#1233 seeing the island

Isla Mujeres is a pretty small island: it's about five miles long (8 KM) and maybe a couple of miles wide (3KM). We stayed on the north end of the island, Playa Norte, really about as far north as you can get! The place where we stayed is in easy walking distance of the town where most of the restaurants and tourist-y shops are, so we always walked. There wasn't a need to have a golf cart all the time because it was so easy to walk. Plus, parking seemed like it would be a problem.

One day, though, we decided to rent a golf cart for the afternoon and drive to the south end of the island, Punta Sur. I was excited about it because there is a Mayan ruin out there, plus I really wanted to go to the turtle farm.

I had purchased a very informative set of maps of the island from Mapchick, The maps had so much information, everything from restaurant advice and where they all were, to a walking tour of the island and a golf cart tour of the island and what to see. It was cool. $17 well spent.

So we had our map and we headed out. Since we had already been to the southern end when we went to Garrafon de Castilla, so we kind of knew the way. It is a beautiful drive along the Caribbean coast. It felt nice to have the breeze cooling us off - did I mention how humid it was there?

I think the southern end of the island is where a lot of the locals live. Although we didn't go there, I know there is a big grocery store (thanks to the map) and there are lots of little places to eat and things that just made me think that people lived in the area, more than in the northern, more tourist-y area.

Anyway, we followed the road and sure enough, we soon reached the southern tip of the island. We parked the golf cart, paid our $3 US to get into the sculpture garden and wandered around.

There were very nice trails that lead through the garden and took us down to spectacular views of the Bahia de Mujeres, body of water between Cancun and Isla Mujeres.

Can you believe how clear that water is? Gorgeous!

We walked a little way along the trail and then we spied some rock steps . I thought they would take us back to the top, but instead they took us to a little cave. Not much to see there, but we did it.

Like I said, at the end of the point were the Mayan ruin that they say was a temple to Ixchel. She was a fertility goddess.  There isn't much left of the temple today, sadly, but I still liked it, although there wasn't much to see.

After looking at the sculptures and the temple ruins, it was time for lunch. Fortunately, there was a little restaurant, Acantilado,  right on-site, so we got a nice table in the shade where we could feel the breeze. We had a light lunch because it was so dang hot, and I thought it was pleasant.

After lunch we headed north a little way until we came to the turtle farm. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed by it. I did love all the turtles, but I didn't love the people! There were signs that said "Don't touch the turtles" in both English and Spanish, yet people were reaching right in and picking up the smaller turtles - especially the babies. I guess I can't really blame them; the babies are so cute and tiny and there were so many of them! People liked to put them on the palm of the hand and take a photo. I didn't do that, though. The babies looked very happy to be swimming with all their turtle friends.

Some people picked up a medium-size turtle and it was flapping its legs (?) like crazy. Poor turtle! Why did the person have to pick up the turtle? Why? Just look at the turtle, people. It is hard to take a good picture of a turtle. They move pretty quickly in the water. This turtle was looking at me.

We didn't spend too much time at the turtle farm, but I enjoyed it.

There are other things to see on the south end of the island. There's a dolphin discovery place where you can swim with the dolphins. There's some kind of lagoon in the middle of the island that has a house of something made of plastic. There's a pirate's house, too. We didn't go to any of those places, though we did drive by the dolphin place and the plastic place. I wouldn't have minded seeing the pirate's house, though, but we didn't try to find it at all. Maybe next time :)

On the way back, we did see one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen. I guess it wasn't that the church itself was so beautiful, but the view was amazing. I think I might even consider going to church if I could see this view:

I'm not gonna lie to you...I was moved to tears in this place. It was, to me, divine.

After the church, we headed back to the north side of the island. It was a nice drive, very scenic.

So...there was our day of cruising around the island on a golf cart. I thought it was fun and beautiful and a nice way to spend the afternoon. If you go, I highly recommend it :)