Trip to Yucatan and Quintana Roo

My first ever post in this blog. I hope to provide some insights and tips on adventuring around the Yucatan peninsula and Quintana Roo.

Day 1

I landed in Cancun at around 8pm, and ended up taking a collectivo (shared shuttle, somewhat equivalent to Primetime/Super shuttle here in the US) to my hostel. When you step outside the Cancun airport, you will be greeted with these peddlers trying to get your service with these collectivos. They will give you the tourist price so do not get sucked into paying the first price they offer.

I also learned that Cancun doesn’t really have a rich history behind the city itself due to the fact that it was uninhabited; there with no roads to the area. It started with the Mexican government investing alongside the beaches, propping up the tourist attractions. Because of this, most of the action are not in downtown Cancun but rather on the beaches.

Our hostel was called Hostel Pueblito, and I don’t recommend this place because it was not worth the price. There was no water pressure in the bathroom, and it did not provide toilet paper. I found that overall the quality of the hostels in Cancun weren’t great to begin with based on the reviews on Hostelworld.

Day 2

Woke up at 5 am to catch a 6:30am train to Valladolid, which is the city halfway between Chichen Itza and Cancun. There we checked into our next hostel, called Hostel La Candelaria (http://hostelvalladolidyucatan.com/). They have the highest rating on Hostel World for a reason. It was reasonably priced ($45 USD for a private room), and the staff was extremely friendly. Breakfast was provided free of charge, and the place itself was well-maintained. We got there early in the morning, so our room was not ready, but they have free lockers to put in the bags so I left my 48L bag there and planned the trip out to Chichen Itza.

There is a reason why Chichen Itza is one of the 7 wonders of the world.

We then took a taxi to the Ik Kil Cenote (cenotes mean sink-holes in Spanish) to swim in the water.

I highly recommend doing this after Chichen Itza because you will feel refreshed afterwards. The taxi was about 60 pesos, and a 7 minute drive from the ruins. Depending on where you’re heading, you can either walk back out onto the road and try to catch a collectivo, or ask if the taxi can come back to pick you up from the cenote. We chose to take the taxi back to Chichen Itza so we can hop on the collectivo there. My night in Valladolid ended in walking to the center of the city for dinner and took a picture of the San Gervasio Cathedral, which is one of the oldest buildings in the city.

Day 3

Breakfast at the hostel consisted of bananas, pineapple, cereal, and eggs. We had to catch an ADO bus to Tulum. These ADO buses are the equivalent of the Greyhounds but cheaper and better. It came out to about $5-8 to travel from city to city, which again shows the standard of living in this area relative to the US. Tulum was about an hour and a half drive east of Valladolid, and the hostel I picked was called The Weary Traveler Hostel.

I believe they were established by foreigners (maybe Americans, not sure) because the place definitely has a laid back vibe to it, and the man in charge sounded like he came from the US. On their website, it says that they try to incorporate ideas from people and other hostels to make the environment as comfortable as possible.

What is nice about Quintana Roo is that they have so many Cenotes to explore! We chose the Gran Cenote, because it was the closest and I knew that I was able to snorkel in it. I can say that I popped my snorkeling cherry here in Tulum, Mexico. There was an admission fee and a small fee for lockers and life vests, so you don’t have to worry about losing your belongings when you visit these attractions. Some lockers are quite tiny so I recommend to bring only a regular backpack and leave everything else at the place you’re staying in.

What was nice about this hostel was that they also have dinner provided for 70 pesos. It was chicken stir fry so it was the most vegetables I had in the past couple days. I spent the rest of the night sitting at the communal table and talking to everyone else.

I definitely recommend going to Antojitos La Chiapaneca in Tulum. Best al pastor tacos I’ve had for the low, low price of 7 pesos each. They open from 5pm to 12am and if I could I would order 10-15 for dinner. Its rated 4.5 out of 5 on some of the websites I see on Google, so worth the visit!

Sadly, this was my last day in Mexico, so had to make the most out of it given my time constraints. Agenda for the day: Visit the Tulum Mayan Ruins and sneak in some beach time before our flight back to LA. Words cannot describe how beautiful the place was. The ruins had a beach but the waves were too choppy so they closed off the section. I ended up taking a cab to another part of the coast to check out a public beach.

I would love to wake up to this every morning.

This concludes my short but memorable trip. I definitely would love to come back because there was so much I have not checked out. For instance, I did not have a chance to visit the beaches in Cancun; Merida is another city I would like to visit; scuba diving in Tulum would be amazing. The list goes on and on.

Here are some of the tips I would advise people that want to visit the Yucatan Peninsula:

1) Read your policies regarding your bank and see if you can exchange money at an ATM without any transaction fees. I have Bank of America and they partnered up with Scotiabank so one could withdraw pesos without any fees. This is the cheapest way to exchange money in my opinion. Stay away from the airport rates, as it was about 16 pesos to $1 USD while in the cities it was 20 pesos to $1.

2) Do not get pressured into buying things or services from the vendors. They will come up to you and offer their goods, but unless you really want something, you can always say no thank you and kindly keep walking. If you do want something, definitely learn how to haggle the price down. It will save you at least several dollars.

3) You can negotiate cab prices but it also depends on the cab driver; if they know you’re a tourist, they will try to increase the price by at least 20 pesos. None of our cab rides had the same prices even when it was back and forth to our hostel.

4) Buy your bus tickets in advance. Some of the bus terminals have long lines, and if the bus runs out of seats then you have to buy tickets for the next scheduled time.

5) Be sure to leave for the airport early when you fly international!