intervals there were shows on the big stage with musical portrayals on Beetlejuice and Spiderman (difficult to explain, you'd have to see it, involved lots of people hanging from the ceiling) and lookalike tribute acts to Kiss, Michael Jackson, Freddie Mercury and more.  It was a really good night and they dont try and rip you of on the free bar either, there were even waiters on the dance-floor asking if people wanted more drinks.  Very cool place all in all.

Isla Mujures

Palms In Isla Mujures

Main Street On Playa Del Carmen

From Cancun we took the 70 pesos (3 and a half quid) ferry across to Isla Mujures, which was supposed to be a more secluded island but I found that to be quite touristy too (not that big a surprise though).  The Island is long and thin and you can walk from one side to the other in just 5 minutes.  The main transport on the island is golf carts which is funny to see everyone racing around on them, but other than that there wasn't a great deal of character to the place.  The beach wasn't too great and there was one big street of restaurants and souvenir shops.  The hostel we stayed on had a good beach bar though and we also ate in a very good Cuban restaurant, which was the closest I was going to get to Cuba.  On our original itinerary we'd planned to go to Cuba for 10 days but the flights from Cancun were extortionate when we checked a few weeks earlier, so I've put it on my 'to do at a later date' list.  There wasnīt really a great deal to do in Isla Mujures so we only stayed one night, but on the way out of the hostel I noticed a scuba diving deal of 3 dives for $78 which is great value, I was left ruing that I hadnīt spotted it on the way in.

Beaches Of Playa del Carmen

Next stop on the East coast was Playa Del Carmen, where we met up with Cameron and Zara from our Peru and Bolivia tour.  We spent the Friday, and American Independence day, drinking and catching up on the beach.  Surprisingly it was quite quiet for a 4th July.  The next day was spent in similar fashion with a cooler box full of tinnies on the beach, an excellent way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  I quite liked Playa and although it had one big tourist street like the other places, it had a more laid back feel to it which I liked.  I also had Mole Chicken in a restaurant here (onto food yet again) which is a Mexican specialty and made in different ways.  The one particular one I'd heard about was chicken in a cocoa, peanut and chilli sauce and although the waiter told me that wasn't the type I was eating, I'm sure I could taste the chocolate in it.

Tullum Ruins

Ruins By The Sea

More Ruins By The Sea

The final stop in Mexico was Tullum, south of Playa.  Tullum was another beach resort but much quieter than the other two and with the added bonus of more Mayan ruins (hurrah?).  We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and the evening here was spent mainly playing poker at the hostel and taking part in their 'burn your own barbecue' offer which wasn't likely to happen as it took me 2 hours to cook a burger on their not very hot, hot plate.  The following day we went to look at the ruins and these were actually quite good as they were completely in a different setting and right down by the beach.  This was obviously where the Mayan well to do went to spend their summer holidays, a kind of Mayan Ibiza maybe.  The rest of the afternoon I spent on the beach chilling and lazing.

And that was it for Mexico and I loved it, great place, great food (in case I hadn't mentioned that), great people and lots of diversity.