After recovering from our plane rides we decided to take a day trip to the majestic island Isla Meurejes, we flirted with the idea of getting a professional tour but decided against it and just ventured out to the ports. The departure times were not accurate from the website and we missed the ferry by a mere 20 mins. The driver was kind enough to take us to Port Juarez, and we got to see a part of old down town. The ferry was colored in brigt neon color blue & yellow, and even provided us with free wifi access (if only I had an iphone).
After arriving at the the island we were greeted with more than 12 tour guides offering snorkeling lessons, numerous water activities and golf cart and moped rental. We ducked away quickly into a clothing store with a Frogger theme. We explored the island in style with mope, that I proudly haggled downed to about $20 for the entire day, plus we got extra 1.5 hrs past their normal closing time. It took a few minutes getting use to the controls and balancing act but after successfully making a few turns and getting pass speed bumps I felt natural on the bike. Note: Helmets are required, there’s a lockable trunk under the seats for storage. A driver license was held as deposit.
I’ve have to admit it was pure exhilarating fun when cruising around in a 2 wheeler, my close friend suggested we take the safe route and rent a golf cart but I knew from the get go the bike was the clear alternatives. Coming from the west coast this mope will not work, and would be banned on the freeway, but on this small island of less than 5 miles stretch it was the perfect vehicle.
Our first destination was close due to construction so we rerouted ourselves to a turtle shelter. For a mere 30 pesos you could leisurely stroll through giants tanks containing babies turtles, giants albino turtle and observe the turtle egg grounds. It was worth every pesos. Don’t forget to check out the tiny gift shop on the way out.
We started getting hungier after crusing up and down the coast, ironically it had the same resemblance of the highway 1 in the west coast of California, of course, the water was never this clear or rich turquoise color.
We stop by randomly at one of the beaches and bought some freshly handmade coconut ice cream from a wandering vendor, he was also kind enough to snap of photo of us with his ice cream cart. There was a dirt path and we followed it down to the beach, after admiring the rock formation and listening to waves we hopped back onto the moped and continued with our journey south.
When it was time for dinner, we had recalled the taxi driver (from cancun) recommending anything seafood and going with the flow we chose to dine at a bed and breakfast joint. With all honestly, we were the only couple in the restaurant and had the perfect ocean view, and the lobster was the best I had in a long time. My friend had the coconut shrimp to go with our margarita, served chilled, as the sun was setting a took a few snap shots (see my money shot).
After dinner, we made our way to only ruins only the island. We were surprised to find out it had an admission fee of 30 pesos, after using all our cash on dinner, we only had a handful left. Fortunately the officer at the gate let us through with only paying a small portion, it was extremely windy when we toured the area the ruins to worship the goddess of moon & fertility Ixchel was in bad shape and only a few slab of the ruins remained. There we were less than a few pennies in our wallets yet we were as happy and carefree as we could be, after touring the site we made our way back into the city and return the bike, a vehicle that satisfied my adventuring spirit.