The “Real” Cancun

April 2006

So Spring Break 2006 has come and gone. It was a week spent by many at Novi High School not in their hometown but in the epicenter of Spring Break: Cancun, Mexico. Believe it or not, this sportswriter went there as well, though with his family. My experience was obviously much different than that of many of the other Spring Breakers… I’ll let your imagination run wild at this point… but I can still shed some light on the experience of Cancun.

First, let me say that I didn’t stay in Cancun. I stayed in an area called the Riviera Maya, a sort of no man’s land in between Cancun and Playa del Carmen. Cancun itself is an interesting area. The Zona Hotelera, or basically where all the action is, is a strange geological area. Picture a track with the middle being a lagoon. The far side of the track is basically what is considered downtown Cancun (see aerial photo below). It’s a small strip of land but that’s where a majority of the hotels and nightclubs are. Where you are standing is part of the mainland of Mexico. 

It’s not hard to understand why Hurricane Wilma destroyed much of the Hotel Zone. The area is practically an island. But there is little evidence that a major storm ripped through the area just a few months ago. Things seemed to be pretty normal, just with a number of construction projects.

But as I said, unlike many of my peers, most of my time was not spent on that strip, but in the Riviera Maya. The area is along Highway 307, and closely resembles Novi 20 years ago. The area is dotted with resorts whose visitors are about 30 minutes away from Cancun (to the North) and 30 minutes from Playa del Carmen (to the South). My family and I ate dinner in Playa del Carmen a majority of our nights in Mexico, and it’s an amazing little town.

There are tons of restaurants and shops along a main street. Just a block away is the beach and if you look across the ocean you can see buildings on the nearby island of Cozumel. Every restaurant offered something a little different. Many restaurants featured live entertainment both from musical groups and the waiters. One eatery had waiters that carried all drinks on their heads. Yes, when my family of four ordered four drinks, they all came to us on one head!

Besides the attraction of downtown Playa del Carmen, the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza are relatively close. It’s about a 2 ½ hour drive to the ruins, which makes the trip a whole day affair, but it’s definitely worth the drive. The ruins are fascinating but the culture of the Mayan people was also interesting to learn. The Mayans practiced human sacrifices and gruesome games where the loser was decapitated. But in between their beheadings, the Mayans took the time to build a number of pyramids that served as calendars.