Cancun Diary

Playa Delfines

Nov 20-25 2022

Day 1:

Leave home for LAX in Honda accord at 6:45am for flight to Cancun. Park car in Wally Park long term parking near LAX and take shuttle to airport.

JetBlue LAX-CUN flight 1570 departs 10:50am arrives 6:30PM. Lots of kids. Small plane. We’re seated 3-4 rows from the back. Have idli and baked samosa for lunch. Had idli in airport for breakfast. Slick and Barfi tag along. Pleasant flight - starts on time and arrives 15 minutes early. Amazing views of Cancun from the air. Can see strips of land surrounded by azure waters. Looks very green as we land. We are entering the tropics.

Airport is nice and clean. Accosted by well-dressed, official touts with tables and all inside the terminal trying to sell us time shares. Why is this even allowed? Creates a poor first impression.

Outside it is hot and humid. 80% as humid as Mumbai. More touts for taxis. Nobody will tell us where our shuttle is though they must surely know. Also hard to communicate since most people seem to only speak Spanish. Even an airport staff misdirects us.

Wait for 45 minutes for shuttle. Everyone who comes after us has left. Shuttle coordinator guy, bespectacled and avuncular, tells us there is traffic. There has been a crash. Then why are other shuttles coming and going?

Finally a gray Toyota minivan picks us up. Driver greets us in a flurry of Spanish. Hotel is half hour drive through mostly empty freeway lined by unfinished shoulders. It is already dark so not much to see.

Bespectacled check in guy at hotel can thankfully speak English, though he initially addresses us in Spanish. Room 218 is nice but view is of adjoining Wyndham hotel. 2 queen beds, fridge, 65 or 55 inch TV. Nice shower.

We are very tired and order room service after thinking of stepping outside for dinner. We order 2 medium pizzas with some difficulty, since the room service can’t understand English. He gets someone who can. We order a veg pizza with jalapeños and bell peppers, a margherita pizza, and a lemonade. The food arrives in 25 minutes, brought in by a very small Native Indian looking guy - maybe a Mayan. The pizza is thick and loaded with cheese and veggies. The veg pizza is lightly spicy but delicious. Margherita pizza is also tasty though a little bland. Lemonade is not sweet.

We watch some TV for a while - only 1 or 2 channels are English. Sleep at 11 which is actually 9pm LA time.

Day 2:

Breakfast at hotel. It is crowded. Not much to shout about. There are some Mexican items but we can’t be sure they are vegetarian and it would be hard to ask. We have a lot of fresh fruit - watermelon, papaya, melons, strawberry yogurt, butter toast, pineapple juice and coffee.

We ask the reception clerk about guided tours but get absolutely no help. We return to the room and Kamini makes online bookings for Chichen Itza/Ek Balam and Tulum/Coba. Looks like we will be waking up very early for next two days. I book an Uber for Playa Delfines beach.

We go down and somehow miss the Uber or the guy is in the wrong place. I call him but again, communication is problematic. Meanwhile, taxi drivers accost us, informing us that Uber is illegal. The Uber cancels after some back and forth. He was probably scared to come to the Main Street since taxi drivers are opposed to Uber.

We reluctantly approach the cabbie and ask him how much he will charge. We haggle him down to 300 pesos. He finally takes us. It is a 20-25 minute drive. The beach is white sand and the water is turquoise and there are many thatched umbrellas. It is crowded. There is a large “Cancun” sign for which there is a long queue to take photos. We decide to skip it and head down to the beach. It is very hot and all the umbrellas are taken. We step into the water which is lukewarm. Much warmer than Southern California waters. It is very refreshing and Shonu has a great time. The sand sticks to our shoes and chappals and is hard to get off. We wash it off in the showers. Then we queue up for Cancun sign photos. This takes 15-20 minutes but we get good photos and a lovely beach view while waiting. Kamini says the woman ahead of us is Vidya’s double, but older.

Now we have to get back. Kamini has looked up local buses and says we can take an R-2 bus to downtown. We hop into one. It costs 12 pesos per person. We have some trouble communicating with the driver who is collecting the money. A passenger helps us. It feels nice to use public transport and travel like locals. The bus is full of Mexicans. We are out of place but noticing things we usually ignore at home.

