Sports Equipment–Rent or Bring, part 1, Golf
First off, I need to say I’m not a golfer. But having spoken to golfers, I’ve been told that they choose their clubs specifically for their strengths, gender, and even height. It’s definitely NOT a one size fits all here. Even though all the courses have pro shops and rentals available, avid golfers probably plan on bringing their own clubs. I did some searching to find out the various costs of getting a bag, clubs and shoes to your vacation location.
At all the Mayan resorts, golf is a BIG draw. For instance Read more »
There are many phrases that have brought people here, such as....
per round fees for golf club rentals puerto vallarta what is a round, blissmayanpalace, nayar golf rental pricesDay Trips from Riviera Maya–Xcaret
Xcaret (pronounced ísh-kah-rette) is a beautiful eco-park about 30 minutes south of the Grand Mayan Riviera Maya, just a little bit past Playa Del Carmen. We did this park in 2005 when my kids were 5 and 6, and also visited Xel-Ha/Tulum on this trip too. (More on that in another post.) Because we knew we were going to do water activities at Xel-Ha, we didn’t do any swimming at Xcaret. There’s so much to see above ground that we didn’t want to miss out. If you’re not going to Xel-Ha, seriously consider the 2-day packages for Xcaret especially since the 2nd day doesn’t have to be consecutive. You’re going on vacation to slow down, right?
There are many phrases that have brought people here, such as....
xcaret, grand mayan riviera maya playa del carmen, recent trips to mayan rivieraDay Trips from Riviera Maya– Puerto Morelos
Do you know that the Meso-American reef, which hugs the coast of the Caribbean side of the Yucatan peninsula, is the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world? It’s beaten only by the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Cool, huh? It’s closer to the shore of Puerto Morelos than at most other points along the Riviera Maya and a really easy day trip for snorkeling!
view in Google Maps here
There are many phrases that have brought people here, such as....
Riviera Maya Day Trips, GOOGLE MAP PUERTO MORELOS, australia cool pic, riviera maya taxi for day, RIVIERA MAYA DAY TRIPS FOR FISHING, puerto morelos map, puerto morelos fishing from pier, pelicanos fish stand mayan riviera, palancar reef tours, mesoamerican reefShopping in Playa del Carmen
Remember that the cruise ships drop people off near Jaurez on 5th avenue. That means that closer you get to Juarez, the higher the density of the t shirt and trinket shops. As you walk north on 5th avenue, the scenery gets better, the restaurants get more interesting and the shopping goes from trinkets to silver. So actually, men you might be have a smaller credit card bill if you stay down with the droves of cruisers.
I have read that you can’t negotiate in the nicer shops in Mexico, but I have not found that to be the case. We seem strangely drawn (well, my wife is drawn and she draws me) to a silver shop just where the tiny Calle Corazon (alleyway) goes off 5th ave. My wife circles 3 times , finds what she wants and then calls me in as “the closer”.
There are also some very interesting art shops, clothing shops etc in this same area. This is not the Miami Beach style shops of Cancun, but that is a good thing in my mind.
There are many phrases that have brought people here, such as....
glendale web designSnorkel from the Beach in Akumal
You will have guessed by now we love to snorkel. I will get to other activities in a few posts, I promise.
It is easiest to have a car to do snorkelling in Akumal. You head south of Playa del Carmen. A few miles down the road, you can’t miss the main entrance to the small resort town of Akumal. As soon as you go through the archway that marks the entrance, there is a parking lot with a small parking fee. If you walk to the beach fro here, you will be in the southern bay of Akumal that is grassy and has no coral, but you are much more likely to see sea turtles. Our preference is to follow the road left (north) along the beach. you will see the Buena Vida (Good Life ) restaurant and immediately following that a dive shop. This is the place you are looking for. Park on the street. You are now about 100 feet from a beach paradise. Rent some equipment at the dive shop , if they aren’t out on a dive. Walk onto the beach and you are looking at the middle of the bay.
This snorkel trip is not for the beginner. You can start by paddling about 100 yards or so straight out to the reef. Then you can follow the reef either to the left to the edge of the bay or right to the edge of the bay. The water gets clearer as you get closer to the edges. You will have to swim around the occasional shallow spots or you will find yourself trapped and scraped up. There are not huge schools of fish anywhere, but there is a large variety of fish after you have explored a few patches of reef. When I did this sno
rkel, I was lucky enough to interrupt a sea turtle’s nap. He didn’t hang around long for an inspection, but it was a nice end to a beautiful free snorkel trip.
