Forget the beaches and the turquoise water, Isla Mujeres is really about the party!

North Beach early in the morning

Yes, the beaches of Isla Mujeres are some of the best in the world, and swimming in the clear turquoise Caribbean Sea is extraordinary, but the island party scene is just good fun. 

Great drinks. Music & dancing, all day and into the early hours of the next day. 

We all have our favourites, but there are literally dozens of places you can find good drinks and great music on the island. Places to spend a lazy afternoon, after working on your tan in the morning. Places to enjoy an evening meal and listen to great music. And places to dance, dance, dance the night away.

Lawrie and my great-nieces and giant Margs

You can’t go wrong with Ballyhoo’s, for food, drinks, and atmosphere. 

Located on the beach, behind the PeMex gas station on Rueda Medina, they have the best sunset location on the island. 

Depending on the time of day or the month, the view includes the comings and goings of a variety of boats: the big and sexy sport-fishing boats, the modest little open deck pangas, the catamaran jet-drive passenger boats or the slow and plodding car ferry. The best way to start a party is with one of their eye-popping big Margaritas.

Soggy Peso Bar & Grill

And of course, everyone thinks of the Soggy Peso when you mention killer Margaritas. 

The big jug on the bar counter-top contains their special recipe, made with four bottles of tequila, four bottles of orange Controy, and the words freshly squeezed lime juice whispered over the blend. The Margs are strong and tasty. 

Typically, customers are happy with one, or if they are feeling frisky, maybe two Margaritas; however, the record is twelve plus two to go. 

Jeff Current, singing with customer, Cathy 

In the winter season, local entertainer Jeff Current gets the crowd dancing to favourite tunes during his Isla Animals fundraiser nights. 

Watch out for the Soggy Peso’s pet (plastic) spider located above the sink!  It likes to drop down for a visit with unsuspecting newbies. 

The Soggy Peso is a perfect mix of silly fun, great songs, good food and killer drinks. When they are at capacity, the gate is closed.

The Joint, an island tour with family

At the southern end of the island near Garrafon Natural Reef Park, is The Joint Reggae Bar n Grill. It’s another good venue for a pleasurable afternoon listening to live music every day from 1 until 4 in the afternoon, plus on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 5 until 8 in the evening.  It’s an enjoyable halfway stop when touring around the island with visitors or on your own. We’ve heard the food is awesome, but we haven’t tried it yet. Just too many choices and not enough time.

Slow Down Food & Art   FB photo

On the windward side of the island are a few more of our favourite places to eat, drink and be merry. (Or is that eat, drink and get married?)  The newest is Slow Down Food and Art, located in front of Antonio Fabre’s intriguing art studio. They have a limited but tasty menu of sliders, Argentine-style empanadas, and salads. It’s a tiny, two-person operation perched on the edge of the road, across from a gorgeous view of the sapphire-blue water. Open from 11 in the morning until 8 at night, except Sundays, or when they are in Cancun getting immigration papers sorted out or when the chef is sick. It’s Mexico, they are open, except when they’re not.

Villa la Bella photo

And of course, don’t forget Villa la Bella for their Cadillac Margaritas with a shot of Grand Marnier on the side. They also serve the prettiest Pina Coladas on the island, or maybe in all of Mexico. 

That’s the place with the well-known ‘beer so cold it will make your teeth hurt’ sign. 

The award-winning bed and breakfast has a bar open to the public, unless they are at capacity, then the gate is closed. The location is spectacular, the drinks are yummy, and the view is killer beautiful.

In the same neighbourhood is Caribbean Brisas Bar and Grill, with its colourful atmosphere, live music and delicious food. We have always enjoyed their amazing menu choices. 

Caribbean Brisas Marg 

A recent addition to their drink choices includes Margaritas made with ingredients like cucumber, chaya, mint, or habanero. Now you can get a buzz while drinking your veggies!  It has to be good for you, right?

There are more, dozens more, but all this talk of food and beverages is making us hungry and thirsty. Time to grab the keys and head out to an old favourite, or maybe try something different.

And when you’ve had just too much fun, you can regenerate your liver cells while soaking up the tropical sun on those sugar-white beaches and gazing at the turquoise sea.

Hasta Luego 

Lynda, Lawrie, Sparky, and Max

Isla Mujeres Mystery series

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One person’s junk is another person’s treasure, Isla Mujeres Mexico

Don Cosi on the wharf near Ballyhoo Restaurant

Early in the morning, while walking Sparky among the cluster of beached fishing boats near the Ballyhoo Restaurant, I noticed an elderly local gentleman sitting on the nearby wharf.  

