Meet Derrik Chinn, travel planner extraordinaire and owner of Tijuana tour company, Turista Libre. He is our featured guest blogger and is giving tips and tricks for all of the hottest Spring Break destinations. We're kicking things off with Cancun, the ultimate Spring Break locale.
CANCUN
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| Cancun Guide curated by Derrik Chinn (above far right) |
Cancun is, has been and
perhaps always will be first and foremost a notorious playground for gringos
and their European brethren, and its most infamous, obvious amenities attest to
this. The booze cruises, the monstrous clubs, the fake tattoos, the tequila
funnels, the Pleasure Islandesque debauchery. It's all an ever-tempting
distraction from the fact that the Yucatan peninsula is one of the most
ecologically unique sites on Earth. Cancun. It's way more than a beer
billboard, güey.
Playa patrol. A brief 101 on the beaches.
Party at Playa Tortugas. Escape the party at Playa Las Perlas. Surf at Playa
Delfinas. Snooze at Playa Langosta or Linda.
Take a break from the beach in a sinkhole. Natural wonders abound in a tropical paradise like this, but it's
a mecca for aficionados of the planet's ultimate swimming holes: cenotes. Sinkholes caused by collapsed
limestone that dot the Yucatan terrain, many connect to underground rivers and
complex subterranean cave systems as deep as 300 feet below the surface. Once used
for sacrficial offerings by the Maya, who considered them portals to the
netherworld, they've since become remote oasises for swimmers and cave divers.
One of the more popular stops on the Cenote Trail, which runs along the
Cancun-Tulum freeway, Las Mojarras (cenotelasmojarras.com) measures 200 feet in
diameter and 45 feet deep. And it's rigged with a zip line, diving towers and
camping facilities. Other cenotes worth checking out along the route: Siete
Bocas, Boca del Puma and Verde Lucero.
Indiana Jones' Yucatan dream pad. The
farther you push into Latin America, the more probable your chances of
stumbling upon some ancient megacity that the jungle swallowed centuries before
the conquistadores set sail. Among those is Chichen Itza, one of the more of
the more impressive reminants of Mayan civilization and a two-three hour drive
from Cancun. Active from 600 to 1200 AD., it's now one of Mexico's most visited
archaelogical sites, banking more than a million visitors annually.
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| Chichen Itza |
Townie time. Mexican tourist
destinations like Cancun are always a tale of two cities. One is specifically
for visitors, home to high-end resorts, star restaurants and posh nightlife
spots. The other holds the side of the city only the locals know, the true root
of the city's original flair. Escape the whitewashed hotel zone for downtown
Cancun and park it at Parque Las Palapas, a plaza at the intersection of
Tulipanes and Alcatreces where impromptu amateur hour is every hour for local
Latin American Idol hopefuls of all ages, while you kick back a few empanadas
and tamales. Nearby Mercado 28 is where to head for a Mexican arts and crafts
shopping spree for Saint Death statues, serapes, tire-soled sandals known as
huaraches and such. Then stroll down Avenida Yaxchilán, a
central thoroughfare lined with divey cantinas and restaurants usually reserved
for locals but with always room for a loaner gabacho or two.
Wet and wild. In the Mexican Carribean,
where playa paradise is here, there and everywhere, you're right to wonder why
anyone would waste time at waterpark. That is, unless, you know that few
waterparks in the world compare to a Mexican waterpark, which comes as a vital
lesson to the average foreign visitor: One's safety, even in environments such
as waterparks where the gringo custom of million-dollar lawsuits usually
ensures that an establishment keeps everything up to code, is never to be
assumed. "Ride at your own risk" is the unspoken law, but the
tradeoff of the heightened chance of peril is the added freedom to do so in ways
never conceivable in the U.S., namely headfirst either on your back or stomach.
Wet'n Wild, Cancun's lone parque acuatico, houses some six slides, a lazy
river, wave pool and a full bar.
Forging la fiesta. CocoBongo is a massive dance club whose campy rap is preceded
only by its cultish take on Vegas-style shows, and probably the only bar in
which you'll see a Lady Gaga impersonator who isn't a man. Mambo Café books live música latina acts from Colombia,
Venezuela, the Domincan Republic and Cuba; here's where you'll learn that it
really is all in the hips. Live lucha libre (masked Mexican wrestling) and
bikini contests happen at Bulldog Cafe. The City calls its million-watt sound system the best in Latin
America, and the performer hall of fame includes the likes of 50 Cent, Sasha,
Tiesto and Paul Van Dyk. Dady'O, known for its light shows,
recently played host to a DJ set by LMFAO's Redfoo.
Spring break is not for sleeping. Cheap: The Cancun Nest Hostel, centrally located downtown. Cool:
El Rey del Caribe, 31-room eco-hotel, downtown. Sweet kitsch: HotelXbalamque, ode to Mayan Jaguar god of the universe, downtown.
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| El Rey del Caribe |