The Fabulous Puerto Morelos Part 4

No shoes, no shirt, no problems / Blues what blues... hey I forgot em' / The sun and the sand and a drink in my hand with no bottom / and no shoes, no shirt, and no problems  - Kenny Chesney, No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems

While I am glad we explored other parts of the Riviera Maya, my favorite place remained the town of Puerto Morelos. From Ceiba del Mar we had 3 different options of getting to town. Our first night, not being familiar with the area, we took a taxi. After dinner, just a short walk down the street, we found a taxi stand on the northwest corner of the central plaza, and one 80’s pop song later we were back at the front steps of our hotel. ($10 round trip, not including tip.)
The second way into town was an easy 20-30 minute walk down the beach. Along the way we saw a cute little beach bar shack, where we pulled up a seat, took off our shoes and enjoyed a few cold beers and a coke. A little further down the beach was something even better than a bar, walking among the groups of beach goers were vendors selling cotton candy, obviously making this one of my top 5 favorite beaches. ( I was so excited about the cotton candy I didn't get to take a good picture.)

My favorite way into town was definitely by bicycle. The Ceiba del Mar Hotel offered a variety of beach cruiser bicycles to borrow, including a tandem bike. While peddling down the quite streets, it was hard to believe that only a few kilometers away was the hustle and bustle of Cancun.

Once in town we had a ton of restaurant options, and since we were visiting during off season we had many of the restaurants to ourselves. That also meant they weren't keeping the restaurants fully stocked, so not to waste ingredients, and the menus were somewhat limited.(We were just happy to be there.) At Cantina Habanero we had great hamburgers and beer, Los Gauchos I practically inhaled a delicious pepperoni empanada and Ole Don Pepe we finally had Mexican food and were entertained by MTV on a big screen TV. (I will oddly associate Trey Songz “Bottoms Up” with Puerto Morelos now.) I wanted to go to Mama’s Bakery but it was always closed by the time we got there, so instead we had Coconut Ice Cream at Nestle, yum.

We didn't just eat while we were in town, of coarse I had to go shopping at the Hunab Ku market. The kids each picked out a souvenir and with such good prices and a little extra room in our suitcases I couldn’t help myself from loading up on all sorts of knickknacks and large beautiful hammock. (Bringing a hammock back through airport security was quite an adventure.)

We typically don’t go back to places when we go on vacation, just because there are so many places in the world to see, but I have to say this might be an exception. We had such a great time and absolutely fell in love not only with the natural beauty but also the friendliness. There may be a lot of pretty places in the world but it’s the people that really make a place wonderful. Puerto Morelos definitely won my heart.