He was manually crushing a pile of aluminum beverage cans, one by one. 

Heading off to the metal recycler

His nickname is Cosi, and he is apparently in his mid-nineties.  

He told one of the waiters at Ballyhoo that when he was a much younger man, he built wharves. Then, quite recently, his family convinced him to stop doing hard physical work and retire, but he doesn’t like retirement. It’s too boring, so he collects aluminum cans and redeems them for cash. Once he has a bag of cans, he sits on the wharf and crushes them flat.  This enables him to fit more weight in a small area.  

Some of the other can collectors just bag up the cans and transport the whole load via two-wheeled bicycle carts or motos to the recycled metal purchaser. Quicker, but in the end, probably equals the equivalent in weight to what Cosi collects and crushes.

In BC, Canada everything gets sorted!

We asked another of the islanders who collects cans from along the roadway how much a kilo of aluminum was worth in scrap value. He said he is usually paid twelve pesos for approximately seventy-one cans. That’s about .66 cents US for 2.2 pounds of metal. That’s a whole lot of bending over. 

Mexico is not the leader in what we northerners think of as recycling - plastics, glass, newsprint, cardboard, grass clippings, and yard waste - all those things that must be sorted, washed, bundled, or flattened before the garbage crews will remove them once a week from the foot of your driveway.  

In British Columbia, Canada (where we were from), there is a ten-cent deposit on every type of drink container.  

The night before our garbage pickup day, we would leave a box of various containers and bottles at the foot of the driveway - wine, beer, pop, juice boxes, hard liquor - anything. Gone by morning!  It was just easier to leave the returnables for someone who needed the cash than to shift the whole lot over to a recycling depot, sort the stinky mess, and wait in line for the cash refunds. 

Garbagemen separate out the aluminum cans

On Isla Mujeres and elsewhere in Mexico, the roadways are littered with non-returnable glass beer bottles, squashed plastic drink bottles, stray plastic bags, and discarded food wrappers drifting in the wind. There are crews of municipal workers who regularly clean the roadway margins, but it is a back-breaking, never-ending job.

You can help by making it easy for local collectors to find your discarded aluminum adult beverage containers (beer cans!). Collect them in a cardboard box and put them out for the garbage guys. Hotel guests could ask at the front desk and encourage a rudimentary recycling program for the aluminum cans.

Just keep ‘em separate from the rest of your daily trash; somebody will treasure your discards.

Hasta luego, 

Lynda, Lawrie, Sparky, and Thomas

Isla Mujeres Mystery series

Or

Death in the Vineyards

Isla Mujeres from a different perspective (Lawrie's turn to write!)

Enrique Lima Marina - early in the morning

I know, most visitors fly into Cancun and take a passenger ferry across to our island paradise, but if you are one of the adventurous ones, come in by boat; it's a very different perspective. 

Yes, there are some great places to berth your boat and have a good time.  

Looking towards Ballyhoo Restaurant

At the north end of the island is the Enrique Lima Marina, home of the Isla Mujeres Yacht Club, and commonly know as the El Muelle de la Gasolinera: Gas Dock. This marina is central to hotels, restaurants, bars and the Super X-Press grocery store. Located at the head of the docks is the Ballyhoo Restaurant, serving good food every day of the week.

Nice anchorage at the entrance to the inlet

As you travel south on the waterways past the passenger ferries and the car ferry docks, you will see several reasonably protected spots to drop the hook and anchor for a few days. 

 If anchoring is not your style, keep travelling deeper into the inlet and you'll discover more marinas, bars, restaurants and several small hotels.

El Milagro Marina

The El Milagro Marina has good docks, a small pool, a community kitchen and several hotel rooms right next door to the fishing co-operative, where fresh lobster can be purchased in season. 

It is also close to three fun bars: the Bahai Tortuga, the Soggy Peso Bar & Grill, and Barlito's.

Marina Paraiso

Right next door to El Milagro is the Marina Paraiso Hotel, featuring great food at Barlito's Restaurant. 

Marina Paraiso also has a sports bar, two large swimming pools, a dive shop and a twenty-room hotel for those nights when you really want a comfortable bed and a good hot shower. Do I have your attention now? Good!

New name for Villa Vera 

As you motor up this inlet, on the west side of Isla, you will pass several restaurants and bars, all with a dock to tie up your dinghy should you wish to investigate this area later. 

