Monday, February 23, 2009

The 'Island of Women'

Come along with me as I remember a very fun tour we took
to Isla de Mujeres (pronounced mu-har-es). This island was
discovered in the 1600's and the explorer that first went ashore
found small stone images of women left by the Mayans, and thence
named it Isla (Island) de (of) Mujeres (Women).
The island is only 5 miles long and 1/2 mile wide at its widest. It
is located about 8 miles from the city of Cancun in a northerly
direction in the Caribbean.
Here are the 4 of us getting ready to board our ship that
will take us to the island. Are those supposed to be
native costumes?? I'm not sure!
This is the ship we traveled on, and the water was rough. This
boat really rocked and rolled. There were a few unfortunate
souls....
The first thing we did was sign up for snorkeling gear. We left shortly after for another boat ride out to some coral reefs where we had a great time snorkeling in the lovely water and seeing some amazing fish. I have no pictures of that as it was not a good place to have a camera!

After snorkeling we enjoyed an outdoor Mexican buffet lunch, then onward to our island tour. The main transportation around the island is on golf carts or mopeds (small motorcycles). We followed a leader around the island in this
golf cart (2 in front and 2 in back) and had a really fun time. We stopped 3 times for views and scenic spots.

This is the only village on the island and is about 4 blocks in length, although very congested. There are a few taxi's and they wait somewhat patiently for the carts and a chance to pass...

This is what most of the island looked like. There is this double lane road around the island.

Here is a view of the Caribbean and the city of Cancun from the island.


We first traveled to Punta Norte or the northern end of the island. This had the best views as you can see.

The only Mayan ruin is here at Punta Norte.

We had lots of views of the houses on the island as we went along. They were from all economic levels: some very nice like this one, some Palapa's or thatched roofs, and some just old trailers.

Beautiful flowers and blue skies, just like in the travel posters...
Another very nice house....aren't the bright colors vivid against the sky and water?
We drove to the southern tip of the island which is the eastern-most point of Mexico (about 100 miles from Cuba). Our final stop was at this beach area where we could experience the white sands and beautiful waters.
It was a full day, but so much fun to experience Mexico in a more native way.
Hope you enjoyed the tour!

4 comments:

Lora said...

Beautiful pictures! Steve and I went to Mexico for our honeymoon and had a great time! Thanks for the comment on Aaron's memorial montage. It took a while to make his as none of the photos were digital! But, I'm so glad I made it and Steve and I will always have it to watch in memory of Aaron. We still talk about him often.

Peter Jones said...

This looks like a really fun thing to do. I like how you did a post just on the island. We really enjoyed your explanations of things and the way you gave us a tour. How interesting. We're always interested in history and geography, thanks for the details!! The boys were down here waiting and waiting for me to come read "Grammy's blog post."
I loved your white dress. I'm so glad you got to go!
Jules

Peter Jones said...

My favorite picture was the one of you and dad on the cart. That's a great one! How did you get those borders on those pictures?

Jennie and Julie said...

Julie, I didn't put on those borders....everywhere we went they were snapping photos so that we would buy from them. At the cave they wanted $25 EACH, so needless to say we didn't get any. But on the island they only wanted $5 ea. so we bought the two...the one of us boarding the boat and the golf cart. I like that one too.