How Mexico conquered us.
Having returned from another trip, we are in a hurry, as always, to share our impressed observations! There was little information. Even the hotel this time was chosen according to the principle - the best of the worst - so I'll try to detail on the right little things. UIA + AirFrance flight without delays, as always excellent Boeing 777, from Paris to Cancun, everything is on top (literally and figuratively), not for lovers of long flights (11 hours). We arrived in Cancun late at night. The meeting man from Arminas Travel quickly put the two of us in a huge 5-liter Chevrolet Silverado and at full speed to Playa del Carmen to the Princess.
The return trip did not promise anything special, but when you do not expect surprises, we have them.
So the flight under the letter Airfrance was operated by AirMexico, a member of the Skyteam alliance, but who could have known that it does not have an agreement with UIA, which, under the letter of the same Airfrance, operates a flight from Paris to Kyiv and, accordingly, luggage is checked in only to Paris, and how can we get it there without a Schengen visa, only, probably, the French and the cashier who made the reservations know. Huge respect to Lena from Arminas, with whom together we were jumping around the terminals of Benito Juarez in search of an Airfrance office, and if it were not for her Spanish and her desire to help us, our suitcases would have lived in Paris for permanent residence. As a result of passionate negotiations, we were finally transferred to the Airfrance from Paris to Kiev, along with our suitcases. By the way, has anyone been in a similar situation?
By hotels. Playa.
When browsing websites, the hotel appears under the name Grand Sunset & Riviera Princess Hotel & Resort, but sometimes presented as 2 hotels. Disperse the fog - all this is one huge territory with two receptions.
We think it was done this way, because the hotel is huge and when full, one reception simply cannot cope. The whole infrastructure, wristbands, restaurants, the attitude is general. We got a room in the middle of the territory, as always at first with a view of the internal road and the fenced area (quite decent, by the way), but I wanted to change it to an internal view. The room was not even surprised by the absence of a bathrobe or slippers (white) there. In reality, there is no body lotion (Sveta didn’t take it with her this time, because even at 3* she was always there), there is no “do not disturb” paper on the door, but I will console lovers of good cleaning - she is still there (it is recommended to lubricate with a tip). Receptionist Brenta said that the exchange would be able to do this the next day after lunch, especially since she really wanted to relax after the flight. Nuances: Mexicans are smiling, responsive, but very slow and forgetful. For example, the suitcases were carried to us for half an hour, and then, after a reminder.
I also had to remind about changing the number, but it doesn’t really soar, the main result. After changing the number the next day, we fell asleep - after all, the time difference is a difficult thing and slept until the morning of the next day, and when we woke up, we saw that we had slept through a tropical storm with fallen fences, fungi and so on. The hotel grounds are chic, huge and very well maintained - they actually wash the paths with detergent - but why ? ? Accidentally found a platform with hammocks, not marked on the map of the hotel. A hammock, it turns out, is a Mayan device. Those who have never used a hammock before fell like children - very relaxing! The coastline of the beach is a real 5 points, one might say better than in the Dominican Republic, long, 500 meters and very comfortable. Coatis walk on the sand and beg for food.
Until 10 am, you can easily find a sun lounger and you don’t have to occupy them headlong in the morning, even for Russian speakers, not to mention the fact that most of them are free from both ends of the beach, because people simply don’t get there. We learned a lot of interesting things on the beach, for example, how best to make raspberry jam at a dacha in the suburbs. Although it would be better if it was a secret for those who are looking for peace! A fly in the ointment for lovers exclusively of the sea: 1-dirty smelly spot in the sea takes place as a result of the activity of mangroves, and just in the middle of the beach; 2- the sea is shallow, not turquoise, and even reaching the buoys of 200 meters, it will only be up to the neck. The consolation is that in neighboring hotels the beach is even more rocky.
There were strange sensations in the restaurant, yet 5 * suggest a bunch of sweets. Initially, it seemed that it was worse than in the Dominican Republic, then it seemed to be not bad.
