Non "touristy" trips

palmtreegirl · 02-07-2006

First of all, I love this site and appreciate all the input everybody puts into it.
I've read through the recommended tours and we plan to take a couple.
What I'm looking for is some info on any "off the beaten path" types of trips we can venture out of Playa del Carmen without spending 3-4 hours in a bus or car.
Like a small village where you can see how the people really live. Where the smoke in the air is from the ladies making tortillas, the village people selling hand made crafts and such. Maybe somewhere with wild monkeys hanging around. Read about Punta Laguna but seems to be a little far. I'll have my teenage son with me and although Playa is going to be great, I wanted to give him the opportunity to check out a really authentic mexican village minus some of the distractions. Any ideas? Thanks.

TnJ · 02-07-2006

Had this kind of trip in & around Guaymas, Sonora in early 90's but don't know how it is there nowadays... Tj

kjtom · 02-07-2006

You may wish to catch an early bus to Tulum or Coba or Valladolid and hire a cab to see the surroundings ... the road from Tulum to Coba is interesting itself ... you might ask forum moderators if they recommend a driver who can take you on a day long tour in one direction or another ... there are some quaint spots closer than the aforementioned towns

lolabella · 02-07-2006

When I was there a couple of years back (2002?), we did a Jungle Jeep tour. Every group received their own Geo Metro Jeep. I drove my mom, sister, and the group photographer. Funny, they didn't even ask me if I had a driver's license. As a first time driver in Mexico, I can honestly say it was a wild ride!

Anyway, it was a really interesting tour as went to Aktun Chen, which is an underground cave system. We learned a great deal of information about the flora and fauna of the Yucutan. http://www.aktunchen.com/

We then drove through the jungle to a Mayan Village and were lead on a tour around the village to see how self sufficient the people were. We were then treated to the most wonderful lunch prepared and cooked for us in the home of one of the villagers. They even let me help make the guacamole. I think it was the best meal we had while we were there. The tour ended with a dip into a Cenote.

I wrote a detailed 'Trip Diary' if you are interested in learning more. Just do a search under my name and look for 'Trip Diary'. I think I split it out in 6 parts.

Edited to add: I just re-read your title and realized you are looking for a non-touristy trip. Even though this was a tour, I didn't feel I had been "taken for a ride". It was very educational. You can visit Aktun Chen on your own.

palmtreegirl · 02-07-2006

Thank you - I will look into it!

**Heather** · 02-07-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by palmtreegirl

Like a small village where you can see how the people really live. Where the smoke in the air is from the ladies making tortillas, the village people selling hand made crafts and such. Maybe somewhere with wild monkeys hanging around. Read about Punta Laguna but seems to be a little far. I'll have my teenage son with me and although Playa is going to be great, I wanted to give him the opportunity to check out a really authentic mexican village minus some of the distractions. Any ideas? Thanks.

I completely understand what you are trying to find, but have to tell you that any tour you will take in an attempt to see a small village with people going about their "normal" lives will be touristy. Alltournative offers some tours with interaction with Mayan people, but you won't mistake the experience for a "natural" experience. Also, any wild monkeys that aren't chained won't come anywhere near you.

I'm not trying to burst your bubble at all, just want to be sure your expectations aren't skewed. Pick the tour experience that most speaks to you and go for it.

Silver Starfish · 03-02-2006

We just got back and did the Mayan Encounter with Alltournative tours. It was great if you are adventuresome and like heights. My son, who is ten, thought I was the coolest mom ever to select this tour. (My husband hated it and thought we were nuts!) We climbed Coba, zip lined, kayaked, swam in a cenote, rappelled into a cenote and ate lunch in a Mayan village. It was a ton of fun!

krazy4playa · 03-02-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by palmtreegirl

First of all, I love this site and appreciate all the input everybody puts into it.
I've read through the recommended tours and we plan to take a couple.
What I'm looking for is some info on any "off the beaten path" types of trips we can venture out of Playa del Carmen without spending 3-4 hours in a bus or car.
Like a small village where you can see how the people really live. Where the smoke in the air is from the ladies making tortillas, the village people selling hand made crafts and such. Maybe somewhere with wild monkeys hanging around. Read about Punta Laguna but seems to be a little far. I'll have my teenage son with me and although Playa is going to be great, I wanted to give him the opportunity to check out a really authentic mexican village minus some of the distractions. Any ideas? Thanks.

