On July 1st, Club Sandwich Cafe (one of my favorite restaurants in downtown Cancun) will be having their annual Canada Day celebration. During lunch and dinner (starting at 12 noon), food will be 50% off!

The local media will be photographing the event. If you stop by around 2:30pm, there is a chance that you could be in the local newspaper. Of course, non-Canadians are encouraged to stop in and join the festivities!

Club Sandwich Cafe recently started serving breakfast. They now open at 8am and breakfast is served until noon. Their normal menu of sandwiches, soups, salads, Gyros (my favorite dish!), and delicious desserts is available from noon until midnight.

The restaurant is closed on Mondays.

Club Sandwich Cafe
Avenida Tulum #9
Esquina con Calle Azucenas
Cancun, Centro
Across the street from Scotia Bank

Phone: 884-5762

Hours of Operation: 8am-midnight, Tuesday-Sunday

The Royal Playa del Carmen offers two day passes. They have a standard day pass as well as an extended version that allows you to stay at the resort for several hours longer.

Option #1: 9am-5pm
The price for this day pass is $80USD.

Option #2: 9am-11pm
The price for this day pass is $145USD.

Both passes allow you to use the pools, restaurants, and all public areas for the entire length of the pass. All meals, drinks, and the use of a towel are included in the price of a day pass.

The Royal Playa del Carmen is a luxury, all-inclusive resort in Playa del Carmen.

Please contact the hotel for more information. Their phone number is (984) 877-2900.

The Cancun Blog has been experiencing some “technical difficulties” over the past few days. In fact, the blog site was down for a couple of days. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced.

The good news is that we are in the process of updating The Cancun Blog and will be making some BIG changes in the coming weeks. Please come back soon to see what surprises we’ve got up our sleeves. We are positive that our loyal readers (die-hard Cancun fans!) will be delighted with the new additions to the site.

Thank you for your patience and, of course, for reading The Cancun Blog.

Tim & Susan

A while back, I attended the final night of the Agave Spirits Challenge, which was held at Hacienda Sisal (a Mexican restaurant located in front of the Royal Sands resort in Cancun, Mexico). The Agave Spirits Challenge was a tequila tasting competition that was hosted by Tequila.net. The competition ran for several days and tequila experts from Mexico, USA, and Canada tasted nearly 100 different tequilas, mezcals, and sotols. There was also a competition for the best bottle design and packaging.

Here are some photos of the professional tasters in action…

This man, Ricardo Cisneros, holds the title of “The First Tequilier of the World”.

I was asked to photograph the final night of the competition, as well as help judge the bottle design competition.

My favorite bottle from the Bottle Design Competition

I have never been a fan of tequila, but thought it might be fun to see if there really was something out there that I would consider to be good tequila. (By “good tequila”, I mean something that doesn’t taste like lighter fluid or paint thinner.) After I took some photos, I moseyed over to the tasting table to try and figure out why so many people love tequila.

The Tequila Buffet! (aka The Tasting Table)

I tried several tequilas but, since mezcals are apparently even stronger than tequila, I avoided them like the plague. I was shocked and amazed to find that I actually LIKED a couple of tequilas. Who knew?! I especially enjoyed Reserva del Senor Almendrado, an almond flavored tequila. In fact, I liked it so much that there seemed to be a glass of the tasty nectar within arm’s reach for most of the evening.

Yummy!!

I had worked up an appetite from taking photos and sampling various tequilas. The nice folks at Hacienda Sisal obviously read my mind because, the next thing I knew, a buffet of delicious Mexican dishes magically appeared before my eyes. I have no idea what most of the dishes were called, but every single mouthful was wonderful. Everyone at my table raved about how great the food was. (I also looked at a menu and noticed that the prices were VERY reasonable.)

While we dined, a Mariachi band played. Hacienda Sisal has a live Mariachi band Sunday to Friday from 7-8pm, but I think this performance may have just been a special treat for the people attending the Agave Spirits Challenge. Regardless, the band’s performance was very nice.

I certainly wouldn’t call myself a tequila convert, by any means, but I did find the tasting competition to be incredibly interesting and fun…..and I found a couple of tequilas that I like.

If any of you are tequila fans, check out Tequila.net and Agave.net. You will find the results from the Agave Spirits Challenge on both sites.

During your next Cancun vacation, be sure to have dinner at Hacienda Sisal. You won’t be disappointed. To make a reservation, please call (from US/Canada) 011 52 998 848-8220. Hacienda Sisal is open nightly from 5pm-11pm. In addition to the Mariachi performance Sunday-Friday (from 7-8pm), there is a Mexican Show on Mondays and Wednesdays (from 8-9pm), and a Caribbean Show on Tuesdays and Thursdays (from 8-9pm).