One day, a bunch of delicacies, so that the eyes run wide; the other - there is nothing to choose (let's say, snickering). And for anyone, the cuisine, in comparison with the out-of-the-hotel Mexican restaurants, is, of course, reminiscent of public catering. Juices diluted with water so much that it is already water with juice; the choice of confectionery is unimportant. In short, all this is not 5 stars and the cuisine is more, probably, sharpened for American-Canadian tastes. But! The staff is polite, courteous and caring. Dear compatriots and neighbors, feel free to learn a few Spanish words: “Thank you! ” is very good, but “Gracias! » much more pleasant for them to hear. Cocktails in all hotel bars are the same, according to the developed corporate cocktail card. If you want something of your own, it’s not a fact that they know and will do it, if you don’t say the ingredients in Spanish - with English, and even more so with Russian, they have a hard time. Alcohol is all local production.
Well, Mexican tequila is not counterfeited in Mexico. The hotel “margarita” is far from being a “margarita” ...There are a lot of Russian-speaking people in the hotel: both from the expanses of the CIS and from the expanses of Canada. But the foreign ones are subtly different in some way ...It seems that the tour operators decided to send everyone to this hotel in terms of price-quality ratio. At the reception there is a currency exchange: the rate is 12 pesos = 1 dollar. In Playa, on average, from 12.40 to 12.65, in Mexico City the same. Internet in the hotel 5 * of course paid "only" 20 dollars / day; half an hour for only 10 dollars and only in an Internet cafe. Speed sucks, but Skype works somehow. From the Sunset reception there is a free bus to Playa del Carmen at 12 noon, but you need to sign up only the day before. Return at 15:00 for 40 pesos per nose = 3.5 dollars or at 17:00 for free.
Results. In principle, the hotel is normal, but if you go exclusively to the sea to swim, you are not here. If there is an opportunity to add money, it is better, of course, to add it.
Once again, we are convinced that everything is worth the money.
Mexico City. In the capital, we booked Melia Reforma 5 *. The hotel is just awesome. 20 floors with a well inside, I think, will surprise anyone. Instead of the booked standard, due to some jamb of the meeting party in Playa, the Mexican guide Nastya gave us a Junior Suite with an upper view of the city as compensation, for which she is personally very grateful. Breakfasts at the hotel were finally a forgotten weighty concept of 5 STARS (undiluted juices as an indicator).
Mexico (I can’t name the section of the tour).
We do not know the prices that the Russian-speaking operator gives - they simply were not offered by anyone. I can quote the prices in English: Xcaret $129 (you can call directly to the park - get $109 + moving on your own or by the park bus). This is an Xcaret+ package with towels and lunch. The net price of the ticket without anything is $75.
Lunch, buffet, in the park costs $ 20, towels are basically not needed. I can’t say that we are out of touch with the park - yes, this is a good, honest tourist product with a chic show, but this is just a tourist product. The underground river, the main attraction of the park, is as different from the cenotes as a hamburger from a homemade cutlet, but you can definitely try it. Therefore, trips to other parks, such as Xel-Ha and Xplorer, were deliberately abandoned. An English-language excursion to Chichen Itzu costs $ 109, others did not recognize it, because they just rented a car and drove themselves. On the internet, information on car rental by compatriots = 0, and then in Cancun or Playa. I don’t know if we were Russian-English-speaking pioneers in the field of car rental on the territory of the hotel, but the fact is that we were the first from Ukraine. The hotel has 2 branches of the international Europcar (one for each reception).
The scheme is as follows: you show an international driver's license (the age of the driver is at least 25 years old) and you must give a credit card with an amount on the card of at least $ 1.000 (cash is not good! ). A slip is made from the card to the agreement and the bank blocks the money on the card (in 1 case it was agreed for 788 dollars, in 2 for 10.000 pesos at the rate); you sign an agreement, insurance and a bank statement on blocking money; fight during this time washes the car; you show all the cracks and enter into the contract. 10 minutes of time and you are a happy owner of not new, but self-propelled equipment. Be careful with the list of defects - they are written in Spanish, but you can poke your finger and the battle will show you the registered defect! The first time I got a Chevrolet Aveo with 112 thousand mileage with a gun (this is important for us) for $ 65 per day with all insurances.
There was no rear number on the car (in Mexico it is removed by the police for violations before paying a fine, but driving without it is allowed), but it was not included in the list of defects. I insisted on entering and did the right thing, because when returning they asked where the number was and if there were any problems with the police. The second time we ordered Smart for $ 100. At the same time, a preliminary paper is issued - an order with the date when you should be given a car, but by this moment Smart did not get it and we were offered a Renault Scala with 12 thousand mileage, an automatic for 50! dollars per day (maybe the company was unable to fulfill its obligations). Who knows what Renault Scala is? That's right - this is a rebranding of the Nissan Almera Classic, aka Samsung SM3. And the first and second time the car was taken for 2 days. When you return the car, you must have gasoline at the mark exactly or more than when you take the car (gasoline is inexpensive - about 7.50 hryvnia = 1 dollar, magna brand). Try to give money at the gas station without change (they take only pesos), otherwise you may not get one.
