How to go geocaching Mexican style!

This month we went on our first ever trip to Latin America - Mexico to be exact! And boy did we learn a lot about the people, culture and heritage thanks in part to Geocaching. 

The first thing that strikes you as the plane swings round to land at Cancun airport is how green the country is. From all those movies set ‘down in Mexico’ I’d been led to believe it was mainly baron and desert, but it’s not at all. 

Around Cancun and along the eastern coast it’s actually quite lush and green, with lots of trees and shrubs across the landscape. 

I learnt that I know more Spanish than I believed. Aside from a couple of misunderstandings leading to drinks being ordered in error, and a car park attendant not understanding my version of “Cuanto cuesto?” - ‘how much?’ - I managed to get by pretty well. 

I also realised I’m no longer a youngster, after a young couple in a lift at the hotel asked me if I was taking my kids to the party night! Err no! 

And Mexican hotels (well ours at least) don’t know the difference between 70s & 80s music. If you go to an 80s night don’t expect Rick Astley, Kylie or Culture Club, it’ll be Kool & the Gang and The Village People! Although we did meet Mario.

And if you want to go caching in Mexico you really do need to hire a car! Everything is quite vast and far apart, just walking from one hotel to another in the 35 degree heat can take 10 minutes, as each of the lavish resorts takes up the equivalent amount of space as a small English village! 

But that said, we didn’t need a car for our first cache of the trip, just a coach load of British tourists and a rather enthusiastic Mexican guide! 

Yes we decided to book a coach trip to one of the world’s new ancient monuments, Chichen Itza. And it was so worth it.

Setting off at the rather ungodly 4am, we arrived just after dawn at the popular tourist site and got our first glimpse of the pyramid. It was just breathtaking! 

Built so long ago by the Mayan people, its countless crumbling stone steps towered above us, reaching for the sky and every tourist in our group was hurriedly snapping away with their cameras to capture every angle possible. 

There’s a virtual cache called ‘El Castillo’ at the pyramid which was great fun to do. It required us to complete two tasks. The first, a selfie in front of the pyramid. For the second we had to clap in front of the south side of the pyramid and listen to what we heard. It was great fun. We didn’t expect anything other than a normal echo. 

Our overly enthusiastic tour guide dragged us around the baking hot site for about half an hour and had the slightly annoying habit of constantly saying, “We continue...” only to stop three steps along. Needless to say we were quite happy to part ways and get half an hour to ourselves. 

As we wandered around the vast and impressive archeological site, we met a large number of local traders and haggled with a couple for some holiday mementoes. 

We eventually arrived at Cenote Sagrado and completed the earthcache there, before wandering to the other side of the site to find the only traditional cache at Chichen Itza. Of course the other half’s beady eye spotted it very quickly at the base of a tree, as I stumbled about elsewhere.

The rest of the day was sadly devoid of any further caching opportunities, but we did get to see a hugely impressive Cenote, which reminded me of Wookey Hole back home in the UK.

The following day we decided the only way to really go caching in Mexico, given the fact caches are dotted so far and wide, was to get a car. 

Having seen the rather erratic way Mexicans drive, particularly in the town, the other half was slightly nervous at the prospect of driving whilst I navigated. 

As we chatted with the car hire chap he offered various insurance levels, but said we only needed the usual level. We were unconvinced and as we discussed about going for the all singing, all dancing package for an extra £20 a day, he joked, “How much damage are you planning to do?” He was right, so we quickly snapped out of our indecision and went for the normal level.

Our first trip out was to Cancun and what a beautiful place. In my head it was just another British clubbers paradise, a San Antonio or Magaluf, but it was far more beautiful and cleaner than either. 

It’s essentially a coastal bar with a huge lagoon between the main hotel strip and the rest of the town. The coast side is surrounded by beautiful turquoise sea and white sandy beaches, just stunning.

It actually took us about 35 minutes  to drive almost all the way around the lagoon. We stopped off at the El Ray Archaeological Site, where we admired more Mayan ruins and a large number of Iguanas, which have set up home there. The ruins were not as impressive as Chichen Itza, but nice to see.

Afterwards we went on a short walk in the searing heat to pick up a traditional cache before driving back into the heart of the tourist area. 

Roadside parking was easy to find and free, and after picking up another cache outside a rather grand hotel, we headed for the Hard Rock Cafe for a cold drink. 

On the way we were accosted by some strange looking men with painted green faces who were attempting to get us to buy tickets for Coco Bongo. Snapping a few comic pics with them, we politely declined purchasing tickets and made our escape to the cool air con of the rock bar. 

A couple of hours later, after an early dinner - a burger meal at the big yellow arches - we made our way back to the hotel to start planning our next adventure.

More on that in the second instalment of our trip to Mexico, including getting stopped by the police; very nearly getting conned by clever tricksters; and watching the hotel security men tackle a very smokey fire at the hotel gatehouse.