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 Travel & Outdoors | March 2008 
Mainland Cancun Often Goes Unnoticed
 John Bordsen - McClatchy Newspapers
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| | There are several open plazas in Cancun's Mercado 28, a great escape from the cluttered stalls in the bazaar. The plaza has open-air dining for tourists and other visitors. (Charlotte Observer/John Bordsen | | |
Cancun, Mexico - Beer Barrel Polka bobs through the moist heat with a tropical, jack-in-the-box flair. The trio at the busy, open-air restaurant is a marimba band, and two of the musicians hammer away on their wooden cousin to a xylophone.
The air is thick with the aroma of shrimp - boiled or seared - the local specialty.
On the plaza, a pint-size girl - a blur of pink cotton and brown pigtails - tries to herd an assembly of fat, waddling pigeons. She is much faster, but they don't seem to care. The cat draped around a set of chair legs at Los Jaracolos is also unimpressed; he is content to wait for a tidbit to fall from a table.
A quaint slice of southern Mexico. And oddly enough, it is also Cancun.
There's more to Cancun than high-rise resort hotels on a beautiful Caribbean beach.
Unfortunately, that's all that too many visitors see: the English-speaking island where you disco all night with people from Newark and Des Moines, then snooze and sunburn on a blanket the following day.
Across the causeway is mainland Cancun, the sprawling, chaotic Mexican city that has a population roughly that of San Francisco's. Like the fabled Hotel Zone, mainland Cancun rose out of the bushes in the early 1970s when the federal government decided to build a seaside tourist draw.
Mainland Cancun is where construction workers camped and where restaurant and hotel workers came to live. And it continues to draw migrants from across central and southern Mexico. It is a low-slung town with paved streets but few parks or cultural venues.
What it offers, though, is fabulous food and incredible shopping bargains; a Mexican-immersion experience that's only 6 pesos - 55 U.S. cents - by bus or about $12 by taxi from your resort room.
Use the bus - the area transportation system is excellent, and any bus heading to Centro - downtown - will do the trick. Once across the causeway, wait until the driver makes a right onto busy Avenida Tulum. Just get off anywhere along here.
This is the heart of Centro, and you'll want to explore the handful of blocks immediately across the street, to the west.
You're in the oldest part of mainland Cancun. Though less than 40 years old, it has a lived-in feel. Streets are narrow once you leave the busy thoroughfares; houses are tightly packed and close to the curb. Affluent and poor often live side-by-side - the disparity can be striking - but this section of Cancun doesn't show the dire poverty you see in towns along the U.S. border.
Parque Las Palapas - "Palm Tree Park" - is a major draw, though it is permanently under construction. At night, local musicians play here, and mom-and-pop vendors bring out their wares.
A corner of it remains intact - alongside a church where area people relax at tables under large trees, a small food stand at the ready. There are also a couple cafes on Calle (Street) Tulipanes. That's the walkway directly linking Avenida Tulum and the park, if you're not up for exploring the neighborhood.
You'll find little of the local cuisine in the Hotel Zone, but two upscale eateries facing the park specialize in Yucatan food, which is based on seafood, rice and tropical fruits and vegetables.
La Habichuela, long established in Centro, is a low-slung yet airy place with a walled courtyard in back; inside and out, it has a tropical look that translates to the menu. The specialty is Cocobichuela - a thick stew of curry-spiced lobster and shrimp chunks, mixed with rice and loaded into a coconut shell ($32.80).
Labna, two doors down on Avenida Margarita, is also a Yucatan restaurant of note and elegance. The Pibal Pork has meat, seasoned with chipotle and local spices, wrapped in banana leaves ($8.60); Poc Chuch ($7.70) is grilled strips of pork with local condiments.
If you're ending your Centro day after dark at one of these places, stroll over to Roots, a classy jazz club on Calle Tulipanes where anything from hip-hop to American jazz to flamenco is live or cued by a DJ. The look is classic Mexican, from iron gates to central courtyard.
Various districts of Centro have mercados - market squares - in their midst. The biggest and most notable is Mercado 28, to the west of the park, across busy Avenida Yaxchilan and down Avenida Sunyaxchen. If you get turned around, ask "Mercado?" and follow the pointed fingers. You're not far.
Mercado 28 was partially rebuilt over the years and today is a mall of sorts as well as a thick maze of stalls under metal canopies.
In the States, something like this would be the Mother of All Flea Markets.
Here, though, what's sold is new - beautiful regional handicrafts, religious icons churned out on an Asian assembly line and glazed coffee mugs. And you're apt to find all of the above in one small and cluttered stall.
If you go
Getting around
The immediate vicinity - between Avenida Tulum and Mercado 28 - is easily walkable. I always felt safe but kept near major streets after dark.
Cabs are readily available near Parque las Palapas and Mercado 28. The fare from Centro to the Hotel Zone is about $12.
Spending
Most restaurants I visited accept plastic, but most Mercado vendors do not. Either U.S. or Mexican money works fine. The current rate is about 11 pesos to the U.S. dollar.
Eating and playing
La Habichuela, Avenida Margaritas 25. Details: www.lahabichuela.com.
Labna, Avenida Margaritas 29. Details: www.labna.com/english.
Roots Jazz Club, Calle Tulipanes 26. Open 6 p.m.-2 a.m. most days; occasional cover charge. Also serves Caribbean food.
Mercado 28. Hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. daily. Info: www.mercado28.com.
More options
Centro is loaded with eateries. Good options include Los Arcos and La Parilla, two doors apart on Avenida Yaxilan; Casa Maja in the Hotel Xbalamque, on Avenida Yaxchilan; and El Porton.
Lodging
Want to spend a night in Centro? Hotel Xbalamque, on Avenida Yaxchilan 31, is a good bet. The hotel is a block west of Parque Las Palapas, across the street from Perico's, and an easy, 500-yard stroll west to Mercado 28. Rates; $38/double; $40/double for a suite. Details: www.xbalamque.com. |
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