- Palace, Privilege, Puppies and Pirates on Isla Mujeres!
- in Insider's Guide
In the search of a different vacation destination, Kathy Davis visited the tiny island of Isla Mujeres. Although the island is just a short ferry ride from Cancun, it couldn't be more different! Kathy tells us about her stay -
My boyfriend and I decided that we were going to stay on Isla Mujeres, a little island right off of Cancun, for 6 nights on our past Mexico vacation. You have to get there by ferry which takes about 20 minutes and about 20 minutes to get to the ferry dock from the airport. I was really unsure on whether this was a good idea or not because the island is only five miles long and half a mile across, and while I have stayed there before it was always a short stay. What I’m saying is it's pretty small and I was worried that we might get bored. It turns out that was not the case at all, we had a fantastic time. It was actually one of our best vacations ever!We stayed at Isla Mujeres Palace for the first three nights. This was my second stay at the Isla Mujeres Palace so I knew exactly how fantastic it was going to be. This is a small resort of about 60 rooms and it’s usually not full so the service is out of this world. Everyone knows each other by name, guests and employees. The food is so good. Breakfast and dinner are both a la carte, at least when I was there, but that could have something to do with occupancy levels. We had filet mignon that was every bit as good as you would get in the States or better. Even the wine was good and for those of you that have been to a few all-inclusive know that sometimes the wine can be not the greatest. The rooms are super fantastic like any Palace Resort with a nice bed, jacuzzi, Bio silk toiletries, liquor dispenser and a mini-fridge. Everything you need! I love this hotel. It is by far one of my all time favorites and I will be headed there again before the end of the year if I have anything to say about it!
During the day Palace Resorts brings a day tour of guests from their other resorts over to the Isla Palace. I’ve heard a few grumbles about this but really it didn’t bother us at all. There are plenty of chairs at the pool and beach and it’s nice to have some extra faces around for a few hours as long as they leave before dinner, which they do! While the extra guests are visiting is a great time to go next door to Playa Lancheros for the famous Tikin Xic, which is the island specialty of grilled grouper marinated in achiote paste and orange juice. Delicious!
- The Isla Palace is probably a couple of miles from town so you have the choice to rent a golf cart, which is approximately $50 a day, or use a taxi which I think is around $5 each way to town. We got the golf cart, which gave us freedom to come and go as we pleased. We always ended up on North Beach which is famous for the most amazing sunsets and some good drinks at Chi Chi and Charlie’s and Jax, two popular happy hour spots.
There are some Mayan ruins on the south end of the island, Punta Sur. They're at the top of these beautiful cliffs that have stairs and pathways built all into them for exploring. It’s about $3 to get in and worth it. We had a little boy that walked with us and explained everything about the ruins and cliffs (I think) except he spoke Spanish so we had no idea what he was saying. We told him that but apparently he didn’t speak English so he just kept on leading the tour and we tipped him for his great service!
In the middle of the island is the Hacienda de Mundaca. You can visit for just a few dollars but there isn’t much left of the hacienda and you must wear bug spray!! Mundaca was a pirate who lived on the island and fell in love with a young Mayan girl who just didn’t feel the same way. Legend has it that when the girl, who was 37 years younger than Mundaca, didn’t return his love he went insane and moved away. His tomb in Isla Mujeres Cemetery, which he supposedly carved himself, is still empty and displays the words "As you are, I was. As I am, you will be". Creepy huh?
One of my favorite things to do is visit that same cemetery on North Beach. It is absolutely gorgeous. It’s all above ground of course because of the sea level and is full of beautiful bright colors, flowers, candles and statues of angels. Some of the graves are even wired electrically with lights that come on at night. You can get some great photos and nobody seems to mind that you’re there as long as you’re respectful. We came back with a couple of pictures with strange white circles in them. Ok, ok maybe it was dried up salt water on the lens but maybe it wasn’t, you be the judge!!
