I left the US for the first time in my life and here is where I went!
First off, where was I?
Isla Mujeres is a small island off the coast of Cancun Mexico, taking about 20 minutes to drive from end to end on a golf cart. It probably be faster if traffic wasn’t so bad!
The Different Parts of the Island
This is the northern part of the Island and its where most of the touristy stuff is. We’re talking gift shops selling a bunch of gimmicky items, people attempting to sell you those gimmicky items and a lot of tourist in golf carts trying to navigate it all.
Mid Island
Once you got out of the touristy area, you come to where most of the locals lived.
This was the section of the island that my hotel was on.
It was a pretty good hotel, but there was no refrigerator in the room, so that meant anything we ate at a restaurant needed to be eaten at the restaurant. No leftovers for us!
However, that really didn’t become too much of an issue because the food was amazing! We’ll get to food in a little bit.
The Southern Part of the Island
This is where a lot of airbnb and really rich people’s houses were.
The Southern part of the Island known as Punta Sur is where an old Mayan temple to the Goddess Ixchel used to be. Its partially there still.
I didn’t get a lot of photos of this area unfortunately. I got distracted by trying to get photos of the iguanas lol.
Iguanas weren’t the only animal I saw on the island though!
Lots of Street Dogs too
My Partner and I also came across a boxer on the beach that we weren’t sure was a street dog or not. Turns out it was from a few hotel’s down the beach!
Saw a couple cats too!
Not just Land Animals
I went Scuba Diving for the first time in my life!
We dove down to the see the underwater museum that is being used to help encourage new reef growing.
Very cool experience! Shout out to folks at Carey Dive Center on the Island for teaching me how to dive and for taking care of me while out in the water! Highly suggest them for any new divers!!
Check out the Underwater sea museum here
The Food
After Diving, I was starving! Thankfully, there are a lot of great restaurants on the island.
My Partner and I tried to eat at the more local restaurants and oh my goodness was it all delicious!
Of course, we also ate at some of the tourist locations too just for the fun of it. Great name! Mid food though.
On our first full day on the island, before we had a golf cart or a moped to ride around on, my Partner and I walked down to this place.
Turns out the restaurant part of this building was in the very back and the part we ate at was for a local luncheon that my Partner and I definitely weren’t supposed to eat at.
It was basically a cafeteria style line of people getting foods placed on their plates. We assumed the paying part would be at the end of the line, but when we got to said end of the line, there was no one waiting for payment.
With the help of google translate and a very patient lady who was just trying to eat her lunch, we managed to buy some drinks to make up for the free food though!
If that wasn’t bad enough!
The next day, as we were looking for a specific restaurant to eat at called Kumbala, I ended up walking into somebodies home! Turns out the restaurant was on top of the home, but the signs were all around the door of this person’s house!
The person’s home brings me to my next topic though.
On a More Serious Note
While I very much enjoyed my time on the Island, it very quickly became apparent that the island I was a tourist on was not a wealthy one. I definitely have some conflicting feelings about the situation and the implications that my feelings could have.
What I mean by the implications my feelings could have is that this island’s main source of income is the tourist industry. So if I were to start saying don’t go here because its exploitive of the people who live there, then I would be hurting their way of living.
It was strange seeing all the construction going on on the island, knowing that its infrastructure for tourist and not for the people living on the island
Anyway, I’m not trying to turn into a white savoir, but I would like you all to be aware and respectful of the places you may visit!
To Finish Off, Here are Some Random Photos
If You Have any Question, Please Ask!
Thanks guys!
~Editor Autumn