When you return, the boy inspects the car and renting through the bank will unlock your amount on the card, leaving only the payment for the rent. That's all! But! Despite the release of money by the bank, do not flatter yourself - you will not be able to use them for the next month. Upon arrival, you can ask your bank to unblock quickly.
So, we went to Cancun: we drove along the spit of the seven with hotels, visited all the shopping centers (more on that below). To be honest, I liked Playa del Carmen much more - somehow it is more resort-like, or something with a souvenir-resort street and Caribbean flavor. The next day we went to Chichen Itza. About 210 km from the hotel. Entrance tickets for two 332 pesos = 26.5 dollars. A wonderful place with wonderful energy, which is vulgarized by numerous dealers of souvenir rubbish. Yes, we ourselves like to shop for souvenirs, but somehow it was possible to take this market out of the territory of the complex. But!
Here, in fact, you can wonderfully bargain and the most diverse souvenirs are here. From pleasant purchases, a hand-maid wooden mask, dyed with natural dyes, bought from Pablo Euan for only $15. Hello Pablo! and burning on a sheet of leather for $50, while an identical work in a souvenir shop is about $250. Entrance ticket = 40 pesos / car + 35 pesos per nose, total 110 pesos. The cenote is on site and is really beautiful. The water is pure - how they achieve this with such a mass of people, I don’t know, but it’s a fact. Looking ahead, I’ll say that of all the cenotes we visited, there are no similar ones - they are all beautiful, each in its own way. We stopped for lunch in the lovely colonial town of Valladolid. Has anyone watched Supermacho? So, somewhere you feel like a hero of a movie… Lunch cost $20.
Finally, we tried burritos and fajitas - they differ from hotel ones, you know how ...We returned darkly tired and satisfied. The whole trip cost about $160 for two! We went to Coba and Tulum in another car. We left at 9 am and were among the first in Kobe. This is important, since when we were returning back, all bicycle taxis (100 pesos = 1 hour = 8.5 dollars) were dismantled, and I don’t really want to stomp around Kobe for about 3 km. Parking in Coba = 40 pesos ($ 3.5), entrance tickets = 51 pesos ($ 4) per person. Koba is a very different experience compared to Chichen Itza, more like Angkor Wat in Cambodia, jungle and pyramids among them. And in Kobe, the only pyramid in the Yucatan, which you can climb. The bike taxi driver advised me to drive further from Coba to the cenotes. Somewhere through km 6 along the local road, we found them: Tamcach-Ha, Choo-Ha and Multun-Ha. For all the pleasure 210 pesos = $ 17 for two. In the first cenote we were generally alone!
A real cenote is located deep underground and only a narrow hole and a long staircase lead down. But what a wild beauty! We were in different underground kingdoms and palaces, but also to swim in the purest warm fresh water under the deafening silence! This is something incredible! Having gained strength, we make a throw to Tulum (40 pesos = parking, 51 pesos / person = entrance ticket). The parking lot is far away, a tractor with trailers brings up to the city itself for 30 pesos per person. In terms of civilization and the number of tourists, the place is comparable to Chichen Itza. It is definitely worth stopping by for great pictures and an even more beautiful beach. After the hotel puddle, I didn’t want to climb out of the turquoise waters of the Tulum Caribbean, but, alas, all the archaeozones of the Yucatan are open until 5 pm, then it gets dark ...By the way, there is also a huge souvenir market when parking. We went three more times with a hotel bus to Playa.
The town is not bad for exactly three trips - then on the 5th Aventida something bothers you, but in principle there is nowhere else to go. We can recommend a good, as it seemed to us, restaurant Casa Adela. Here, for the first time in our lives, we felt the taste of real chimichanga (before that, we thought that it was an animal of unearthly origin) and margaritas (the hotel consists of a pile of broken ice and superchemical lemon filler, and even a little bit of tequila). The taste cannot be expressed in words! We also tried tacos and quesadillas. An average lunch for two is about 400 pesos = $32.