You could take the collectivo up to Purto Moralles about 15 minutes up the road. It is not a very touristy town and you could just mill around.

newMTB Shuttler · 03-02-2006

We had a semi non-touristy day trip a short while ago (ok 18 months ago):

We rented a car in PDC and drove down to Akumal. My wife had read about the local library needing small learn-to-read incentives and convinced the manager of our local Co-Op (grocery store) to donate a bag of goodies like pencils, erasors, sticky notes, whistles, and other small neat things. Well, without an appointment we pulled up to the one-room cinderblock library and shortly thereafter a young very cool looking young dude rode up on a bicycle. I say dude because he was wearing surfer shorts, hawaiian shirt, flip flops and had a very cool pair of Oakleys perched on his head.

"Buenos dias" he said. Ok, I thought - we are obviously NorteAmericanos so we'll have to suffer through in spanglish. "Mi esposa esta una profesora..." I ventured. "Y aqui esta um... como se dice, um, ....gifts, um, toys, um....." A grin spread over his face and he said "incentives?" in perfect english. It turned out that he was the librarian and we spent an hour or so learning about the literacy programs he offered at the library. These included reading lessons for children who weren't learning to read at school, secret reading lessons for their parents and english lessons for local fishermen so they could participate in the tourist industry.

When we asked Carlos why the kids weren't learning to read in school he asked if we wanted to see first hand. So we jumped in our car and drove west across 307 and bumped up the potholed dirt road to the elementary school in Pueblo Akumal. The principal was a friend of his and invited us to visit a 4th or 5th grade class.

Well, we had a blast in the class. My wife's name is Margaret and the class in unison said "Buenos Dias, Margarita". She spent a long time sitting with some of the kids going over their lessons and books, while I corrupted part of the class by taking their pictures and showing them on the back of our digicam. (BTW, I had a few of these pics in the multimedia section under my old name "MTB Shuttler" but they and my old name seem to have gotten lost in the blogosphere.) We found out why the kids were having trouble learning to read: the books they had were cast off high school texts because the school couldn't afford grade school books.

Then we went outside and watched a troupe of older girls practicing dances for the upcoming graduation exercise while Margarita and the principal had a deep pedadogical discussion.

We went back to the library and Carlos invited us to return in the afternoon to meet some of his reading students. So we had lunch and donned our tourist hats, drove to Tuluum, looked at ruins and iguanas and other tourists for a while and then went back to the library where we found one young fellow playing a "Mavis Bacon Teaches Typing" game on one computer and another young fellow playing "Reader Rabbit" on another. He was thrilled when Margarita showed him a "cheat" (that we discovered when our kids played Reader Rabbit on our old DOS 386 computer).

That day was one of the highlights of our (too short) trip to Playa del Carmen.

I guess that hanging out in a library and an elementary school is about as non-touristy as you can get.

jx2 · 03-02-2006

Non touristy trips are best made by visiting the area several times and renting a car. You can run into all kinds of cool stuff. With the last post regarding Akumal library, it made me think of this picture. It is from the CEA in Akumal that we just happened to be walking by and the school kids were getting a lesson identifying animals. It was so cool I watched for 1/2 hour

itscandace · 03-02-2006

What wonderful experiences in Akumal!! I would suggest to rent a car as well and just drive places. I would recommend Akumal and Yal ku... get Mapchick's maps and drive to some cenotes by yourself. Take suggestions off this site and then do them yourselves... not as part of a tour. You will meet people and get tips on what to do tomorrow! It is more fun exporing than just riding along with everyone else.

