Isla Mujeres has turned out to be one of our best stops on this long sail from California to Florida. The island is a “relatively” quiet resort town just a ferry ride away from the gaudy hotels of Cancun. There is a bustling “no cars” little street through the middle of town that is lined with shops, bike rentals, restaurants, and bars, and the beaches are crowded with day trippers from the big hotels across the bay. Everyone seems to be having a good time here. Once you get out of the town there are many small resorts and guest houses, more bars, and lively, local restaurants. We found music every night in tropical settings, and we met people who were vacationing here for the 5th, 6th, 15th year in a row. That is pretty impressive that so many people would choose to return multiple times to the same place.
Isla Mujeres is also a great place from which to explore the Yucatan peninsula. We rented a car for a trip around the Yucatan and visited the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza, Ek Balam and Tulum. All were different, and all were truly impressive in their own way. Chichen Itza was the largest and most complete ruins we had seen in our travels that have included Tikal in Guatemala and Copan in Honduras. We had overnight stays in the towns of Valladolid and Tulum, and we got a chance to visit several of the waterfront towns that we had missed while sailing north. Puerto Morales was a pleasant, quiet, seaside town just north of its more famous neighbor Playa del Carmen. Playa del Carmen and Cancun are much too big to be considered “attractive”, but the tourists sure do like both of those cities.
We discovered a few favorite bars in Isla including the Soggy Peso and the Bahia Tortuga (we tried several others since we do a lot of comparison shopping in this category). We met the owner of the Soggy Peso (he readily admitted he usurped the name of the famous Soggy Dollar 0n Jost Van Dyke) whose goal was to build a tiki bar in his back yard for his friends and ended up with a crowded, laid back oasis. He served only one item each day (BBQ on Sunday, shrimp tacos on Friday, Cheeseburgers on Monday, etc) along with large drinks and very cold beers, and he was always full. His bartenders and cooks were a big part of the business, and everyone was ALWAYS happy at the Soggy Peso. The Bella Villa Resort got our attention with the sign that said “Beer so cold it will make your teeth hurt”.
Isla Mujeres was also the stepping stone for our trip to Cuba (via 707), but check the next blog for a separate narrative of our trip to Havana. The Forbidden Isle is just 120 miles (and a short flight) from Cancun and we jumped at the chance to see Fidel’s little corner of the world while we were this close.
Isla Mujeres has much to see and do, but for us the primary purpose was the safe harbor where boats heading towards the US wait for favorable weather before crossing the Gulf of Mexico. Key West is a four day sail, New Orleans about five days, and Houston close to six days sailing. Since the prevailing winds are from the east it is important to take advantage of the gentler winds of May and June for a comfortable (safe) crossing. We got crew (George and Pixie from Silver Sea) to join us in Isla, and we waited patiently until our weather guru said “jump”. On a beautiful, bright morning we sailed out of Isla Mujeres, past the sandy beaches on the north end of the island headed for either Key West or Ft Myers, Florida. We didn’t care. We only wanted to sail to whichever was easiest to get to given the winds and currents. On the morning of the third day we looked good (albeit tired) and we thought Ft Myers would be reachable before dark on the next day. But we hailed a passing sailboat for a weather update and were told that the weather window had closed down early, and that we needed to run for protection from an oncoming blow. We changed course and headed due east for the safety of the Dry Tortugas. We arrived at dark and found our way into the anchorage just as the winds picked up with the approaching front.
The Dry Tortugas are two small islands barely above sea level that were home to Ft Jefferson, an old army fort that is most famous for housing Dr. Samuel Mudd who was convicted of treason for setting the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth after the Lincoln assassination. Other than the restored fort there is nothing there or, rather, there is no there there. We ended up sitting off Ft. Jefferson through five days of 25 to 30 knot winds unable to sail either north to Ft Myers or east to Key West. Even with the winds this was a pretty place to be, and we did get to tour the fort, but we were just bored. We did finally bolt from the Tortugas to Ft. Myers at the first opportunity, and after another overnight sail we are now comfortable and happy here in south Florida. It is sort of like arriving home (even though Florida is certainly not home) because this is the first time the boat has been in the US since we left San Diego back in May 2007. Wow! Has it been that long?