We get down at downtown and walk ten minutes to Herbivoro, a vegan restaurant Kamini has spotted on the opposite side of the road from our hotel. It is a very nice and welcoming place. We order nachos, tacos and burritos. Shonu orders strawberry lemonade, Kamini orders a refresher drink and I order an orange and berry drink. The food is delicious. The tacos and burritos and nachos have fake meat soya chunks but it all looks appetizing.

We head back to the hotel and take a nice nap. Shonu has picked up a cold. Around 5 we head down to the cafe right outside for some coffee and hot chocolate all of which are delicioso. The cafe owners or waiters are two young boys, rather friendly. They inform us the cafe is open till 11. We say we will be back for food another day.

From there we take a short walk to Plaza las Americas mall to buy shorts for Shonu since she didn’t pack any and it is too hot to not wear shorts. It is a large mall just like in the US but super crowded. And it’s only a weekday. We get a visceral feel of being in a foreign country. Shonu wants to go into an Old Navy store. She finds a pair of turquoise shorts.

We walk back and get dessert from Herbivoro. Three tiramisu slices since that is the only nut free dessert. They turn out to be quite large. We could have ordered just one.

We return to the hotel and share one tiramisu, and then sleep early at 9 to wake up at 5. Have to be at pickup spot by 7 for Chichen Itza tour tomorrow.

Day 3:

Woke up at 5 and got ready by 6:30 for Chichen Itza/Ek Balam/cenote guided tour. The pickup was nearby and we were the first onboard the bus at 7am. There was a guide named Gustavo and a driver named Cesar, who was watching videos on a phone hooked to the dash. There was another pickup in Cancun, then the shuttle moved on. We thought it was heading towards the destination, but it was actually headed in the opposite direction towards Playa del Carmen to pick up more passengers. It made a long half hour detour into a Hilton resort with a cobbled entrance and a long drive through a road with wetlands on either side. We saw crocodile warning boards. Four more passengers were picked up. Then I had a nap. When I woke up, we were in Playa del Carmen and it was 9 o’clock. There was a final pickup of another 3 people there. We had spent 2 hours just picking up people and had actually gone backwards from our starting point. This was beyond ridiculous.

We finally started towards our destination on a triangular path rather than going back through Cancun to our relief. The highway was good and soon we were surrounded by jungle on both sides. The guide informed us that the jungles had jaguars and pumas and monkeys. He showed us ropeways strung over the roads from poles for wildlife to cross.

We went right at one fork, towards a board that said Cancun. The driver wasn’t sure which fork to take and neither was the guide. Twenty minutes later on a small inner road lined by villages, he made a U-turn and went back. When we reached the fork, he didn’t take the freeway but took an inner road instead. It passed through many quaint little villages which were admittedl interesting. But it cost us valuable time. Not to mention there were innumerable speed bumps on this road. The guide who spoke broken English, said that we would first go to Ek Balam, then to Chichen Itza, then have lunch, then go to cenote and then return. It was an ambitious agenda given we had already lost 3 hours to the pickup and the wrong fork snafu.

Along the way the guide showed us a Mayan woman as a representative of the people of Yucatán state very short, stout and almost neckless. It felt a little demeaning for everyone to be staring at that poor woman just walking down the street.

Kamini asked him what time would we have lunch. He said 2 pm which meant it could have easily been 3-4 pm. She asked him to prepone the lunch which he agreed to after some time.

We finally reached Ek Balam at around 12:30. After a walk through a shaded jungle path where it felt cool, we emerged into the main complex which was exposed and brutally hot. The guide made his speech before the first structure which was a small temple with steps. We walked into a narrow gully and emerged into a large clearing where the main pyramid stood. It was an unusual structure with thatched roofs covering certain side structures. The steps went up at a dizzying 45 degree angle and were uneven and tall. Midway, there was a terrace with some rooms for ceremonies. There were stucco carvings here.

The guide gave his speech and gave us 30 minutes to climb the pyramid if we wanted to. We decided to go halfway to the terrace and come back. The climb was not hard as long as you didn’t look down. The guide advised us to climb sideways and that helped. After 5 minutes, we reached the terrace. We saw the carvings up close and also got a nice panoramic view of the surrounding jungle. It felt like the pyramid from Tintin and the Picaros. In fact that book was the reason I wanted to see these pyramids.

