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Pictures and Impressions of Cancun, MexicoA blog by Dr. Michael
If I ask my children where they want to have our next vacation, one of the places they will definitely say is Cancun. Indeed, Cancun, Mexico is one of our favorite places for vacationing. We went there during Thanksgiving week in 2003 and then had a short stop while on a cruise during Thanksgiving 2004.
There are several reasons we like Cancun.
(1) First it's very close to Houston. The atmosphere and scenary in Cancun is to a degree like Hawaii; but Cancun is only about two hours of flight from Houston while Hawaii is eight hours.
(2) Cancun is very well developed; probably not like most other Mexico cities at all. There are so many fancy hotels built along the gorgeous beaches, it felt like an American city - the restaurants, the shops, etc.
(3) At that time it's already too cool in Houston to swim outdoors. So the tropical weather in Cancun made us feel good. I am sure people from Minnesota and Canada would appreciate it even more. We did meet many people from those places. Surprisingly, there were also many European vacationers.
(4) Well, when we went there during Thanksgiving, it's not the busiest season for Cancun yet. So the whole town is not too populated with people. According to people I talked to, Cancun is famous for drinking parties, especially during spring break. That may be the time to avoid Cancun.
There is however a huge difference between Hawaii and Cancun. Hawaii is part of America. Cancun is totally a different country. This particularly shows in the airport. We had to go through long lines of customs and immigration counters before entering Cancun.
Once we picked up our luggage, a lady who wore a badge greeted me. "Is this the first time you came to Cancun? Do you want me to help you?"
"Yes," I answered and felt warm. I followed her to a counter, where she showed me a map to tell me how to get to my hotel. Then she brought out some brochures for a nice golf resort. If I attend a seminar including free breakfast and drinks at the resort the next-day morning, I can receive up to $100 worth of discounts at various attractions. I have to pay a refundable $25 to reserve the spot for the seminar.
This reminds me of a true story. When my brother-in-law and his wife came to Cancun a few months earlier, they fell to the trick and went to one of those seminars. After a few rounds of drinks, they actually bought $14,000 worth of vacation package at one of the world-wide golf resort. After the effect of the drinks was gone, they regreted it and never had a good time in Cancun. Later they fought the credit card companies to try to reverse that unfortunate purchase.
Vicky dragged me away from that counter. As we pushed our carts further, there was another counter that had several ladies crowding behind the counter trying to sell taxi services. I thought that was the only place I can buy taxi so I bought the ticket there. Later our taxi driver told me that it cost more to buy tickets there. Any taxi driver would take us to our hotel for less.
I have never seen such high-pressure, tricky sales pitches in American airports, not even in heavily tourist destination such as Orlando and Hawaii.
When we got to the hotel the views of the white-sand beaches, the blue ocean, swimming pools, and the garden were simply astonishing. We all immediately changed to shorts and sandals and ran to the beaches after dropping off the luggage at the rooms.
The hotel we stayed was called "Oasis Cancun," which was quite nice. The most memorable scene was the bar by the swimming pool. Here are some pictures of the Oasis Cancun.
These are our favorite attractions from Cancun:
(1) Swimming with dolphins, www.dolphindiscovery.com, one of kids' favorite of all vacation activities. Definitely worth the money although the tour itself is only 30 minutes or less. Our pictures with the dolphins were great. Unfortunately, I don't have them in digital format.
(2) Isla Mujeres, this is a reef park on an island about 30 minutes away from Cancun by boat. We did snorkeling, kayaking, rope riding, and had a very nice lunch buffet there. The sea-side swimming pool was simply breath-taking. This was the place that I saw most fish ever while snorkeling. The boat ride to and from the island was allot of fun too while watching other boats passing by. You can view many pictures of the park below.
(3) Xcaret - www.xcaret.net, a Maya culture theme park with beaches. We swam, did snorkeling, and saw a couple of spetacular shows there. The scenery, wild life, and nature beauty inside the park were all amazing. Located south of Cancun and across ocean from the famous Cozumel island. The 3rd group of pictures below were taken from Xcaret. I also had pictures of the fish I saw when snorkeling with underwater camera.
(4) Wet'n Wild waterpark. Houston has many waterparks. But the kids think this one is the best. When we went back to Cancun the second time for one-day visit as part of our cruise trip in 2004, the kids want to visit only this waterpark and nothing else. There was one particular ride that the kids love and we never saw such in American waterparks. It was a huge plastic baloon like a mashroom with water spreading down from the top. The kids were trying to climb to the top either barehanded or by the help of ropes.
(5) Swim with your horse, Brancho Lomba Bonita. This was a one-day event in a different area from Cancun. It involved a one-hour horse ride from the Ranch to the beach. This was my first time to ride a live horse. The horse ride was not as romantic as what was seen on movies. It was actually quite rough and slightly dangerous (depending on the horse). The ride ended at the beach where we rode the horse to the ocean.
(6) Pirates dinner and show on Captin Hook. The dinner and show took place on a ship that rode along the Cancun coast line. The music was loud. The play was funny. The atomosphere in the open space of the Caribbean sea was just entertaining. The food was quite good, too.
(7) City of Cancun tour, Besides the commercial attractions, we did many activites on our own - shopping, downtown Cancun where you get the real taste and look of Mexico, bus ride around the city, convention center area souvenir shops, restaurants, Sr. Frog.
There are many, many other attractions such as jungle tour, Tulum, Xel Ha, Chichen Itza, Caribbean carnaval, Columbus lobster dinner cruise, Isla Contoy. I am sure we'll go there again.
Pictures from Oasis Cancun Hotel
Pictures from Garrafon Reef Park
Pictures from Xcaret
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