We're really hesitant to tell folks about Puerto Morelos. It's such a gem of a place that we don't want a bunch of tourists (versus travelers) coming in and ruining it. But over the years we've found that so much of what makes the town attractive to us also makes it unattractive to the typical tourist. There aren't any big resorts, discos, casinos, shopping malls, or tacky flea markets. The beach doesn't get groomed. The whole area out to the reef is national park, so no jet skis or parasailing. If you want this stuff, go to Cancun. That's what they built it for. If, however, you're willing to swear that you're not a typical "ugly tourist" (the kind who get all upset when some little cantina doesn't have caffeine free diet Coke), here are some photos of our trip to one of the last unspoiled places around. |
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We stayed at this exceptional little place called Cabañas Puerto Morelos. |
They have a great courtyard and we spent a lot of time floating in the pool there. |
 We usually stay in room 2. It has the best view of the ocean. |
 Gelina taking it easy front of our cabaña.We would just lounge there and watch the waves crash on the reef. |
 The cabañas have a great little courtyard with a pool.Here's Gelina hanging out and catching up on her reading. |
 We stayed just a block from the blue Caribbean with our own path to the beach right out the front door. |
Pretty typical local street scene - dogs having a meeting. |
Another tough day on the beach. |
 A panorama of the beach in front of Casita del Mar. This is our favorite place in PM to hang out. |
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The view from in front of our favorite little beach bar. No wonder this place is one of Jimmy Buffett's favorite hideaways. |
 The same beach bar, but with a much better view: Gelina, and she's bringing beers! |
 Gelina takes it easy. |
 Our own version of the Corona ad, only Leon tastes a whole lot better. |
 Panorama of the beach at Ojo de Agua, a little hotel/bar. |
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 The old light house started to collapse, but rather than tear it down, the locals just built and new one on higher ground and take bets on when the ocean will claim the old one. |
 The local fishing fleet. |
We'd get a kilo of wonderful, fresh-baked tortillas for under a buck at this little tortillaria. |
 The fishing dock - a lot of business still comes in through here. |
 Living la vida local - we bought a lot of our food at the farmer's market and little mercado. The quality and variety of the produce was amazing. |
 Alma Libre is a great English-language book store in PM. The new owners, Rob & Joanne, are a lot of fun, eh? |
 Los Pelicanos is our favorite retaurant. We've been lucky enough be there when the moon rose right up out of the water in front of us- incredible. |
 There are a lot of these "kissing benches" around town. Of course, we just had to try them out. |
 We did some snorkeling with the Breccos Dive Shop. They really know the reef and are very careful to protect it. It was the best snorkeling trip we've ever taken. |
Sometimes we were snorkeling in beaten huge boulders, just a few feet above the coral. |
 This starfish was about a foot across. We found him right off the beach in about two feet of water. |
Our guide brought up this sea cucumber. He said it was okay to touch it, but not to squeeze it to check if it was ripe. |
We got to see this rare Hawksbill sea turtle! It was about 5 foot long and moved a lot faster than anything that size should be able too. |
This coral head was about thirty feet across. The Breccos made sure that we didn't damage anything. |
 La Negrita is a little tienda where we got the best grilled chicken. The VW bug in front is last year's model. They still make them in Mexico. |
 Someone had built a palapa way out on this dock, so these kids had a great treehouse. |
 Just another El Camino in paradise. The motto on the bumper reads, "Leap and the net will appear." |
 Love the jaguar hood ornament and the bamboo grill. |
 They still run diving and snorkeling tours out of this old shack on the dock. |
 Downtown Puerto Morelos - no traffic, no stop lights, no problems. |
 They have some beautiful homes in town. |
 And some strange ones... |
 And some that haven't change much in 50 years... |
 ...but we like our little palapa on the beach the best. |