Getting down was a lot harder. It was terrifying to look down the steps. I told Shonu to not look down and just focus on the next step and step down sideways. Kamini used a different technique, combining sideways steps with half sitting. After 5 more minutes we managed to climb down. We were sweating profusely due to the heat and from the effort.

Next we headed to a place for lunch. It was called Real Maya center or something like that. A small Mayan dressed in white shirt and pant and a hat was introduced as a shaman. He burnt some incense, sprinkled some water over us using leaves and blessed us, quite like an Indian pandit.

The lunch consisted of tortillas, rice, beans, boiled veggies and nachos. There was sliced watermelon for dessert. It was underwhelming.

After the lunch, we left for Chichen Itza, a UNESCO world heritage site. It took another half hour to reach. We had to walk through many stalls where hawkers were trying to sell various stuff handicrafts, mementoes. An instrument that made an animal sound like a jaguar was demonstrated repeatedly by vendors and it was quite annoying. People were trying to sell things to us for “only one dollar, almost free.” One vendor called out “Namaste” to us and tried to sell something for one dollar.

After walking through this, we reached the main complex and caught a hint of the main pyramid through trees. It seemed quite large and impressive as it emerged into view. The guide had to give his speech again. It was getting a little tiresome, since he spoke broken English and we had a hard time understanding him. He also had only one or two jokes which he was repeating ad nauseam.

He took us around showing various structures smaller secondary temples, a ball court, demonstrating how the structures were built to echo and amplify certain sounds back. It wasn’t bad information, but we were all too hot and tired and wanted to explore on our own.

He finally gave us an hour to explore after his sermons. By that time it had cooled down thanks to some dark clouds and a breeze was blowing as well. We walked around the main pyramid, taking some photos. A few drops of rain fell as we left.

Next stop was cenote. It was around 5:30 and already getting dark due to clouds. Some guests swam, but we just went down into the cenote, which is a sinkhole, formed by water erosion of the limestone karst rock. It was used as a water source by the Mayans and many of their cities were located around them. It was spectacularly large and beautiful. While we were taking photos, a swarm of bats entered the cenote and started circling it. We left hurriedly amidst screams.

By the time we left the cenote it was nearly 7 o’clock. We expected to return by around 9. But it took much longer. They retraced the journey, so that the guests who got picked up last from Playa del Carmen were dropped off first. It was 9:15 by then. We gave the guide a piece of our mind, since the tour was only supposed to be 12 hours long and would clearly now be 15-16 hours long. No dinner had been provided and no halt made for it. Nor were guests asked to bring dinner. Moreover we had another tour to Tulum scheduled tomorrow at 5:50am which we would now have to miss. We finally reached at 10:30.

We went into the cafe right outside the hotel and had nachos and fajitas which were great and Kamini almost wanted to lick the cheese sauce off the plate. (She typed this and I didn’t agree with her assessment of the food).

Shonu’s cold was also much worse. We decided to cancel the tour tomorrow and sleep in. We would worry about refunds later.

Day 4:

Slept in and didn’t wake up for the Tulum tour at 5:5am. Had leftover food for lunch. Microwaved downstairs.

Went to Playa Langosta in evening by taxi. Cost 250 pesos. Kamini made me Ask the driver named David cost for hiring taxi for one day for Tulum. Brought it down to 3500 from 4000 pesos.

Playa Langosta which the cabbie had recommended us on first day instead of Playa Delfines, was excellent. It is a lagoon with hardly any waves and very low depth water. Can walk a few yards into water and even sit in water since no waves. Shonu had a great time. It was the highlight of her trip. She wanted us to cancel Tulum trip and spend the next day here.

Another cabbie asked 300 pesos to drive us back. Kamini Decided to walk and reached a bus stop. Took R-1 bus to downtown. It was crowded. There was a guy with a guitar singing. Bus was full of Mexicans on their phones. Felt weird in a good way. We were the odd people out. Gave the singer a couple of coins. We got off in downtown, walked 10 minutes to an Indian restaurant nearby - Taste of India.

