In a Grass Hut Overlooking the Caribbean: A Yucatan Dream

Last spring I spent a week in the Yucatan. Just flew there and pretty much stayed put in a grass hut on a cliff-top overlooking the Caribbean Sea. I hear there’s a ferry between Florida and Cancun popular with motorcycle travelers who want to ride in southern Mexico but who don’t want to travel the overland route from the Western USA. If anyone knows about this please contact me because I’d love to return on a bike to explore the Ruta Maya in a leisurely fashion – the only way to do it, I think. It’s wonderfully hot and humid, there. Here’s a bit more on the area, whether you’re just looking for a week or two in a tropical place, or you’re researching an overland tour to the Yucatan, Belize, and beyond.

You can order a CD ROM from Mariola Chichon that documents her trip on the Mayan road that’s available from her website, to get an idea of what it’s like to motorcycle here. I recommend it. But here’s a bit more on Tulum, if you decide to go…whether you want to motorcycle there, or just make a quick, week-long escape from the cold winter here.

I stayed at Cabanas Copal where the huts range from about $20 to $100 (shared, with or without bathrooms, garden, beachfront, etc.) with a variety of activities and services like yoga, meditation, a Tezmecal ceremony (sweat lodge), Mayan astrology readings, organic meals, massages, tours to local ruins and the biosphere down the road.

That said, the New Age atmosphere is really not that thick, and can be completely ignored if desired. There is no electricity in the cabanas, just a cement floor, a firm bed, a table, chairs, towels, and the all-important mosquito net. Their restaurant has a generator and there’s a neighboring Internet cafe with satellite access, if you really can’t disconnect (I wasn’t even tempted).

Outside my door the Caribbean Sea shimmered beyond two hammocks in the shade where the local iguana hung out begging for fruit. With only a week to practice maximum relaxation I didn’t want to get too ambitious so opted for only two side trips: one to Playa del Carmen for some Euro-Mexican nightlife, and another to the Coba ruins and the Punta Laguna spider monkey refuge.

I will definitely return and add a snorkeling and diving trip to Cozumel and ride to Punta Allen where I hear that the roads are really really bad and the lobster is really really good. I’d also like to visit the most famous Mayan ruin, Chichen Itza, a two-hour drive away.

Check out the Cabanas Copal website for a great virtual tour of their property, Tulum, and the surrounding area. If you don’t have a motorcycle and you’re going to rent a car, the best values are in Playa del Carmen (a $2 mini-van ride an hour away) and not in Tulum.

In the meantime, if you know anything about that Florida/Cancun ferry, let me know by posting a comment using the Comments function below. Thanks!