Then deep inside the inlet – wow, a really big marina, Puerto Isla, comes into view. This is the recently renamed Villa Vera Marina that was managed by Raintree Hotels. 

It is a large facility complete with a travelling boat lift, fuel docks, restaurant, bar, and hotel. This marina is very well protected from severe weather and is a favourite hiding place for boats during hurricanes.

Big yachts at Puerto Isla Mujeres

Just past the Marina Puerto Isla are more economical places to berth a boat for the night, or for a longer period. 

The Marina Del Sol is basic but well run by great folks who care about their clients. Nearby is Oscar's Marina and restaurant.

Affordable and friendly Marina del Sol

As the waterway narrows, many tiny facilities will allow boaters to berth at their docks for a fee.

For a change of perspective, come on over and explore the island by boat. 

It's a whole other view of living in paradise.

Happy New Year to Everyone, Lawrie, Lynda, Sparky, and Thomas the Cat

Isla Mujeres Mystery Series

Death in the Vineyards Mysteries

The Adventures of Thomas and Sparky

The late-afternoon "ah" factor

End of the day ritual 

It's become our end-of-the-day ritual, sipping a glass of wine and watching the sun set on another great day.  Ah!

The island has many great locations to watch the sunset.  Most of our favourite places are on the waterfront facing towards Cancun or Isla Blanca, locations where the brilliant colours of the setting sun are splashed on the ocean and echoed on nearby reflective surfaces.  

2002 at Villa Makax on west side of Isla

Our first trip to Isla Mujeres was in 2002. We stayed on the west side of the island at Villa Makax and the Rolandi Hotel.  

At that time, golf cart rentals were not very common, so we seldom left the neighbourhood. I have very pleasant memories of standing barefoot in the surf with my glass of wine, waiting for the sunset, and we all know good memories induce return visits.

We returned to Isla in 2005, after taking a trip to Bali, and then, as it turns out, one final vacation on the Pacific coast of Mexico. We decided that Isla was better, much better!   

2005 Sunset Grill view 

On our second trip, we explored more of the island, discovering other restaurants such as Sunset Grill at the north end of the island and Casa O's near the southern end of the island.  

2009 Lawrie at Casa O's Restaurante

Both restaurants were delightfully romantic places to spend a few hours savouring good food and beautiful sunsets.  
(The Casa O's property was sold a couple of years ago and has been converted to a lovely private home.) 

View near Brisas Grill and BallyHoo

Now that we are full-time islanders, we have several other favourite places.  

A table on the beach at Brisas Grill on Rueda Medina is the perfect location to watch the sun ignite the sky with fiery pinks, oranges and reds before slowly extinguishing itself in the ocean.   




At Ballyhoo, we usually try to grab the corner table to really appreciate the evening display.  

Besides the great show of the sun going down, there are usually boats coming and going, kids hanging out with friends, and fishermen bringing in their catch. There is always something to see, to photograph.

Sunset view from Soggy Peso dock

A little further south on the island are other good locations for sunset watching. We are very partial to the Soggy Peso Bar & Grill, especially since the two large derelict boats that were blocking the great view have been towed away and turned into reusable scrap. 

Sitting on the dock with a glass of wine is such a relaxing way to end the day - watching kayakers and boaters enjoying a last bit of evening light. 

Jeff Current at Marina Paraiso

More recently, Barlito's at Marina Paraiso has turned into another favourite sundowner hangout for us, especially on Friday nights when Jeff Current is belting out great beach tunes. The location is spectacular. 

The jewel-toned lights hanging randomly from overhead tree branches create a whimsical atmosphere. The lights are far more romantic than the unfortunately standard fluorescent tube fixtures found in a number of local restaurants. Recently, Barlito's has added tall bistro-style tables and chairs tucked under tiny waterfront palapas, making the sunset viewing even better.  

My waiter, sharing the rooftop view

We have one more favourite sunset location on the island. It's private. Exclusive. Our rooftop deck.  

It's a great place for sunset viewing, for the late-afternoon "ah" factor; however, efficient bar service at this location is always a challenge.  

The waiter grumbles when I ask for a refill. He has to trek down thirty-eight stairs to the kitchen refrigerator and back up thirty-eight stairs. Sigh!

It's a good thing I know him quite well.



Cheers,
Lynda, Lawrie, Sparky, and Thomas the Cat

Murder. Mayhem. Revenge. Romance.

Isla Mujeres Mystery Series

Death in the Vineyards Mysteries

The Adventures of Thomas and Sparky