June 6, 2007

Cancun was the most difficult city to drive in yet: heavy traffic, lots of round-abouts, no lines on the road, and cops on every corner waiting to pounce.

And sure enough, on our way to Wal-Mart for the beach staples, we made what was deemed by a vigilant cop to be an illegal u-turn.

(U-turns are normally legal in Mexico but we had chosen the wrong "retorno", or gap, in the meridian.)

Adrienne pleaded our case using the "we always drive the speed limit" and "there were no signs" approach. I thought it would be useful to let the cop know that "we live in our van" and "are on a tight budget".

After about 15 minutes of "negotiations", our pleas, for some reason, touched a nerve in the cop and he let us go with only a warning instead of the $20 ticket. We drove away giving each other subtle high-fives.

A camping road trip through Mexico means staying in a lot of small towns in far off places, and so we always get a little energized by the glitz and glamour of the big resort cities, like Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta previously. And Cancun, which neither of us had been to before, didn't disappoint in this regard, despite the difficult driving conditions.

Although there is one campsite just north of Cancun - Trailer Park Mecoloco, where we left the van when we ferried to Isla Mujeres - with the oppressively hot temperature and the plethora of activities in Cancun we wanted easy access to, it wasn't an option for us.

Hotel Los Girasoles, we were stayed, is in the downtown core (or centro) on Calle Pina, about a ten-minute drive from the hotel zone and the beaches. It is a real gem for budget travelers and roadtrippers.

For $35/night, we had A/C, a kitchenette, cable TV and nice touches like a strip of toilet paper wrapped around the toilet each morning to signify it had been cleaned. It was probably the nicest hotel we had stayed in since the West Beach Inn in Santa Barbara, California months earlier.

Although it's not in the Americanized Zona Hotelera, which is Vegas meets Times Square and is where all the famous and infamous "Spring Break" week activities occur, clean and comfortable accommodations like Hotel Los Girasoles make a Cancun vacation affordable for just about anyone.

Any lingering "beach fatigue" we had from Manzanillo, lifted as soon as we saw the exotic turquoise waters and gleaming white sand of Cancun's world-reknowned beaches and we spent a perfect day on Playa Chac-Mool, in front of one of the Hyatts.

Another night we got in our under the radar "resort swim" at the beach in front of the Fiesta Americana on Punta Cancun, one of the nicer hotels on the strip.

While all beaches in Mexico are technically open to the public, accessing them can be difficult in Cancun, as they are mainly in front of high-end hotels that employ large security contingents.

We accessed Playa Chac-Mool via a hotel property that was damaged by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and is now abandoned.

To get access to the beach in front of Fiesta Americana, and the hotel's chaise lounges and gleaming bathrooms, we took on the persona of guests.

Key Facts & Figures:

-Hotel Los Girasoles: $35/night