The Buena Vida restaurant is a great place to sit in Paradise for a while and and get some very acceptable Mexican standards. Try the guacamole.
There are many phrases that have brought people here, such as....
akumal, akumal bay, akumal snorkeling, akumal bay snorkeling, snorkel Akumal, akumal sno, akumal parking, akumal turtle beach, best resort to snorkel from mayan riviera, akumal turtlesSnorkel Tour at the Mayan Resort – Riviera Maya
We decided to take the Riviera Maya Mayan Resort snorkel trip, simply because it was so convenient. We walked down to the beach and hopped into a snorkel boat. A short ride to the south and we were doing some pretty darn good snorkelling. We snorkelled from patch reef to patch reef, but there was a nice mixture of beautiful caribbean fish. Trigger fish, parrot fish, damsel fish and the ever present seargent majors. Well worth a couple hours out of your day.
There are many phrases that have brought people here, such as....
mayan resorts snorkeling, riviera maya resorts -best snorkelingCave Snorkelling – Riviera Maya
Vacationing with a teenage daughter is… well… challenging at best. However, the Riviera Maya wasthe perfect place to pull it off. Since Rachel inherited our love of adventure, the Alltournative Tours (Alltournative.com) JungleCrossing tour turned out to be the perfect way to spend a day. It really sets the tone for a tour when the tour bus turns out to be a rugged Mercedes Unimog (a military transport truck). After a short drive down the highway, we were soon bouncing down the roughest boulder strewn road I have experienced. Rachel and her friend, hanging desperately to the rope down the center of the truck, never stopped laughing for the short but intense ride to the caves. The first part of the tour enters the extensive caves of the Nohoch Nachich cenote system. The Alltournative tour folks have an arrangement with the farmer who discovered the entrance to (delete this) these caves on his property. The first trip into the earth was down a ladder to an island in the center of an underground pool. As we snorkeled around the house sized cave, a black hole 4 or5 feet in diameter came into view and plunged to unseen depths in the darkness. For some reason, we didn’t linger long in the vicinity of the hole. Re-emerging into the hot sun we heard the sound of a pool a couple hundred yards away that disappears into the side of a hill. Donning life jackets, we set out for a single filesnorkel trip deep into the hill. The crystal clear water is cool but not cold as we paddle along with a guide in front of us and a guide behind us with waterproof flashlights. As we made our way through the twists and turns of the cave, the guide behind us periodically dove down with his flashlight to reveal the cave terrain below. A rope anchored to the cave wall disappeared into a vertical crack in the earth underwater, the starting point for a scientific exploration team that followed the caves deep into the crust of the earth. The trip into the cave ended deep in the earth with the usual “turn out the lights a make a few jokes” routine required in every cave tour. Then we headed back out. The warm sunny outside came just about the time we were beginning to think the water seemed to be getting a little too cool.
It was interesting to see the way the tourist money has slowly changed the life of the farmer who owns the property. The satellite dish next to the rustic adobe dwellings is a stark contrast. Apparently they fire up the generator on Thursdays and Sundays.
The afternoon part of the tour was a little more conventional. The Unimog dropped us at the palm fringed Soliman Bay. Alltournative has hung hammocks between palm trees, but this welcome break is soon interrupted by the staff politely telling us to get a move on. We climbed into sea kayaks and headed out to the reef for a taste of salt water snorkeling. A few of our fellow tourists got a little more of a taste. Even though sea kayaks are generally very stable, it wasn’t MY family that tipped into the waves a couple of time and had to scramble back on.
It was about a ½ mile out to where the Soliman Bay joins with the open ocean. It is there that we moored the kayaks to buoys and snorkeled along the line of reef that protects the bay. There are fresh water springs in the bay so the water is a little hazy where the fresh and salt water mix. But the fish and coral are decent and the setting is spectacular enough to make it very enjoyable. After having plenty of time to explore, we paddled back to the beach. It was a full and tiring day and we were happy when the Unimog rolled back into
the resort and we could go off in search of a well earned supper. So if you are looking for a break from laying on the beach, I feel comfortable highly recommending the tours the Alltournative.com tour folks have put together. And no, they don’t give us a kickback.