Isla Mujeres, Mexico: 14 – 17 March 2011

…and let us introduce “Meester Wheeskar’s”

After travelling from Brisbane to Sydney to Los Angeles to New York to Cancun to Isla Mujeres, we were ready for a bit of a break – and thankfully we came across the beautiful Mexican destination of Isla Mujeres. The “Island of Women” is a 30 minute ferry ride from Puerto Juarez in Cancun (“Spring Break!!”) through the most turquoise waters you could imagine, and is only 8km long (North to South) and at most 800 metres wide (at its widest). The ferry had the Mexican version of Jim Morrison playing guitar and doing all sorts of The Doors and Rolling Stones covers throughout the short trip – so we knew early on that we were on a winner.

After getting off the ferry and walking to our hotel – Hotel Marcianito – we were both ready to eat and went to one of the very few proper Mexican restaurants in the “downtown” area. We ate burritos and fajitas with a drink each for just under AUD$10. Great value, especially considering we couldn’t eat all the food that was served.

Looking down on the beach at Isla Mujeres

From here we went to Playa Norte beach, and after walking through all the small hotel beaches, we finally found ourselves a fairly deserted spot of sugar-like sand and the best view we’ve seen in memory. This north-east side of the island has the clearest, most beautiful water we’ve seen since Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsunday’s. We spent the rest of the afternoon drinking AUD$3 Coronas and watched the sunset. We got to bed early that night, but by then, we knew that we were in a truly stunning part of the world.

The next day we got up early, had a bite to eat, and went off having a look around the island. Unfortunately, because of tourism, Isla Mujeres is filled with cheap, touristy shops that sell everything from crappy t-shirts, to blankets (made in China), and everything in between. They also have guys standing out the front trying to convince punters to come inside and have a look. After about a dozen invitations into a dozen different shops (“Bueons dias, Amigo. Do you wanna have a look in my shop?”, and “Looky looky, I got lots of junk. Come and have a look at my junk”), a local guy called out the now immortal “Hey Meester Wheeskar’s, you come inside. I got everything. Good price as well”. From then on Declan became known as “Meester Wheeskar’s” by every local.

The most part of that day was spent with our feet up on the beach. And the following day we hired a scooter and checked out the rest of the island. We finished off our time here relaxing on the beach, officially getting over our jet-lag, and easing our way into the trip. We couldn’t think of a truly better way to start our journey.