Didn’t see any Indians there. Servers were all Mexican. Ordered paneer makhani, veg kolhapuri and garlic naan, lachha paratha, sprite, mojito and lassi for drinks. By now we were smart enough to use Google translate to communicate Shonu’s food allergies. Although we told them no nuts when ordering, they said that the paneer makhani did have nuts when they brought it out. They agreed to remake it. Meanwhile Shonu had the veg kolhapuri and said that her lips are swelling. That was the end of paneer for Shonu. She only had yogurt and plain rice. Me and Kamini had the paneer.

We walked back to the hotel. We played two rounds of Uno for some time while listening to Bollywood songs. Slick was dancing energetically to a qawwali song from Bajrangi Bhaijaan movie - Bhar do jholi meri. Shonu had created some wildcards that were +6 and +19, when she was 7 years old, which was quite sadistic, since the receiver had to draw those many cards from the shared deck. I happened to get 2-3 +4 cards and the +6 and +19, most of which Kamini had to pick up. It was quite hilarious and Shonu rolled around on the bed in laughter when Kamini got the +6 and +19 cards. She refused to pick up all the cards and only picked up 4. Ultimately though, she ended up winning one round and I won the next.

Day 5:

Woke up at 6:30, got ready and had breakfast of fresh melon, yogurt, toast, oatmeal and coffee. Shonu had hot tea for her cold. David, the taxi driver from yesterday was waiting for us, but in a twist, directed us to another driver named Carlos who would take us for the same amount. I asked him if he spoke a little English. He assured me he would manage with his phone. I was a little unsure but Carlos seemed friendly and his taxi had seat belts. So we went along for the ride, little knowing how much we would come to like and appreciate Carlos.

Carlos didn’t know more than a couple of English words - just like our knowledge of Spanish. He used a translation app on his phone, speaking Spanish into the app and playing back the English translation for us. Kamini did the same and we were able to communicate quite effectively.

He wanted to take us to a lot more places than we had asked for - 3 cenotes and Puerto Morelos in addition to Tulum and Playa del Carmen. We told him we mainly wanted to see the Tulum ruins and Playa del Carmen and could visit the other places if there was time. He agreed without pushback.

Tulum ruins: It was a very pleasant drive despite mucho trafico while exiting Cancun. Carlos informed us he had been living in Cancun for 22 años. He asked where we were from. We told him we were from LA and had been living there for 20 años. We asked him what the meaning of Quintana Roo was - the state Cancun is in. He informed us that it was named after a person (Andrés Quintana Roo, a freedom fighter) and that Cancun, Tulum, Playa del Carmen were all in Quintana Roo. There were many parks and resorts along the way. There was a Nickelodeon park which cost 700 USD per day, Carlos informed us - muy expensive. He pointed out other places along the way - Puerto Morales and some cenotes.

We reached Tulum after a couple of hours, passing through Playa del Carmen at the halfway point. Carlos dropped us off at the archaeological zone entrance and warned us against touts trying to book us into expensive guided tours. He gestured to us to walk straight past them to the ticket booth. There was a little market with shops and eateries on the way. We had refreshing coconut water here while watching flying dancers perform (they tied themselves to a pole using ropes). We also had a baño (restroom) break.

It was a short hike to ticket booth. We stood in line and when it was our turn, I had a conversation entirely in Spanish. “Hola. Tres. Gracias.” (Hello. Three. Thanks.)

From the entrance, it was a short walk up a curving path through dense foliage. There was a tunnel like entrance through a rock wall which brought us into the main complex. It was blisteringly hot. The ruins were smaller in scale compared to what we had seen in Chichen Itza and Ek Balam. We walked up a narrow path to a small hilltop with a view of the turquoise Carribean Sea. We squeezed through another tunnel in the rock wall and reached a boundary wall from where there was another ocean view to be had. We went back through the tunnel and down and up the winding path which now curved up and towards the ocean. Along the way we passed a large structure which the placard informed us was a palace for the local chief. Tulum was a trading post of the Mayan empire 800 years ago. The path continued to a deck with espectacular views of the sea and the ruins. It continued along the coast. We spotted several iguanas coolly sunbathing in the ruins.