Alan P · 03-02-2006

A couple of weeks ago I went to Punta Laguna and saw the village that you discribed.What a great trip it was.The drive from Playa was not bad and very interesting. Saw all kind of birds on the road from Coba to Punta Laguna.Once there hired a guide for 20 bucks and saw spider and howler monkeys in the wild. The guides know where they hide.Left Playa at 8am and was at Casa Cenote by noon for the Sunday barbeque.

BobbiJ · 03-02-2006

We make it to the Akumal library every trip and bring books and toys...neat place, you want Non touristy? Take the day, start early, drive down to the village of Punta Allen, take an ice chest and go to the lobser co-op (its a blue building) Lobster to dies for! Huge tails really inexpensive! Or if you have no place to cook it, stop in a Cuzan for a Lobster dinner.

absoluteAL · 03-02-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by palmtreegirl

First of all, I love this site and appreciate all the input everybody puts into it.
I've read through the recommended tours and we plan to take a couple.
What I'm looking for is some info on any "off the beaten path" types of trips we can venture out of Playa del Carmen without spending 3-4 hours in a bus or car.
Like a small village where you can see how the people really live. Where the smoke in the air is from the ladies making tortillas, the village people selling hand made crafts and such. Maybe somewhere with wild monkeys hanging around. Read about Punta Laguna but seems to be a little far. I'll have my teenage son with me and although Playa is going to be great, I wanted to give him the opportunity to check out a really authentic mexican village minus some of the distractions. Any ideas? Thanks.

So you want a "non -touristy" trip do you? I have just the trip and it is only a two hour drive from Cancun (assuming that you don't get lost more than two or three times. No, make that at least two or three times). The town of El Cuyo on the northern tip of the Yucatan. I did this trip last year and will never forget it. El Cuyo is nestled in the El Cuyo Biosphere Reserve (Rio Lagartos National Park). Between Jan. and Sept., up to 20,000 pink flamingos come to Rio Lagartos Park to mate. Over 250 different types of birds also visit the park each year. In July and August, sea turtles hit the beaches in and around El Cuyo to lay their eggs.
When I visited El Cuyo last year, the town had just gotten telephone service six months earlier, and folks, that "ain't" cell phone service (no cell service). I went to a baseball game (big thing in these small towns - an event!). There were 400 Mexican and one gringo (me). I needed a banos and was directed to a tree down the left field foul line (that's where the guys pissed). It rained during the game - what a hoot. Lots and lots of beer - lots and lots. Drunks dancing on the pitcher's mound between innings, etc., etc.
El Cuyo is located where the Caribbean Sea meets the Gulf of Mexico. From Cancun to Valladolid, thru Tiziman, Colonial Yucatan, and on to El Cuyo - that's the route! More small towns and topes than you would believe. In Colonial Yucatan, I went into the "general store" and came upon the first bowling alley in the whole Yucatan. The owner had the pins set up for me and I got to bowl with balls that were quite of of round and lanes that were warped (there are two lanes left there and a pinsetter kid to set the bowling pins up).
El Cuyo is an undiscovred fishing village. I track down the "harbormaster" and he gave me a key to the gate that let me into the fenced-in old lighthouse. I climbed to the top and had a great view for miles and miles. The lighthouse was out of service for years and I had to go through weeds that were five feet high to reach the lighthouse (from the gate).
Now folks, that was a adventure, an unforgettable adventure. I would highly recommend a driver because the way is, at best if at all, poorly marked.
You want "non-touristy" - El Cuyo. You want adventure - El Cuyo.

absoluteAL · 03-04-2006

palmtreegirl:

I had two more ideas to help your locate a "non touristy" trip area near Playa. First, possibly a MapChick map might help (my MapChick maps are in Playa and I am not at the moment, but soon). I cannot remember whether her maps show out-of-the-way towns or not. My second idea is go to the website address www.maps-of-mexico.com/quintana-roo-state-mexico. It will show in detail the whole area of Q. Roo and possible give you some leads as to "non touristy" areas nearby. Then follow-up with specific questions to playa.info site.

