Riviera Maya – Akumal Bay
& Beyond

The road from Cancun to Belize is Hwy 307. Midpoint between Playa del Carmen (home to the Cozumel ferry) and Tulum (home to world’s most visited Mayan site) is Akumal Bay (home of the Yucatan’s first resort). Before Cancun was conceived, with the entire undeveloped coast to choose from, Akumal Bay was selected for development due to its perfect beaches, offshore reefs, and proximity to sunken treasure.  

Enjoy Akumal Bay's perfect beaches and offshore reefs.

The person doing the choosing was Pablo Bush Romero, a treasure hunter scuba diving for shipwrecks offshore. Pablo was the founder of the CEDAM museum and he built a resort on Akumal Bay for his diving buddies. Here you will find the best swimming, snorkeling, scuba, cenotes, Mayan ruins, and hospitality on the Riviera Maya, along with considerable history.

Akumal is the site where the first Europeans landed in Mexico in 1511. They were Jeronimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero.  Shipwrecked, they were rescued by the locals. Aguilar became a scout to help Cortez begin the Spanish conquest. Guerrero chose the other side, married a local, created the first mestizo family in Mexico, and advised the Maya military. Guerrero helped to delay the Spanish conquest of this area for decades. There is a bronze statue of Guerrero, with his Mayan wife and children, on the beach where he landed.

Today Akumal Bay is an exception on a coastline dotted with all-inclusive mega-resorts. It reminds me of the good-old-days of Mexico’s tourist destinations, before international corporations built industrial resorts displacing many small locally-owned inns providing family hospitality   Akumal is an oasis with several peers on the Yucatan coast. Ask us about the Riviera Maya’s other hidden pearls. Skip the franchise hotel substitute and tour authentic Mexico. You won’t be sorry!

Guanajuato
 
This university town is built on the steep hills of south central Mexico at an elevation of 6600’. It’s full of beautiful architecture and colorful houses, cafés, art galleries, and balconies filled with flowers. Music fills steep cobblestone streets too narrow for cars to access. There are literally hundreds of streets to explore, both vibrant and peaceful, no traffic (it’s underground), no neon, and no franchises are found in this UNESCO World Heritage site.

Around each corner is a new surprise – fountains, patio dining with live music, historic  churches, wine bars, museums, and stairways leading to mountainside mansions. There are boutique hotels and artful B&Bs. You’ll find roaming musicians, street theatre, symphony, opera, ballet folklorico, and a former home of Diego Rivera. It feels like Europe but you can enjoy Guanajuato’s culture-filled plazas for a week for the price of a few days in Europe’s. A prominent silver mining town, Guanajuato is as good as gold for an urban getaway.

If you only visit one city in Mexico, this is the one. Guanajuato is a living monument to Spanish colonial charm.

Real de Catorce,
San Luis Potosi
 
This remote canyon village was a ghost town before a renaissance began.  European expatriates began to restore its former elegance in the mid 90’s – long before Hollywood filmed “The Mexican” or “Bandidas” on location in Real de Catorce due to its much deserved reputation as a “Pueblo Mágico”.   

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Real de Catorce, San Luis Potos

Much of this charmingly decayed village is constructed from stone from the surrounding mountain sides. It sits at an elevation of 9000’ with 10,000’ peaks above it. Access is through a 1.5 mile one-lane tunnel. You leave the same way - traffic alternates.

Emerging from the tunnel into town you are grabbed by fresh mountain air. Local children greet you and guide you on foot past their artisan’s booths to your inn. There are no taxis here. Huichol Indians in traditional dress walk to and from town. The climate is ideal. 

Evenings find everyone in town meeting at old world style cafés to converse about the day, sharing wine, food & coffee. The art of classical Spanish guitar seems to be staging a comeback in Catorce – it’s everywhere. You’ll hear expatriates and tourists conversing in Italian, Swiss, German, French English & Spanish. There are few Americans but most of the expats speak some English.

Many younger tourists pilgrimage to Real de Catorce to observe the Huichol tradition of harvesting a year's supply of peyote - sacred nourishment used in vision quests toward higher consciousness. 

There is no place like Real de Catorce. It is unique and sublime.

Tetakawi Mountain in San Carlos

Where Cabo feeds the flesh,
Loreto feeds the spirit.

Loreto is west across the sea of Cortez, in Baja California Sur, an hour’s flight from San Diego.  These are not tourist hotspots with all-inclusive mega-resorts. San Carlos & Loreto are sleepy seaside villages home to a few peace-loving expatriates, quiet beaches, fishermen, Mexican tourists, small spas and burgeoning eco-resorts. From San Carlos it’s easy to visit Alamos, another of Mexico’s Pueblos Mágico.  

 
Alamos was founded in 1681 and is a unique Sonoran desert community which gained fame as a colonial mining town. This is traditional Mexico at it’s quiet best. One can lodge in a 250-year old convent, restored Spanish colonial mansions, or with Mexican families. Regardless, time slows. 

Local musicians serenade visitors by day - after one hundred species of local and migratory birds finish their songs. Nature lovers will appreciate the subtropical ecological preserve in Alamos. 

The town’s population is only 6,000. Local festivals pack every inn, home, hostel, and campground. This is one of the most romantic places in Mexico.