Cancun 2000

Arrival: January 1, 2000              Departure: January 8, 2000 

This page will give you an overview of our trip to Cancun, Mexico.  It will discuss what we did, what we saw, where we ate, and our tips and suggestions.  If you would like to see Cancun guides, and lots of links, visit our Cancun Directory  We have also put together a photo gallery of pictures we took while in Cancun.  We also have assembled pages for scuba diving in Cancun and Cozumel, as well as snorkeling.  Our pages on Cozumel, Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta will give you more information about Mexico, and you can visit our new Cancún Message Board to find and share information about Cancún all over the world!

We stayed at Westin's Club Regina resort, at the South end of the hotel zone.  It was just us, Club Med, and the end.  This wasn't too bad, though.  Punta Nizuc, next to Club Med, is home to the best snorkeling in Cancun.  The ride into town wasn't bad, either, since buses run 24hrs. a day, every couple of minutes and the fare is only $0.50/person.  Our beach was nice, and so was our hotel.  Our room in the Premier building was large and well-appointed, and we had a beautiful ocean view.  The only complaints we had about our hotel was the outrageous prices of food and drinks.  We ate at El Palmar our first night, and were thoroughly unimpressed.  Fajitas were $17, and hamburgers were over $11.  Ridiculous.  Also a problem for us was the outrageously long walk from our room to anywhere else.  They had no motorized golf carts to take us around like the Mayan Palace in Puerto Vallarta.  It took about 15 minutes to walk from our room to the lobby or the bus stop.  You'd think they would make accommodations for that.

We ate one night at Pat O'Briens, where we had below-average tex-mex and hurricane drinks which cost $11/ea.  I guess you should ask how much they are before you order!  At least you got to keep the glass... There was a live band and dancing, the usual girls selling shots of "tequila" for $2 and blowing whistles, and a really nice setting alongside the lagoon.  Another night we sampled OK Maguey at the Kukulcan Plaza.  The drinks were large and the food was good.  Not bad for a mall joint!  The Captain's Cove had a romantic waterfront setting not too far from our hotel.  The service was excellent, and so was the food.  Also excellent was La Valentina, where I had exquisite beef tenderloin and Sandra had a really large, really good lobs

We didn't participate in too much night life, except for Pat O'Briens, and Coco Bongo.  Coco Bongo is the number one club in Cancun, and rightfully so.  The place was jam-packed.  There was no dance floor, which seemed odd, but they put on a very good show inside with special effects and actors.  Other hot spots include Christine's, Carlos N Charlie's,  Dady'O, LaBoom, Maaxo, Senor Frog's and Up&Down. 

We spent a lot of our stay in Cancun going on tours.  First, we went to Tulum, the only Mayan ruins to occur on a coastline.  Tulum was beautiful.  It was worth the trip just to stand on the cliffs and look out over the Caribbean.  Our tour guide was informative and gave us all kinds of information about Mayan sacrifices.  That afternoon, we traveled to Xel-Ha, a natural aquarium.  Xel-Ha is a gorgeous lagoon, complete with iguanas, parrots, and lots of fish.  This is an excellent place to snorkel, we found out, though for best looks you should stay close to a shore.  The water is clearer than in the open water, and the fish are more plentiful.  The next day we went on a Jungle Tour with Aquaworld, aboard one of their aqua-ray boats.  We raced through the mangroves and out to Punta Nizuc for some snorkeling before returning.  

Wednesday, we went to Chichen-Itza, the most impressive of the Mexican Mayan ruins.  We climbed the pyramid just in time for the skies to open up on us.  We were drenched, but it was 90°F (32°C), so we didn't mind.  We explored the Great Ball Court, the Observatory, and the Convent.  We also saw the Sacred Well, where they found tons of children's skeletons.  That was absolutely beautiful.  Our guide through Cancun Sightseeing was very informative and seemed to know a lot about what he taught.  Although it took 3 hours to get there, it was well worth it.

Thursday, we set off for XCaret, an Ecoarchaeological park.  We had already reserved a spot to swim with the dolphins, so we hopped on the wildly decorated bus and headed out.  The dolphin encounter was fun.  The dolphins slowly swam around the pool, floating on their bellies, allowing us to touch and pet them.  Then, they pushed us with their noses against our feet so fast that we stood up in the water like Superman.  Finally, they lined us up as three dolphins jumped over our heads, then from the back and front again.  We got it all on video, of course for a mere $30USD.  It also came with a free photograph of us and the dolphins.  We ate at the XCaret restaurant, which was great.  Fantastic fajitas, huge drinks, and low prices.  By this time, we were getting diving withdrawal after our 10 dives in Cozumel the week before, so we set off with the divemaster to Barracuda Reef, close offshore.  Check out our Cancun Diving page for all the info. on that.  By the time we were done diving, it was time to leave, so we never saw the Jaguars, the ruins, or any of the other treasures this beautiful park had to offer.  We still had fun, though.

The rest of our week was spent going into town, shopping, drinking, and just moseying around.  We hung out at our hotel and snorkeled at Punta Nizuc, and were going to go water skiing, but my knee got mysteriously hurt, and I didn't feel up to it.  When we got to the airport to go home, it turned out that our tickets had been issued for the wrong day!  Luckily, there was a flight leaving that day, at the same time, with empty seats on it.  The only problem was that instead of flying straight through to Portland, we had to stop over for five hours in Las Vegas.  That turned out to not be so bad, though, as we played the slots at the airport and the time flew.  We got a last minute upgrade to first-class for $55/person for the whole trip, too, which was cool.  Filet Mignon for dinner, all-you can drink alcohol, and wonderful seats with lots of leg room to sleep off all that free booze.  

Overall, Cancun was a good experience, and we're happy we went.  We learned a lot about the Mayas and did a lot of diving and snorkeling.  We liked the town, as it was very new and clean, and poverty seemed relatively low.  The weather was fine, and we got a good tan, and I didn't get too sunburned.  Check out our Photo Gallery for lots of photos of our trip!

Visit Top 100 Travel Sites to cast your vote for Johann & Sandra's Cancun!