A Tale of Two Cities...in One Town

It seems like a long time since we’ve talked, but its been only 14 days since we last posted, and we’ve been through a couple of very different places.

When we last checked in, we were musing about middle class life in Mexico and our place in Cancun. We only stayed there one week and had our fill of living in a condo in the middle of a gated shopping area. So, we headed to our next destination (for the second week of our “where are we now” two week period.)

Back when we were going to Isla Mujeres, we had our host, Hector, set up a driver to take us to the ferry. The driver, Arturo, was a gregarious fellow with whom we connected, so we called him and asked if he’d drive us from Cancun to El Cid Spa and Beach Resort in, of all places, Puerto Morelos. If you read our first Mexican blog post back in January, you might remember that we started this year in Puerto Morelos.

Turns out, Puerto Morelos is growing. When we first came here in 2020, the town had only three paved streets. We met a lady last week who has been here for 45 years, she remembers when it had only one street and only 500 residents. Cancun has grown and there’s nowhere to build, Tulum has grown and there’s very little space to grow, Playa Del Carmen is filling up too. Puerto Morelos seems to be the next spot on the Yucatan’s east coast to experience growth. The map below shows where we stayed in January, the El Cid Spa and Beach Resort where we were last week, and where we are now, in the center of the old town of Puerto Morelos.

Puerto Morelos is really two towns in one: "Colonia" and "Port-side"our Porto for short. Porto is a small three-street town with a lot of condos where “touristas” (Nancy and John-types) vacation. Colonia is where many locals and expats live (it’s way cheaper than Porto) There is only one road to get from Colonia to Porto, which cuts across the mangrove swamp. For those of you who are unfamiliar with mangroves, they are generally wetlands that grow in tropical or sub-tropical latitudes. Mangrove forests stabilize the coastline, reducing erosion from storm surges, currents, waves, and tides. (As a former biology teacher, John needed to add those last two sentences).

One the road leading from Colonia to Porto, through the mangroves, there’s even a sign to beware of the crocodile crossing!

El Cid

El Cid is an all-inclusive in the south of Puerto Morelos (PM). When Arturo drove us there, we passed our favorite (and only) grocery store in PM. We knew the road, we just didn’t know that it went to a fancy all-inclusive.

El Cid "Marina and Ventus combo Ventus Ha Our Room

El Cid is a three-part resort, Marina, Ventus, and the newest Venta Ha. We booked into Ventus Ha. While the other two are right on the beach, Ventus Ha is across the road bordering the mangrove swamp.

Our room overlooked the main pool of Ventus Ha. However, we spent most of our week at the Adults Only pool on the 6th floor of the condo. This had an excellent view of the mangroves.

Another view at the Adults Only pool (that we could have done without) was this middle-aged guy in the string bikini!

A representation of the man in the thong, because John refused to take his picture for fear of being punched in the mouth.

Nancy says, "So ladies, if you're looking for an exotic present for that special man, this could be it!"

The other thing that we did at Ventus Ha was eat and drink. The restaurants in El Cid were quite good, as is not always the case at all-inclusives. Speaking of eating, one meal stands out. It was our last night at El Cid. For an appetizer that night John had grilled octopus on bone marrow with black beans and Nancy had guacamole that came with a bunch of sides...one being grasshoppers! Yum, they actually weren't bad--they tasted like salty crispy snacks.

The bone marrow was served with the entire bone split in half. Notice the missing marrow at the center? John already took a large bite before snapping the picture above. The guac wasn't served with the grasshopper on top, they were served in a bowl so you could add them yourself. Another side with the guac were pork rinds, which are traditionally severed with guacamole.

The waiters and waitresses at Ventus were very friendly and helpful. One stands out. His name was Willy, and he was a sommelier at one of the restaurants. As we’ve mentioned before, most of the Mexican wines aren’t that good. But Willy turned us on to some very excellent ones. Before our dinner had ended, Willy provided us with a list of these excellent Mexican wines.

Willy presenting the wine. Willy pouring the wine into a carafe. And Willy preparing the glass (there's probably a better name for the last step than 'preparing the glass'.) Maybe my brother, the winemaker, will comment below with a correction.

What else can you say about a week in an all-inclusive? We lounged, read, ate, and drank, that’s about it. It’s funny too, after about four days we were hankering to get back to a condo with our own kitchen and living room.

So, Monday didn’t come soon enough. Since we were so close to the center of PM, where our next condo was located, we hopped a cab and went the short distance to Las Casitas, a condo on the beach in central Puerto Morelos.

We like to have a car (or golf cart, like in Isla Mujeres) when we stay longer than a week in a place. John booked an Enterprise rental at the Cancun airport, but Nancy, with her wily ways, found a local woman who had an in to a cheaper rental. They even delivered it right to our condo. Now, it’s not a brand-spanking new vehicle like at Enterprise (our has about 132,000 miles on it...212km) and the seats are too low…we put beach towels down to raise our height), but it includes all insurance, and it was way cheaper than John’s choice.

Our first trip was back to the Cumbres, Cancun shopping area we left the week before to buy supplies. We went to Sam’s Club for meats, Walmart grocery for veggies, and La Europea to buy some of Willy’s suggested wines. Wouldn’t you know it? Willy’s suggested wines were all over $85 USD, so we reverted back to our less expensive wines that John found online. So, we bought a couple bottles to last us while we're here.

Okay, okay, so we bought a few extra bottles, but remember, we're here for three weeks, and we're having company. We need to be ready for anything.

We’ve been here in Las Casita for a week now. The ocean is right outside our door and the water is amazing. We also have a nice pool (warmed), a hot tub, and brand new beach umbrellas and chairs to use.

Plus, the inside of our condo was just renovated. The kitchen is brand new, the living room large and cozy and one of the biggest TV’s we’ve ever seen. But our favorite part is the porch, which looks out over the sea, has the best chairs, and has shade in the afternoon.

Well, we’ve been at this nomadic thing for five months now and no one has come to visit us. But, this week we have not only two people, but four people joining us. One couple will stay with us and the other couple has their own place down the road. It should be fun.

So, until next time,

Arrivederci...oh wait, Adios (forgot where we were for a minute)

John and Nancy

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CORRECTION: At the bottom of the last blog post I listed a fake email address and password to use if you want to add a comment but don't want to use your own email address. I forgot to include which email company the address was for. The address should be Anomads@outlook.com and the password is 2023nomads.