![]() It contains one of the highest pyramids in Mexico, with tantalizing carvings on top. About 45 minutes farther is mysterious Coba, which has barely been excavated. An easy and fascinating day trip is Tulum, the only walled Maya city, about an hour and a half from Cancun. The newness of Cancun contrasts greatly with the antiquity of this land, a center of Maya culture until about a thousand years ago. Some tour operators offer transportation, a poster and first-row seats on the shady side of the ring for $36. Information: 853-425.Įvery Wednesday afternoon at 3:30, bullfights are held at the ring on Bonampak Avenue. The new Kukulcan Plaza at Kilometer 13 has a bowling alley open 10 A.M. The Cancun Palace Hotel has a miniature golf course with Maya-style buildings $6.50. Guards at the entrance will take away your suntan lotion - it pollutes the waters - and return it when you leave. ![]() Admission is $18 a day, with other activities extra. (when the mosquitoes reclaim it) in winter and 9 A.M. You can swim with a group of gentle gray dolphins for $50 an hour, or kick back in a sea-washed Jacuzzi along the coast. The attendants will take your clothes to the other side and meet you there. For information, call (800) 833-5402.Ī worthwhile trip about 40 miles south of Cancun is Xcaret (shka-RET), a large Caribbean water park with many imaginative twists and turns, including a 1,700-foot underground river through which you can float in a life vest for 45 minutes. The Marina Aqua Ray is just one of many places that rents jet-skis for $30 a half hour, a small motor boat for $65 an hour and snorkeling equipment for $25 a day. Many people come to Cancun for the water, of course. Entrance costs $20, based on a rate of exchange of 3 pesos to the dollar, with buffet dinners another $15 a person. The early shows are in English after 7 P.M., in Spanish. (Most street addresses on the island are designated as the number of kilometer down the boulevard.) This collection of theaters, shops and restaurants features 40-minute shows that are heavy on the type of folkloric ballet popular in Mexico. In the last year alone, several new attractions and hotels have opened, and developers are beginning to buy up the largely undeveloped stretch of jungle and seacoast along the 81 miles south of the city to the Maya city of Tulum.Ī 30-foot-high pink pinata at Kilometer 12 on Kukulcan Boulevard marks the entrance to Mexico Magico, a large theme park without rides that opened last August. Now that Cancun is firmly established as the most popular destination in Mexico, the people who run it have been busy trying to refine and broaden its appeal. And in October signs are put up on the boulevard warning drivers to watch for crabs crossing from the Laguna Nichupte to the sea, following a ritual of mating and birth far older than anything else in Cancun. At the Marina Aqua Ray, on Kukulcan Boulevard, the resort's only main road, a six-foot crocodile named Lorenzo suns himself in the afternoons. There are places, too, where the jungle has barely been cleared away. The trick, then, to enjoying the resort - and many people obviously do - is not to fight it but to accept it for what it is: a stretch of exquisite beach, sparkling sea and a base for a growing number of adventures. This is the ancient homeland of the Maya, yet English is the standard language. Situated in one of the country's least populated and most undeveloped states, Cancun's hotel zone could qualify as a city. The results can seem artificial and slightly unreal. ![]() The Mexican Government connected both ends of the island to the mainland with bridges, put in roads, drainage and electricity and invited developers to build the rest. When work began on the new resort in 1970, Cancun was nothing but a thin barrier island. There comes a moment in every trip to Cancun when visitors confront the fact that the whole thing - the 19,000 hotel rooms, the 1.5 million visitors a year, the nearly 260,000 permanent residents - is part of a computer-generated plan hatched by the Government of Mexico 23 years ago as a way to raise hard currency. So, after you read this, care to chat about places that used to be and things that were funny and fun.like El Mexicano or Gypsies or Mexico Magico. Interesting how many prices haven't changed much over the years while some have changed dramatically. While digging through some old articles on the internet regarding Cancun, I found this.
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