02-07-2006	#1 (permalink)
palmtreegirl beachaholic Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Ohio Posts: 266	Non "touristy" trips First of all, I love this site and appreciate all the input everybody puts into it. I've read through the recommended tours and we plan to take a couple. What I'm looking for is some info on any "off the beaten path" types of trips we can venture out of Playa del Carmen without spending 3-4 hours in a bus or car. Like a small village where you can see how the people really live. Where the smoke in the air is from the ladies making tortillas, the village people selling hand made crafts and such. Maybe somewhere with wild monkeys hanging around. Read about Punta Laguna but seems to be a little far. I'll have my teenage son with me and although Playa is going to be great, I wanted to give him the opportunity to check out a really authentic mexican village minus some of the distractions. Any ideas? Thanks.

02-07-2006	#4 (permalink)
lolabella añejo Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: One foot in WI, the other in PDC Posts: 6,196	When I was there a couple of years back (2002?), we did a Jungle Jeep tour. Every group received their own Geo Metro Jeep. I drove my mom, sister, and the group photographer. Funny, they didn't even ask me if I had a driver's license. As a first time driver in Mexico, I can honestly say it was a wild ride! Anyway, it was a really interesting tour as went to Aktun Chen, which is an underground cave system. We learned a great deal of information about the flora and fauna of the Yucutan. http://www.aktunchen.com/ We then drove through the jungle to a Mayan Village and were lead on a tour around the village to see how self sufficient the people were. We were then treated to the most wonderful lunch prepared and cooked for us in the home of one of the villagers. They even let me help make the guacamole. I think it was the best meal we had while we were there. The tour ended with a dip into a Cenote. I wrote a detailed 'Trip Diary' if you are interested in learning more. Just do a search under my name and look for 'Trip Diary'. I think I split it out in 6 parts. Edited to add: I just re-read your title and realized you are looking for a non-touristy trip. Even though this was a tour, I didn't feel I had been "taken for a ride". It was very educational. You can visit Aktun Chen on your own. Last edited by lolabella; 02-07-2006 at 09:08 AM..

03-02-2006	#7 (permalink)
Silver Starfish way into it Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Connecticut Posts: 179	Mayan Encounter We just got back and did the Mayan Encounter with Alltournative tours. It was great if you are adventuresome and like heights. My son, who is ten, thought I was the coolest mom ever to select this tour. (My husband hated it and thought we were nuts!) We climbed Coba, zip lined, kayaked, swam in a cenote, rappelled into a cenote and ate lunch in a Mayan village. It was a ton of fun!

02-07-2006	#2 (permalink)
TnJ añejo Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: vuelo corto al PDC Posts: 2,051	Had this kind of trip in & around Guaymas, Sonora in early 90's but don't know how it is there nowadays... Tj

02-07-2006	#3 (permalink)
kjtom reposado Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: WV Posts: 1,002	You may wish to catch an early bus to Tulum or Coba or Valladolid and hire a cab to see the surroundings ... the road from Tulum to Coba is interesting itself ... you might ask forum moderators if they recommend a driver who can take you on a day long tour in one direction or another ... there are some quaint spots closer than the aforementioned towns

02-07-2006	#5 (permalink)
palmtreegirl beachaholic Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Ohio Posts: 266	Thank you - I will look into it!

