Isla Mujeres

A group of us decided to spend our "long" weekend (Friday-Sunday) at Isla Mujeres. I agreed to go, but I was a little anxious to be around so many tourists!! There were things that I liked about our visit to Isla Mujeres, but the overall experience did not instill in me the desire to go again. However, the beach was beautiful, and the water was so refreshing; not too cold and not too warm. We stayed at a hostel and it was my very first (and hopefully last) experience at one. There is absolutely no privacy at a hostel!! There were only two things that I liked about the hostel: this cat that accompanied me to the bathroom in the mornings, and the flowers that were right outside our room (the room had three sets of bunkbeds, no air conditioning and no windows! there were screens instead of windows and it seemed like all the bugs on Isla Mujeres came to our screens to die! hahahaha, part of the experience I guess). I did have a relaxing weekend, despite the cacophony of noises until 3am at the hostel, because we spent all day at the beach, resting and swimming. But I don't think I'll ever go back to Isla Mujeres. Been there, done that.

It was really hot and kind of humid during the day, but at night, it was absolutely beautiful! There was a slight breeze on the beach and we were all excited to be on Isla Mujeres! The weekend that we were there (July 15-17) was the famous whale shark weekend. There was a big festival that celebrated the whale sharks that come swimming by Isla Mujeres. They are the largest fish of the ocean and are docile, peaceful creatures. I had the opportunity to swim with them but it was so expensive! Plus, I heard that there were a lot of people swimming around the whale sharks so I'm glad that I didn't do it. I've included a picture of our weekend crew: me, Maggie, Kati, John, Andy, and Abby (another level one student who became my good friend!). I'm the only one who opted not to buy and wear the whale shark hat that this little 10yr old kid had made and was selling. But I did have a fun time regardless!

The six of us broke up into two groups during the day on Saturday; Abby and Andy went swimming with the whale sharks while Kati, Maggie, John and I rented a golf cart and cruised around the tiny island. Kati is my friend from the art history department at FSU; she's the only other Mayanist/Mesoamericanist studying with Dr. Carrasco (well, until this fall semester! we're getting two new PhD students who will be studying Ancient Mesoamerica as well). Kati is on the left, Maggie is on the right. We stopped at this private beach club which was just preparing to open; we saw the view from their beach so we decided to stop and take a few pictures. This guy Antonio who works there immediately approached us and told us that we could take some pictures. It was a beautiful private beach as you can see!

As we were driving around the very tiny island, we stopped and enjoyed the vista of the ocean. The water is amazing! It really is quite a beautiful place. I've included a picture of Ix Chel, the Maya moon goddess (also midwifery- the sign at this place says that if a woman wants to get pregnant, she only needs to touch the statue! so if a woman doesn't want to get pregnant, she shouldn't touch the statue! hahaha). Anyways, when we stopped at this mirador, across the street there was a cute little family selling "coco frio" which is, of course, coconuts that are split open by the guy, and then his wife gives you a straw and voila! Ice cold coconut juice straight from the coconut! It was pretty good and really cheap, and afterwards, the man cut out the "meat" of the coconut and cut it up into pieces so that we could have a second treat and enjoy all of the coconut. It was delicious. I have also included a picture of me and Maggie; I stayed at her house in North Carolina with her husband, Austin. Then when our level went to Mexico, I got to meet Maggie and we got along so well! She's really funny and we loved riding around the island in our golf cart, singing and having fun!

I had to say goodbye to Isla Mujeres (which wasn't too hard for me! hahaha). Both Saturday and Sunday morning when I went to take a shower, this cat would follow me into the bathrooms! He was so sweet and it seemed like he was waiting for me both mornings. Even though I didn't really enjoy being in the biggest tourist spot that I have ever been to in Mexico, I do have to say that the water was beautiful and it was a relatively relaxing weekend all things considered!