Feliz Ano Nuevo (31 December - 2 January 2010)

It was time to hit the beach and new year seemed as good a reason as any. We had however, underestimated demand and prices – mad and exploitive – we blame the Americans. We found the last two rooms on the entire Maya coast, which in itself wasn’t a good sign. They were on an island neither of us had ever heard of called Isla Mujeres, eight miles off the coast of Cancun. We reckoned that this would put enough water between us and the Cancun types, The drive through Cancun centre was horrid, like being in a US city, malls, fast food joints etc, not Mexico at all. I suppose this is the State’s Torremolinos. This first impression was reinforced by the seat covers in our taxi to the port advertising a 24 hour ‘adult’ spa – nice.
We had read that Isla Mujeres was a narrow sand strip about five miles long and 400 yards wide. However, when we arrived at the port and found that the local restaurant was a McDonalds and the island looked like Majorca from a distance, our hearts sank. We sat upstairs on the boat and the sea was an amazing range of azure as we sped in first world comfort to Isla – there was even wifi on the boat!. In fact the island was pretty, but a tad too American, crowded and commercial for our tastes but we only had three days, so we made the most of it.
Our rooms were at the Cabana's Maria del Mar, right on the north beach, fine, white sand at the front door and a beautiful sea, so in fact we had lucked out and it was ‘alto cinco’ all round. This was to be our home for the next three nights. We were especially chuffed with the beach bars, that all had swings hanging from the rafters around the bar, frequent happy hours and enough margaritas for the odd ‘rita rampage or two.

We spent our time on the beach, and when the weather turned a little grey and windy due to the next norte blowing in (we seem to attract them) we hired a golf cart and had fun careering around the tiny island, stopping for coffee, to see turtles and just to admire the sea. We noticed quite a lot of damage from Hurricane Wilma in 2005.

New Year’s Eve was fun. We spent the UK new year on the beach, with Ant in the water at sunset, then enjoyed sending and receiving HNY texts whilst sipping ‘ritas. Ant on a hammock and Gill on swing. It was a blue moon – not blue at all but a full moon that falls twice in a calendar month, very rare, the next one due on New Year’s Eve will be in 2028. We bagged ourselves a table right on the busy main street, great for people viewing, and my goodness were there some sights, we wondered who was minding the trailers? Fire works and dancing in the main square at midnight. The fireworks were impressive for a small place to put on, but obviously run by the Mexican clock. The first lot interrupted the Mayor’s New Year Speech at ten to twelve, but after that got back on track and went off on cue as we finished counting down (in perfect Spanish of course…..) to midnight. (To see vid of fireworks, click this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6msJHbWeH8w&feature=channel )All these celebrations left us exhausted and so we snuck off to bed. Apparently to locals were still dancing in the square at seven the next morning… Ant had a new years day swim before breakfast on 1 Jan, in the bright sunshine on an empty beach, to wash away any 2009 cobwebs, and if our infrequent showers on this trip are anything to go by, this was a good thing!

As usual, we found the “coolest” place on the last night. A small bar/restaurant called Grita Managao where we listened to Spanish/Salsa/Cuban live music.

Whilst we had had a good New Year’s stopover, it was time to hit the road again. Both of us very excited to be going to Belize. Just hoping that the weather brightens up a little.. Buen Ano todas.