We had another late morning since we stayed for breakfast at our B&B and then had to organize our luggage since we were too tired to do it the night before. Really what happened is that a roach fell our of our AC unit right after turning on the air and landed on our bed right in front of me and then disappeared into thin air! We searched the room for 30 minutes but never saw it again. And the worst part was that it was hiding underneath our bed somewhere! I spent the rest of the night worrying that the roach would find its way back to where we were sleeping and probably slept for a total of 3 hours that night. That's it! I'm bringing the hotel average down to 3 stars!!!
After organizing our luggage and chatting with a nice couple at breakfast and gearing up it was about 11 by the time we checked out. Though, at the exact moment we finished loading up the bike a rain storm that had been threatening us all morning decided to downpour as we were getting onto the bike. We chose to wait it out for 20-30 minutes, but then decided if we wanted to make any progress today then we would just have to suck it up and head out in the rain. We put our rain gear on over our moto gear, which proved to be quite effective and extremely hot at the same time, and headed out into the rain. I think once we pulled out of Puerto Aventuras the rain stopped completely so we only needed our rain gear for about 1 minute. The cloud seemed to be hovering only over Puerto so we didn't need the rain gear the rest of the drive,
Right before checking out of our hotel I recommended we go to Isla Mujeras instead of Holbox Island today since it was closer. What was the point in rushing on our first day in? We booked a hotel online right before leaving and changed our plans. We would try to catch the 1:30 ferry that would bring us and our bike over to Isla Mujeras from Cancun. It would take us a little over an hour to get up to Cancun so we were really pushing the time. In the end, we got lost (since all the signs pointing to the port were hidden in bushes) and wound up being 20 minutes late. The next ferry would be 4 hours later so we had some time to kill, and decided to walk around a local beach, have some lunch, and relax in the shade for the next 4 hours.
We recently bought a large pac safe so that we could leave our items in our milk crate unattended on days such as this. we were able to store our jackets and attach our helmets to it as well, which was absolutely a load off while walking around!!
Kibbe, a Lebanese dish sold on the streets of Mexico! Nice surprise and pretty good! We later learned that there is a large Middle Eastern community now living in this part of Mexico.
Off the side of the beach we stumbled upon this row of fisherman shacks and restaurants. Beyond those boats and across the way is a clear view of the hotel zone in Cancun. What a strange, alternate universe it must be for these fisherman to wake up in the morning in one of these shacks, and head out to work to provide fish for the 5 star resorts just across the way! Vice versa I wonder how it would make those 5 star, all inclusive resort stayers feel to learn just outside their view from their balconies a community like this even exists?
We chose to eat at one of the shacks along the way since we still had a few hours and this place looked good. The restaurant was packed and there was only one empty table so we grabbed it. People were eating family style fish and Ceviche and drinking beers while their children ran around playing with one another. What is it about kids that they are perfectly content playing with other stranger kids? Anyway, they provided great entertainment. That along with the drunk guy sitting across the table from us eating his fish with his eyes closed, dropping his fish head on the ground and not noticing it for a good 40 seconds later.
We ordered the small Ceviche, and boy am I glad! Who knows what the large would have looked like! Either way it was fantastic on top of crackers and tortillas. We ordered a few sodas to go along with it. It was a nice, refreshing way to spend a couple hours.
Watch drunk dude eating fish here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/whereruericliu/14565380127/
Isla Mujeras has some pretty cool places to go diving, but since we would only be on the island for 2 days we decided we wouldn't have time.
At 5:30 on the dot we loaded the ferry for the 30-45 minute ride over to Isla Mujeras
The water on the ride over a nice, clear turquoise the whole way.
Isla Mujeras isnt that far away. The passenger only ferry takes just 15 minutes on a high speed boat, but the car ferry takes about 30-45 minutes as it carries large vehicles and semi trucks as well.
It suddenly wasn't so hot anymore with the nice breeze from the water.
Welcome to Isla Mujeras!
Our hotel room for the next 2 days
The beach is just across the road
We hit the beach for a nice swim at sunset, and then spent the rest of the night walking around downtown Isla before settling into a restaurant for a 3 tacos + 1 beer special on the tourist strip. The scenery was nice, and the tacos were good. I gave Eric the rest of my beer since I was starting to get a headache, probably from dehydration. Isla is a great little island with your typical tourist shops and restaurants but has a nice Italian vibe since there are many Italian expats and hasn't quite hit that point of Tulum where the prices are too high for any low budget tourist.
Later back at our hotel room, I spent the night doing laundry before heading off to bed. I found this way to be much more effective and less of a pain than washing each piece individually in the sink:
