New Virtual Tour of Puerto Morelos

Yesterday I came across one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time, thanks to a Google+ post by blogging friend Kelly.

Cancun’s OVC (Office of Visitors and Conventions) has recently launched an amazing virtual tour of Puerto Morelos, one of my favorite spots. On the virtual tour, you can see aerial views of the town of Puerto Morelos and its amazing Caribbean waters, as well as some of the town’s most luxurious resorts and tours of several of the area’s famous cenotes along the Ruta de los Cenotes.

Cenote Kin Ha

Designed by Cameleon360, the tour includes aerial views, ground views and of course 360 views. In other words, it’s a heck of a lot of fun to play around with. You can even see my new favorite spot Cenote Verde Lucero from a crazy cool “Little Planet View”:

The tour covers about 20 kilometers (about 12 miles for my American readers), and each 360 shot requires 70-80 different images to create. I don’t know how they find the patience, but I’m glad they did!

Hotel Azul Beach

Rumor has it that soon Cancun will be undergoing the same project, showing the city’s shopping, restaurants, hotels, nightclubs, etc. From there, they hope to move on to Isla Mujeres, Isla Contoy and Holbox, and possibly even Chichen Itza. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to spend a morning of daydreaming at the office with virtual tours of the entire region!

At the moment, you can see this incredible Puerto Morelos virtual tour on cancun.travel or puertomorelos.com

Disclosure:  I am being compensated for my work in creating and managing content as a Community Manager for the Mexico Today Program.  All stories, opinions and passion for all things Mexico shared here are completely my own.

Tarantula Crossing (or “Why I Don’t Go Into the Jungle”)

So on our trip to La Ruta de los Cenotes this weekend, I mentioned that you can often see Yucatan animals crossing the road. On our way back from Cenote Lucero Verde, we stopped when we saw this bad boy crawling out of the jungle:

Posted in full size so you can take in every hairy detail

I asked my father-in-law if I could get out and take a picture because… well, because I’m a blogger and that’s what we do. I would have put my hand side-by-side for a size comparison, but I’m not suicidal. (Just trust me when I say it was roughly the size of my face.)

I’ve identified it as a Yucatan Rust Rump Tarantula.

Beach Day in Puerto Morelos

Saturday was a fun day. Juan, Viri and Jorge picked me up from work at 1 pm to go down to the beach. We went to the beach at Puerto Morelos (about 20 minutes south of Cancun), which I’d never done before. I had no idea it was so beautiful! The beach is much wider than the beaches in Cancun and the sand was a little softer, plus there were no waves! Playa Norte on Isla Mujeres is still our favorite beach, but this comes in a close second.

Beachfront Lunch in Puerto Morelos

First of all, thanks to everyone for the advice last week on this post. I was expecting it to be more of a unanimous opinion, but everyone had something different to say!

I think everyone was right, which was what made this a difficult decision. In the end, Jorge and I decided that we won’t be getting involved in real estate anytime soon, and there will probably be more courses available in the future, so we’ll save the money now and take a course later!

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Anyway, moving on…

This weekend was a blast! On Saturday, my friends Juan and Viri invited me to lunch with their families in Puerto Morelos, a small beach town about 20 minutes south of Cancun.

I’d passed through Puerto Morelos many times, but this was the first time I’d seen the beach!

We had a late lunch at Pelicanos restaurant (lunch in Mexico is at about 3 – 4 pm). The food was ok, but the drinks and the view were AMAZING.

Pelicanos restaurant

View from our table

My shrimp ceviche... not bad, but a little dry!

Juan Sr's giant fried fish

The boardwalk

The dock and the beautiful Caribbean

*sigh*

Viri and I stopped by this neighboring restaurant for some Kahlua flan.

"La Panza Es Primero" - "The Stomach Comes First" .... amen.

My strong but delicious mojito!

I’m so glad I finally got to spend some time in the town of Puerto Morelos! I could enjoy those views (and those mojitos) for a lifetime.

A Day at Now Riviera Cancun Resort

First of all, here’s a heads up to all the “lurkers” on my site… I see you! Make sure to leave a comment from time to time! I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for hanging out 🙂

Anyway, now on to today’s post. Yesterday was the best. day. ever. Well, maybe not the best, but it was up there.

My company had given some of us day passes to Now Riviera Cancun Resort in the Mayan Riviera. I got to take 1 person with me. Of course, I took the fiance. It was free all-inclusive. 🙂

We took the bus down to Puerto Morelos (about half an hour south of downtown Cancun, 15 minutes from the airport). From there, we caught a cab out to the resort. (There’s also a local bus to take you there, but we were too lazy to wait for it.)

We got there around 10:30 and enjoyed some breakfast, beach time, pool time, and a late lunch. Sadly, we had to leave around 6 pm. The day went by too durn fast. Here are some pics we took:

The main lobby

*sigh*

View from my table at breakfast. The buffet was AMAZING! fruit, sausage, kiwi-flavored cream cheese, bacon and fruit. yummm! Fiance was weirded out by the American-style breakfast sausage, but I made him try it and he enjoyed it. (To be fair, they are pretty disgusting looking.)

Beach view from my breakfast table

Next, we stepped down to the beach.

Well hello, toucan!

I had no idea he took this picture until later in the day. When I saw it, my heart melted. "Awww, he took a picture of us holding hands! He loves me! Dang, my legs look great!"

My fave pic of the day.

View from our pool loungers

View from a bridge going over the pool

Pool with swim-up bar

Next came a late lunch at the poolside snack restaurant, which had tons of great stuff on the menu. ceviches, fajitas, desserts, sandwiches, etc. Everything we got was fresh-tasting and very very good. I knew my calorie counting was working because they served me the tiniest Greek salad ever, and I considered it enough to fill me up (plus dessert, of course).

View from my chair at lunch 🙂

Jorge and I loooooved these lattice roofs over the restaurant terraces. Someday when we own a Caribbean dreamhome, we'll have one. You'll be invited to the terrace parties. 🙂

My dessert - Strawberry Martini with Chocolate Mousse (couldn't finish it... more proof that the calorie-counting is taking effect)

Jorge's dessert - cheesecake

After lunch, we went back to the pool so I could work on my tan. I laid out on one of those submerged loungers while looking out over the ocean. Jorge sat next to me. I didn't want to leave!!!

The two ladies on the lounge chair came with a huge group of friends, who had names such as "Frogger", "Double-D" and "Fancy". They have a friend who's married to a violent drunk and cheats on him with young guys. Another friend spent an entire night with diarrhea and puking. Yet another friend is addicted to Oxycontin. How do I know this? They were screaming about it for about an hour. They then proceeded to flirt with some poor guy from the hotel's entertainment team by yelling out very bad Spanish. Fun times.

Before we left, we stopped by for some drinks (water) at this bar.

My only complaint was that the drinks were all very disgusting (except the wine, the fruit juices and the water). Still, it may have just been a bad day because one of my coworkers was raving about the drinks when she went a few weeks ago. The food was excellent, though.

Overall, it was an amazing day, and we didn’t want to leave. Since the past few weekends had been very busy with wedding planning and my in-laws’ vow renewal, Jorge and I hadn’t spent any alone time together in quite awhile. (We don’t get to see eachother much on weekdays because I work 9-5 and he has school 4-10.) It was really just what we needed.