Well, this report will be a disappointment -
I could not find a reasonable charter in the area so I gave fishing a miss, which means I still have all those fancy-schmancey bright colored plugs. Most charters were in the $160 range and that was for a spot on a "Mexican sea-faring canoe" with a 60 hp outboard. - YIKES!!!!
The area that I was in was WAY to touristy - I'll never go back to the Cancun/Playa Del Carmen area. Whatta rat race outside of the resort. All the Mexican retailers and service providers in that area treat tourists like money bulges from our pockets. Don't get me wrong - I couldn't find nicer people (for the most part) anywhere else in the world - the smiles were genuine and the greetings earnest, but their skewed perception that tourists who visit that area are anything other than bargain-travel hunters on a low-budget vacation is puzzling. Let's face it, although the people there are warm and friendly, the amenities are sparse and poorly appointed - on the upside - although sparse, etc...the resort hotel facilities are spotlessly clean.
The resorts in that area are crammed together like sardines in a can, all sharing the same beach and all NOT trying to compete. Meaning if you've been to one, you've been to them all.
A word of warning - All inclusive does not mean ALL....Let me explain -
Last year, for the same amount of money, I went to Jamaica to a Sandals resort - Tips were a huge NO-NO for the staff, if they were caught receiving a tip they could be discharged. I offered the odd tip and was refused overtly and then told to make it more (very) discrete if I really felt that I wanted to tip - But the real difference was the activities were all included - snorkeling trips by boat, hobie cats, kayaks, scuba trips, free or reduced-fee access to some local attractions, and the grounds were sprawling - pathways, game rooms (billiards, ping-pong, borad games, etc..) there was an outside chess board that was about 50 feet square with 2-3 foot tall pieces in the middle of a garden that you could play - there were small coral reefs along the edges of the swimming areas that were loaded with barracuda, reef fishes, urchins, crabs, carribean lobster, gars, etc... - the list goes on 'n on....
The Riu resorts inc - (pronounced re-oo) charged for everything other than meals (which were fabulous and diverse) and beverages (which were only OK, not very well made and were of well-drink quailty). The resorts, other than the 2 palace resorts which were off limits to us low-lifers, are about 300-500 feet wide (beachfront) and about 2000 feet in length (deep, or distance to the main road). When you think about it - that's not much area for a few hundred guests. The beaches were devasted by Hurricane Wilma but the resorts didn't mention that - There was no beach to speak of as it had been errodded back to the lounge-chair area and there was a treacherous 4 to 5 foot shear drop off instead of an easy grade - the beach was about 10 to 20 feet wide depending on tide so it was only for walking along or entering/exiting the surf. There were many Palm tree stumps still holding ground just under the surface of the water, revealing themselves as the waves receeded making the area a little dicey getting in and out or to those using water toys.
Simple watersports activities like plastic kayaks, 1 hobie and about 6 boogie boards of failing health were free for use if you read and signed a seperate contract and promised to buy new equipment in the event that their rickety stuff broke. I wasn't going to bite at that worm. Scuba trips, snorkeling equipment and boat rides were all extra.
It's the nickle and dime approach in that area - Cozumel was right in front of the resort - For the two of us, taxi's to and from the ferry pier would be $12 RT, The ferry would be $42 RT, Taxi's on Cozumel would have been $32 RT, entrance to the swimming area with reef access would have been $32, Lunch would have been about $20 - This includes the near-mandatory $1 per person, per service, per trip tipping.
All in all it would have been about $140 usd to take a ferry to the beach in Cozumel...Or in effect, $140 to go swim to a reef from shore to see a fish.
Oh well, I'll leave the rest of my observations for the appropriate web-sites - suffice to say that Mexico is nice, but either expensive or boring. |