- The island is also the home to a turtle farm and they even have a Dolphin Discovery where you swim with the dolphins. At Garrafon Park which is right next to Punta Sur you can snorkel and do a zip line, or next door to the park is Garrafon de Castillo which just a cool place to snorkel and drink inexpensively. A unique excursion to Isla is swimming with whale sharks and I don't mean in a cage or aquarium, I mean in the ocean. The whale sharks come to Isla every year between June and September and you can actually take a tour to go swim in the ocean with them. If you have never seen how huge these sharks are Google them. They are enormous!!
- There are a lot of good deeds being done on this island also. Maybe because it’s a small community and people feel like they should help each other out. If you would like to do something to give back to the community there are a couple of ways to do it. We visited two places while we were there that are run on donations. The first is Little Yellow School House. This is a school for children with mild to severe disabilities. You can donate on their website but I’ve also heard of people packing pencils and notepads, all kinds of school supplies and dropping them off right at the school.
We also visited Alison and Jeff Current's home for just a quick peek at all of their rescue dogs and puppies. I read about the rescue work they do on the island and the mainland at Isla Animals. They must take in hundreds of dogs each year, nurse them back to health, spay or neuter them, get them up on all of their shots and adopt them out. Most of the dogs go to the USA or Canada I think. When we stopped by they must have had 40 dogs and puppies at their house....heaven!
- If you're a cat person there is a woman named Lupita who has been feeding all the stray cats nightly for a long time. We ran into her one night and gave her some cat food money. I'm sure if you ask around someone can tell you exactly where to find her. I also found a Facebook page called “isla cats need help”. It was set up by a woman named Josefina who owns Casa Luz Spa. It looks like she is doing rescue work and I'm sure will accept donations. I definitely plan to look her up for my next trip and maybe make a spa appointment.
Lots of people say there's not much nightlife on Isla and it's a happy hour type of place. While the happy hour part is true we managed to stay out until at least 3am the nights we went out and we had a blast. There are plenty of restaurants and bars up and down the main strip, Hidalgo Ave. It seemed to be pretty happening with live bands and dancing but my favorite place was Pac-Na Bar. There was a lot of craziness going on there for sure!! They had DJ's and a small dance floor and ‘two for one’ drink specials. Oh and all of this was outdoors right on the beach. We met so many people from all over the world there. We also met up with our friends Luis and Victor who work at the Isla Palace. Pac-Na bar is at the Pac-Na Youth Hostel so you can imagine that you would find a lot of interesting characters there.
- We didn't eat out a lot as we had all-inclusive at the resorts but we heard great things about Mercado Municipal which has several food stalls and I hear its very inexpensive, authentic Mexican food. We found a taco stand that my boyfriend loved right outside of Privilege Aluxes. We ate dinner there twice. If I remember correctly it was about $14US for two meals with sodas.
So, for the last three nights we stayed at Privilege Aluxes. It was very modern and new and in the best location on the whole island, right on the tip end of North Beach. The room we had was small but totally functional with lots of closet space and a nice bathroom. The balcony was big and had a jacuzzi. The pool was gorgeous, very Thai-Asian looking with a wooden pool deck and comfy loungers. The beach of course was beautiful. They had Balinese beds and a couple different types of lounge chairs. They also have food and drink service on the beach. The breakfast buffet was delicious. I highly recommend the breakfast plan at this resort. You can walk anywhere in town and get dinner or snacks and drinks for your room.
I think my favorite thing about our vacation was that about half way through we realized as we were walking down the street that we were seeing people that we knew on every block. Of course they were people that we had just met on vacation but really it was like every few steps we were saying hello to one of our new friends. We felt completely at home on Isla except we didn't have to clean, cook or go to work!
- The only problem I have with going back is which hotel to stay at!!?? I really don't think I could pick between the two. They both have really fantastic qualities and I can’t choose a favorite! I guess I'll just split my stay between the two again!
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