With more than 100 km, the Riviera Maya offers the magical blues of the Caribbean Sea, backed by an exuberant jungle environment full of crystalline cenotes and impressive archaeological sites, such as Tulum or Cobá.
Just 16 km from the Cancun airport, towards the south of the peninsula, begins one of the areas of the country richest in tourist and cultural attractions, as well as with the highest population growth in recent decades. To visit it and savor some of its charms, it might take weeks, given its extensive white sand beaches, cenotes that appear everywhere, an intense nightlife, indigenous and multinational gastronomic offer, ecological and theme parks, as well as the famous Mayan ceremonial centers. that allow us to delve into the secular historical roots of such a privileged region.
We start the tour in Puerto Morelos, which still retains a calm air, without large hotels and with beaches open to the gaze towards infinity. Typical restaurants on the coast abound, where you can enjoy fish and seafood at reasonable prices, while the view is entertained by the swaying of the tides.
And nothing better to promote good digestion than a walk through the center, where we immediately find the Plaza de las Artesanías, where the visitor will find from regional clothing to hammocks, costume jewelery made with marine elements, hats or silver jewelry.
At km 33 of the Cancun-Chetumal highway you will find the Botanical Garden “Dr. Alfredo Barrera Martín ”, whose surface area of 60 ha has more than 300 species of plants in two types of vegetation, the medium sub-evergreen forest and the mangrove swamp.
Continuing along this road you will arrive at the Chikin-Ha cenote where you can enjoy the experience of jumping into the void and flying over the jungle, at a height of 70 to 150 m, hanging from the so-called Mayan zip line, a steel cable that takes up a simple suspension bridge engineering concept.
After a refreshing swim in the Xtabay cenote, you can go to Xcaret –in Mayan, “Little Cove” -, one of the most famous entertainment parks in the region since it opened in 1990. In its 80 ha, located 75 km south of Cancun, for the enjoyment of swimmers it has a placid cove, a lagoon, beaches and natural pools, as well as numerous passageways with caves and nooks that make it an ideal place for an unparalleled exploration among transparent waters, multitude of fish and the jungle.
Among the most striking of the park is its Butterfly Park, whose free flight area, with a surface area of 3,500 m2 and 15 m high, is a work of architectural art: imposing circular walls enclose a sloping garden covered with a fine mesh that lets in fresh air and sunlight. Hummingbirds come to cool off in a small waterfall and walkers rest in a peaceful atmosphere.
Also, the place is home to more than 44 species of birds with radiant plumage. Several roam freely through the aviary, living with the tortoises; nine enter the captive breeding program in place to help conserve threatened wild bird populations, in the hope that one day the specimens will be integrated into their natural habitat.
Another must-see area is the Orchid Garden, where 25 hybrid plants and 89 of the 105 endemic orchid species are grown, which display a fantastic symphony of colors, textures, shapes, sizes and aromas in the greenhouse. Not a few are even surprised to see the vanilla plants interwoven over their heads: vanilla is the ripe fruit of the Vanilla planifolia orchid.
Among the many things to see in Xcaret, the mushroom farm stands out, where the cultivation process of the Pleurotus mushroom is shown, an edible mushroom with a very good taste. The aim of the farm is to share the simple technology of growing regional mushrooms - which only requires a compost of wheat or barley straw and dry leaves - with neighboring rural communities, which has been very beneficial for them. Likewise, there is the Reef Aquarium, the only one of its kind in the Americas, as it transports visitors to the depths of the Caribbean Sea, exhibiting behind windows under the sea the biodiversity of the multicolored underwater gardens with their different ecosystems.
Now go to Aktun Chen, a Mayan word that means "Cave with a cenote inside." It is a 600-hectare natural park with virgin tropical forest located in the center of the Riviera Maya, at km 107, between Akumal and Xel Há. Its main attraction is a dry grotto 540 m long with thousands of stalactites and stalagmites, columns of calcium carbonate and tree roots that cut through the limestone until they reach the water table. Inside this cave there is a cenote with diaphanous waters with a vault saturated with stalactites. Truly, it is a site of stunning beauty.
After a journey of one hour in the depths, outside you will observe monkeys, white-tailed deer, snout-pheasants, collared peccary or wild boar, parrots, all species of wild fauna of the region, in their natural habitat, without cages. In addition, at the entrance of the park there is a serpentarium that gathers 15 species from the southeast of Mexico.
Continuing with the tour, you can visit another of the most notorious theme parks in the Riviera Maya: Xel-ha, also belonging to Grupo Xcaret. There, in the Kay-Op cove we swim surrounded by fish and as their slogan says, we explore to the fullest the magic of nature in the River of Dreams, the Ixchel grotto, the Wind Bridge and the Paraíso and Aventura cenotes.
