Mar 20, 2009 - Riu Palace Las Americas & Riu Cancún, Cancún

Friday, Mar 20, 2009

Since learning, after the fact, that the equinox of March 20-21 would present the feathered serpent undulating down Chichén Itzá’s El Castillo at the recommended time of 0610, I was wrestling with whether we should have gone on one of those days. To my relief, the morning started quite obscured by cloud, which quickly burned off.

We had completed our out of town stints and decided against a planned day at Xcaret Eco Theme Park in Playa del Carmen (decision made easier by the pickpocket team), which would likely have been fabulous in that the package included water tubing and snorkelling down its underground river beside the sea and what was reported as a fabulous evening show.

http://www.xcaret.com/

Instead, our plan was to spend the morning at the pool and then take the bus up a couple of km to Riu Palace Las Americas & Riu Cancún, located beside each other where the road through the hotel zone turns south toward the airport. We had the same all-included privileges at Riu Cancún, except for the reservation restaurants (which is no big limitation), so decided to have lunch there and do some pool time.


We were poolside from 0800 - 1100 at our hotel before cleaning up and hopping the bus.

I had wanted to do a little walking and check out the beach that runs south, but Lynda had chosen her “fashionable” sandals and not walking wear, plus was having some old lady leg trouble, so that option quickly went by the boards; however, one of the staff at the Riu Cancún later told me that there wouldn’t have been the white uninterrupted beach I sought until several km further south, it still not having recovered from the 2005 hurricane damage.

Our 1st stop was at the Riu Palace Las Americas. It reportedly is a higher standard hotel than the other 2; however, one of the people we met said that few of the rooms have ocean views. Nonetheless, it had a pretty infinity pool (and probably others), with bathers on 2 levels and access to the beach.


We then went next door to the Riu Cancún, which has 3 pools and is party central, with lots of college and 20s types to be seen - no doubt because all-included entertainment bars like Coco Bongo and Señor Frog's are right around the corner.

http://www.cocobongo.com.mx/home.php?Lenguaje=en
http://www.senorfrogs.com/cancun/

With its several pools and what appeared to our eyes, we assumed the hotel was considerably larger than ours; however, it has something like 569 rooms (X 10 students hidden per room).

We had lunch at its main Don Juan buffet-style restaurant, seated outside in a sheltered patio section, with a view of the pool and ocean. I wouldn’t say that the restaurant interior was as pretty as our hotel, but it seemed to have a wider selection (including a station that made sandwiches to order) and its mushroom pasta that day was certainly flavourful.

The beach of each of the Rius is continuous and quite nice, with a beautiful view.

We then selected the quieter pool, which is at the east side of the complex and so partly in shade at that time of day, which was fine with us because we’d already had a good bit of sun.

We returned to our hotel for a drink and cleaned up for supper before attending the evening entertainment - Mexican night - in the theatre complex, during which time there was an horrendous downpour.