It was so hot we had to take frequent breaks in the shade. A temple along the coast was a miniature replica of the one in Chichen Itza and was used for ceremonial purposes, a placard informed us. We didn’t see any stucco carvings except in one structure. Probably due to weathering.

The complex was very well maintained with paved walkways and numerous informational placards in contrast to the other places we had been to. We finally exited after spending a couple of hours. A worker told us the exit lead to a playa (beach). We were all tired and Shonu also had a bad cold but we still soldiered on towards the playa, which was a 10 minute walk.

It was a beautiful beach with a view of the ruins on the cliffs in the distance. There were many food and beverage vendors, like in India. There was a little park with a swing where Shonu swung a little. We trudged back some photos later.

Back at the market, we stopped at the coconut vendor who also had a little eatery. We showed him our Google translate food allergy and restriction photo. At first he refused saying all his items contain meat. Then Kamini asked him to make Tacos with cheese and potatoes, quesadilla with cheese and nachos with beans and cheese. We also ordered 2 piña coladas, a cocktail of pineapple juice and coconut (usually with rum but we took the non-alcoholic version). It was muy delicioso (very tasty) and refreshing. The food was simple, almost barebones, but tasty. It was also the right amount. Sometimes good food is ruined by excessive portion sizes.

We messaged Carlos we were done. He was waiting for us at the entrance. It was 3 o’clock and we decided to skip cenotes and head to Playa del Carmen.

We reached in an hour. Carlos dropped us at Quinta Avenida, a shop lined street similar to 3rd street in Santa Monica. He told us that he would pick us up at the same spot and motioned towards a landmark - Coco Bongo. There were some nice murals on the walls, and a path to the ocean. Some nice decorative flags. But it was overall underwhelming. The shops were ridiculously expensive. We had mocha and Shonu had strawberry acai cold tea from a Starbucks.

We headed back to the taxi and Carlos was surprised we were back so soon. Muy rápido. As we drove back it started raining - mucha lluvia. We also ran into mucho traffico as we neared Cancun.

I paid him the agreed fee (3500 pesos) and told him: excelente servicio. Muchas gracias.

After a while we had dinner at Herbivoro. Enchiladas and nachos. We saw Carlos on the way and told him we were out to have tacos. He told us to go to another Mexican place but when we told him no carne (no meat), he understood and told us we were headed to the right place.

On the whole it was a very productive and enjoyable day.

Day 6:

Woke up at 8am. Got ready and went for breakfast. Finished packing and checked out at 1pm. Kept our bags at the front desk and walked over to the restaurant next door in Wyndham Gardens. Ordered a veg pizza. It turned out to be the same place as the Room service which was good because we knew that pizza was safe.

We sat watching USA vs England World Cup game in the hotel lobby which was 0-0 at the time, but USA looked the better team (it ended in 0-0). Shuttle picked us up at 2:30. Driver wasn’t very talkative. I did get to use mucho traffico phrase on him since there was a lot of traffic. He had some very energetic and funny Mexican music on the radio at low volume.

We reached airport at 3:30. Flight was on Alaska airlines 441B. Got boarding passes - they automatically assigned us premium seats - probably because nobody bought them. After clearing security we sat at the gate for some time. I was typing travel diary. Shonu and Kamini were looking at photos. They went and got packed food - hummus wrap - for the flight. I went and got another box since the box they got only had two pieces.

Flight departed on time. I finished typing up diary on the flight. Kamini read and made some corrections where she felt she didn’t get credit.

It has been a mixed trip but very happy we got to see the Mexican pyramids and experience the cuisine and local culture.

The seats ahead of us are empty. I take those seats since Shonu and Kamini want to sleep. Got some fantastic views of Mexican and US cities from the air. Splotches of light - big ones major cities, small ones towns or villages. Saw Phoenix, Tucson, Palm Springs area, Mexicali, Dana Point, Irvine, LA downtown.

Flight reached at 8:30. It took us nearly 45 minutes to exit airport even though we had no checked in bags and got an unexpected ride on a passenger cart. LAX airport is a disgrace.

One ordeal ends and another begins. It takes us 45 minutes and much walking back and forth and taking elevators to figure out the shuttle pickup stop. We finally reach the parking lot at 9:45, collect the car and reach home by 10:30.