Spring Break: March 2005
Well, it definitely isn't the hotel zone. There aren't any luxuries, like being able to drink the tap water. When they saw that we had beach towels, they took the towels the hotel supplied away. The complimentary bottle of water was nice and worked for brushing our teeth. The place was clean overall, and I liked the really firm mattress/super-thick pad. The showers were lacking and not extremely clean. It was hard to shower because the head was so clogged that you got sprayed in the face really hard; make sure to keep your mouth closed. The window doesn't lock and there is a sort of balcony that connects all the rooms. The bus stop is a few blocks away, but you need to be careful which bus you take. You can pretty much get a cab ride anywhere within downtown for 20 pesos or $2US. The people at the front desk were fairly nice and accomodating. We never ate at the restaraunt in the hotel, but the littel hot dog and hamburger stand outside is awesome. Mariano remembers what you like, and I have never had such a good burger or hotdog. It may sound like a heart attack or even just plain gross, but the flavor is awesome: ham, cheese, grilled onions, bacon, tomatoes, and avacadoes go on every burger. Be caeful if you don't like mayonase, because you definitely won't like Mariano's cooking. The hotdogs are 10 pesos and the hamburgers are 20 pesos. There are two little convenience stores right there to get whatever you'd like to drink and chips or whatever too. The many meals with Mariano were much better than our hotel zone lobster dinners we had, and the perfect food after a long night at the clubs. Don't miss this oportunity to see downtown. We had so much fun in downtown that we only went to the beach one time during our week-long visit, and I LOVE the beach (once upon a time I was a California Kid). Shopping at both of the major markets was fun, and the one just around the corner from the hotel made my fiance feel like James Bond, he said; I think it had something to do with being the only tourists in an open grocerie market with vendors bartering, etc. Everyone downtown was even accomodating when we lost my fiance's wallet that had both of our ID's, all of his credit cards, and our last bit of cash. The radio stations even broadcasted our loss over the radio. It was out last day there, though, so we never found it. Overall, this was a fun way to find out what downtown is really like. No one ever harassed us, and one night when we got lost and asked some locals for directions we made some friends. They invited us the their apartment, offered us drinks, then took us to their favorite Mexican karaoke bar until it was light in the morning. That was probably our funnest night in Cancun.