03-02-2006	#9 (permalink)
newMTB Shuttler toe in water Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 55	We had a semi non-touristy day trip a short while ago (ok 18 months ago): We rented a car in PDC and drove down to Akumal. My wife had read about the local library needing small learn-to-read incentives and convinced the manager of our local Co-Op (grocery store) to donate a bag of goodies like pencils, erasors, sticky notes, whistles, and other small neat things. Well, without an appointment we pulled up to the one-room cinderblock library and shortly thereafter a young very cool looking young dude rode up on a bicycle. I say dude because he was wearing surfer shorts, hawaiian shirt, flip flops and had a very cool pair of Oakleys perched on his head. "Buenos dias" he said. Ok, I thought - we are obviously NorteAmericanos so we'll have to suffer through in spanglish. "Mi esposa esta una profesora..." I ventured. "Y aqui esta um... como se dice, um, ....gifts, um, toys, um....." A grin spread over his face and he said "incentives?" in perfect english. It turned out that he was the librarian and we spent an hour or so learning about the literacy programs he offered at the library. These included reading lessons for children who weren't learning to read at school, secret reading lessons for their parents and english lessons for local fishermen so they could participate in the tourist industry. When we asked Carlos why the kids weren't learning to read in school he asked if we wanted to see first hand. So we jumped in our car and drove west across 307 and bumped up the potholed dirt road to the elementary school in Pueblo Akumal. The principal was a friend of his and invited us to visit a 4th or 5th grade class. Well, we had a blast in the class. My wife's name is Margaret and the class in unison said "Buenos Dias, Margarita". She spent a long time sitting with some of the kids going over their lessons and books, while I corrupted part of the class by taking their pictures and showing them on the back of our digicam. (BTW, I had a few of these pics in the multimedia section under my old name "MTB Shuttler" but they and my old name seem to have gotten lost in the blogosphere.) We found out why the kids were having trouble learning to read: the books they had were cast off high school texts because the school couldn't afford grade school books. Then we went outside and watched a troupe of older girls practicing dances for the upcoming graduation exercise while Margarita and the principal had a deep pedadogical discussion. We went back to the library and Carlos invited us to return in the afternoon to meet some of his reading students. So we had lunch and donned our tourist hats, drove to Tuluum, looked at ruins and iguanas and other tourists for a while and then went back to the library where we found one young fellow playing a "Mavis Bacon Teaches Typing" game on one computer and another young fellow playing "Reader Rabbit" on another. He was thrilled when Margarita showed him a "cheat" (that we discovered when our kids played Reader Rabbit on our old DOS 386 computer). That day was one of the highlights of our (too short) trip to Playa del Carmen. I guess that hanging out in a library and an elementary school is about as non-touristy as you can get.

03-02-2006	#10 (permalink)
jx2 añejo Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Pac. NW. Posts: 3,997	Non touristy trips are best made by visiting the area several times and renting a car. You can run into all kinds of cool stuff. With the last post regarding Akumal library, it made me think of this picture. It is from the CEA in Akumal that we just happened to be walking by and the school kids were getting a lesson identifying animals. It was so cool I watched for 1/2 hour

03-02-2006	#11 (permalink)
itscandace way into it Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 171	What wonderful experiences in Akumal!! I would suggest to rent a car as well and just drive places. I would recommend Akumal and Yal ku... get Mapchick's maps and drive to some cenotes by yourself. Take suggestions off this site and then do them yourselves... not as part of a tour. You will meet people and get tips on what to do tomorrow! It is more fun exporing than just riding along with everyone else.

03-02-2006	#12 (permalink)
Alan P very sparkly Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 28	A couple of weeks ago I went to Punta Laguna and saw the village that you discribed.What a great trip it was.The drive from Playa was not bad and very interesting. Saw all kind of birds on the road from Coba to Punta Laguna.Once there hired a guide for 20 bucks and saw spider and howler monkeys in the wild. The guides know where they hide.Left Playa at 8am and was at Casa Cenote by noon for the Sunday barbeque.

03-02-2006	#13 (permalink)
BobbiJ way into it Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Washington State Posts: 135	We make it to the Akumal library every trip and bring books and toys...neat place, you want Non touristy? Take the day, start early, drive down to the village of Punta Allen, take an ice chest and go to the lobser co-op (its a blue building) Lobster to dies for! Huge tails really inexpensive! Or if you have no place to cook it, stop in a Cuzan for a Lobster dinner.

03-04-2006	#15 (permalink)
absoluteAL añejo Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Latitude 20.6274 Longitude 87.0799 Posts: 9,475	palmtreegirl: I had two more ideas to help your locate a "non touristy" trip area near Playa. First, possibly a MapChick map might help (my MapChick maps are in Playa and I am not at the moment, but soon). I cannot remember whether her maps show out-of-the-way towns or not. My second idea is go to the website address www.maps-of-mexico.com/quintana-roo-state-mexico. It will show in detail the whole area of Q. Roo and possible give you some leads as to "non touristy" areas nearby. Then follow-up with specific questions to playa.info site.

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