MAY 28, 2008

We couldn't face the surly waiter at Buho's -- a restaurant that had a deal with our hotel for free breakfast -- so we went into town and ate at the Bistro Francais. The original owner, a French woman, allegedly still lives above the restaurant in seclusion. The food was really good, especially the French Toast. We were sad that we went there so late in the trip; we wouldn't have time for a sit-down breakfast the next day before we caught our ferry.

After breakfast, we rented a golf cart from Pepe's Mopeds and Carts to tour the island. The road out of town passed by the Naval Base. The Navy was doing maneuvers that day -- the road was blocked off and there were Marines, ships, and aircraft everywhere. We made it to the eastern tip of the island where the remains of a Mayan temple can be found. This is supposedly the origin of the island's name -- it was dedicated to the goddess Ixchel, and when the conquistador Hernández de Córdoba first came to the island in 1517 he found many idols dedicated to her.

After the temple, we drove over to Garrafón de Castilla, a beach club for some more swimming and snorkeling. It sits next to the Garrafón Reef Park. The club didn't have all the attractions of the park, but we could still swim to the same reef, which is all we wanted to do. The fish there were amazing -- they swarmed us when we entered the water.

After we got back to town, we returned the cart and spent rest of the afternoon relaxing. While we were getting our stuff ready to check out the next day, we found a typed packet in the nightstand. It was a photocopy of a short history written by Jose Lima, the original owner (not the baseball player). He talked about how his father used to fly the family in his private plane to their vacation home on Cozumel in the 1940's, and how he noticed the small island from the air. Curious about the island, his father chartered a yacht in 1949 and the family visited Isla Mujeres and stayed with one of it's prominent citizens. His father was impressed with the island, even though he found it "primitive." The next year, he bought up most of the land around Playa Norte and built the "Rock House" for his residence which still stands today next to the lagoon.

There was a spectacular sunset that night which we watched from the beach before getting one last dinner at Rolandi's.