Mexico City. 26 million population. For some reason, the word Mexico City seemed to be a dirty slum city with low-hanging smog and a lot of rusty "bugs" in wild traffic jams on narrow roads. The negative power of the media is great! In fact, an ultra-modern city with excellent traffic regulation and even 3-storey slums on the outskirts is more beautiful than our Ukrainian huts.
They noted that if at the very least they know English on the coast, in the capital they understand only Spanish, even in restaurants (now Sveta is learning Spanish).
Shopping This topic was not found in the reports on Mexico at all. In addition to souvenirs and tequila, nothing produces such an impression in the country. Everything is not so bad! Shopping started from Cancun - there we visited Kukulkan Plaza. A typical mall of which there are many around the world. Of the well-known brands, it seems only Mango. In general, nothing worthwhile. The next was La Isla: very interestingly done - without a building under a common roof, buildings with shops and restaurants are scattered along an artificial river. There are many world brands here and, in principle, you can shop well. The next step was to Walmart. It was expected to see something globally American, but in fact an ordinary hyper, where there is nothing more than the hyper itself.
A very small souvenir department, in principle, at prices no cheaper than in Playa and a fairly limited selection. But tequila, rum is really much cheaper than on 5 Aventida and, of course, in hotels. Light tequila El Jimador 1.102 pesos = 8.16 dollars = 65 UAH, reposado Jose Cuervo 1.92 pesos = 7.5 dollars = 60 UAH, light Bacardi rum 0.98l 115 pesos = 9.2 dollars = 75 UAH. Too bad you won't get much! In Playa, we visited the shopping centers Plaza las Americas and Plaza Maya. In principle, one visit is enough, since the outlets are duplicated. Here we discovered the Mexican shoes TM Flexi. Excellent models at a price of 2 or even 3 times less than Ukrainian ones. There are a lot of shoes from other local companies, I repeat - all shoes are of very high quality. In Plaza Maya, by the way, there was the highest exchange rate during the trip, 13 pesos for 1 dollar. In all shopping centers, and in Playa, and in Cancun, and in Mexico City, they tried to pay with plastic. Despite the round eyes from the seen unprecedented Ukrainian card and the typical question: “Where are you from?
”- all transactions went faster than at home. Prices in zarah, benetons, mangas, massimah duti, etc. , etc. , corporate, but the choice seemed more adapted to our tastes than in the Emirates. In Playa itself, they bought a souvenir in large shops - nevertheless, there is more choice than in small ones, and the prices are not too high. Despite the love to bargain, sometimes annoying. I liked Hacienda Tequila more, located, of course, on 5 Aventida. At the end of the aventida is another small but good La Fiesta shopping center. In Mexico City, many chain stores are located on the pedestrian 5 de Mayo, next to the Zokalo on the next street there is a huge shoe store. The most convenient shopping in the Emirati style in the Reforma 222 shopping center, respectively, located at the same address. For electronics, I paid attention to the Apple 8 gb tablet for about 4000 pesos = 560 dollars. In Mexico City, in the square near Torro Latino Americano, there is a handicraft market and cart kitchenettes.
Very Mexican color. Souvenirs come from different local villages and the prices for handmaid souvenirs and crafts are ridiculous. In Teotihuacan, souvenir sellers also roam right through the territory. From one of them they bought a lovely handmade figurine of the last Aztec emperor made of obsidian in different shades. So he walked and bargained with us for more than an hour, the price dropped from $250 to $70 when we left! In Mexico, many stores have a TaxBack system similar to the European Taxfree - do not forget to take a package of documents. There are no queues at the airport, it seems that the South Americans do not really need it, but it came in handy for us. True, the money is given not by cash, but by transfer to plastic within 2 months, nevertheless, 600 pesos = $ 50 as a bonus for purchases is not so bad.
Findings. The trip was definitely a success.
It seems that Mexico has become another country for us, along with Thailand, where we want to return more than once, since the country is so diverse that deja vu can not be expected. Remained unseen Palenque and Ek-balam, Acapulco and much more. The joy of knowing the country by car is much higher than with a programmed guide. Dirty sea in the hotel and minor traffic accidents did not spoil the rest, because as we always say - be positive and the Caribbean will be happy for you. All the best travel in life! Questions, reviews, statements are waiting for our mail: sveyura@yandex. ru.
