Isla Mujeres Mexico - The isle of Women

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Isla Mujeres - A travel report by VK

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Isla Mujeres, Mexico - Quintana Roo	28884 readers		spaceout's travel reports
The isle of Women	12 votes		Page: 1 2 3 4

This island of 8000 habitants, is situated on the east coast of Mexico. It is a twenty minute boat ride from Puerto Juarez, Cancun. The island is 1.5 km wide and 8km long. Transportation on the island is available on site; one can hail a cab; rent a bicycle or even a golf cart( although you can`t rent a car) for about 40USD a day.

Favourite spots:

The island is somewhat divided in three. There`s Punta Norte, Punta Sur and Garrafon. Punta Norte is where you`ll usually arrive from Puerto Juarez. While Punta Sur is where you`ll find a mayan ruin built for the goddess Ixchel, and El Garrafon`s National Park. In between those two areas, you`ll walk through a residential area, a small airport and what seems to be a rudimental army training ground.

What's really great:

We stayed in Punta Norte, where `Downtown`is. Here are where most of the restaurants, night life and hotels are. From the Playa Norte beach and all South of the island down to Garrafon the beaches have white sand and the water isn`t deep. Great for swimming and scuba diving.
Isla Mujeres is a fairly safe place to be, although pickpockets are everywhere tourists are and one must always be careful. Venders are quite pushy, but if one stands one`s ground they back off. Don`t hesistate to bargain for at least half the price they initially offered for the article you want to buy.
There isn`t a lot of tourists here, but you`ll find ATM, phone and internet access easily.

Sights:

I heard that part of the Jurassic Park film had been filmed here and they had left parts of their sets here, but I didn`t see any. Perhaps I didn`t search enough.
In Garrafon there`s a sculpture garden where a dozen metal Mexican artists show their art. There is also a gorgeous walkway around the tip of Punta Sur (if you`re here early morning, you`ll be able to brag that you`re the first one in Mexico to have seen the sun rise, as it is the part of Mexico the farthest to the east.) and up to the Mayan ruin. The Mayan ruin wasn`t as impressive as some people may hope. Hurricane Gilbert 1988, did destroy a large part of this national treasure and history. Garrafon also hosts a carribean village. The carribean village has a cute yet expensive restaurant (no deserts though) a jewellery and a souvenir shop; also it has a light house you can climb. Outside are carts with assorted wares, yet you should wait in Punta Norte where you can get souvenirs at a cheaper price.

Accommodations:

There are many hotels on Isla Mujeres. Most are family owned and although they seem dodgy, most are very clean and comfortable. One doesn`t necesarily need reservations (although they are always recommended), You can just show up at the hotel and ask for a room, you should definitely bargain the price of your room too.

Restaurants:

See the reference to the restaurants in my guide listing.

Other recommendations:

A certain Mr Mundaca landed on the island a few hundred years ago. They said he was a pirate who was hiding. He named the island Isla Mujeres. He fell in love with a local woman. He built her a house and wooed her all his life. Yet she married a local and made her life with her husband. Mundaca`s tomb can be visited in Punta Norte and the hacienda he build for her is close to the middle area of the island. A very small museum with parts of this story can be visited in the Carribean Village.
And if you`re interested, turtle farm can be visited although I didn`t have time to do so.

Published on Sunday February 1th, 2004