Last week, I photographed 7 beautiful, bikini-clad ladies at Fiesta Americana Condesa. My male assistant was in heaven, needless to say. After taking gorgeous photos of the girls throughout the large pool area, on the beach, and in some other less-populated areas of the hotel, I looked around the grounds and realized I wanted to be on vacation. Since I didn’t have time to enjoy the hotel facilities on that particular day, I asked the concierge how much Day Passes were. After I got the scoop, I pouted and walked out…wishing I was on vacation. Because I have clients booked in the near future, a Day Pass at a hotel on one of Cancun’s breathtaking beaches will be all the “vacation” I get for now.

If you would like to enjoy the day at Fiesta Americana Condesa, the price of a Day Pass is $350 pesos.. The Day Pass allows you access to the beach (it is very nice!), pools, restaurants, and all common areas of the hotel from 9am until 8pm. The price includes 1 buffet (either breakfast or lunch), one drink, and the use of a towel.

As an added treat, visit the spa, Miiluma. It is open to the public and, after looking at the Spa Menu, I have decided that I want every treatment! After all, who can resist a Chocolate Wrap, Fruit Moisturizer, Flower Exfoliation, or the Four Hand Massage?

In comparison with the likes of Cancun, Vallarta and Acapulco, Tulum remains a little known paradise in the heart of Mexico’s rapidly developing Riviera Maya. It’s a small idyllic town, where life passes by slowly to the rhythm of the waves gently lapping the shimmering white shoreline. However unfortunately the developers have turned their attention away from Cancun and now point their diggers definitely in the direction of Tulum.

Billed for the future is a new cosmopolitan downtown, housing developments, shopping centers and to top it all of a new International Airport to service the whole Riviera Maya is in the pipeline.

The good news is that for the moment Tulum remains a vacation destination where you can really escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and “get back to nature”! The beach around the coastline of Tulum is dotted with tiny Cabana Resorts blending seamlessly with the dense surrounding jungle; while staying here quite possibly your closest neighbor will be a friendly Iguana basking in the warm afternoon sun. Many of the Tulum Hotels don’t have electricity, phones or internet access, so get ready to really break away from city life…

For those not familiar with Tulum, it is also home to an ancient Mayan City that stands proud high on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean Sea far below. There are many Tulum Tours to enjoy, where you can tour the ruins and also go snorkeling on the reef close by. It’s a very accessible site and can be toured in around one and a half hours. A guide is highly recommended and quite often highly entertaining as well! Even if you are not a big fan of archeological sites, I guarantee you will be blown away by this one and the surrounding scenery is simply stunning.

Tulum is not a vacation destination for everyone, if you are looking for nightclubs, excitement, large sprawling hotels and resorts then I would not recommend a vacation in Tulum. However for those of you reading this at your desk thinking “I just need to escape for a while, where my cell phone doesn’t work and the boss can’t contact me” then quite possible an eco-vacation in Tulum is your dream come true. Just don’t wait to long to come and visit here, because the winds of change are now waking up the sleepy town of Tulum…

By Mat Kirk
Tulum Boutique Hotels

The Park Royal Piramides offers Day Passes for $34USD, per person. The price includes all meals, snacks, and drinks from 11am-6pm. Towels are also provided. This hotel is located on one of the nicest beaches in Cancun’s hotel zone.

Riu Caribe offers a day pass to people wishing to use their pool and restaurants during the day. The day pass is $75usd and includes all meals and drinks from 11am until 11pm. Guests visiting Riu Caribe with a day pass may change clothes in the spa area. Beach towels are provided by the hotel.

Riu Cancun offers a day pass to people wishing to use their pool and restaurants during the day. The day pass is $75usd and includes all meals and drinks from 7am until midnight. There is a hospitality room where visitors with day passes may change clothes and beach towels are provided by the hotel.

(The hours of the day pass may or may not be correct. The woman I spoke with did not sound 100% sure of what she was saying but, apparently, didn’t see fit to ask anyone in her office for the correct information.)

Along with our Cancun Mexico travel partners Consultores de Viajes Internacionales, we are pleased to present the Hyatt Cancun Caribe Hotel Room Rates for 2008.

Hyatt Cancun Caribe Resort is a luxury 5 star Hotel and Resort located in Cancun, on the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The remodeled and upgraded AAA Four-Diamond Award winning Hyatt Cancun Caribe Resort is ideally located on a half kilometre beautiful white-sand beach and has spectacular views of the Mexican Caribbean. The hotel is within walking distance of the main entertainment areas and shopping malls.

Rates are per person, per night based on double occupancy (2 people in a room). All Rates include Hotel Service Fee, and All Taxes.

Hyatt Cancun Caribe Deluxe Ocean View Room:

19-Aug-07 to 20-Dec-07 $86
21-Dec-07 to 5-Jan-08 $205
6-Jan-08 to 23-Jan-08 $103
24-Jan-08 to 12-Mar-08 $120
13-Mar-08 to 12-Apr-08 $126
13-Apr-08 to 30-Jun-08 $78
1-Jul-08 to 23-Aug-08 $89
24-Aug-08 to 20-Dec-08 $78

Book 5 or more nights and get 50% off Private Round Trip Airport Transfers, and a complimentary copy of the CanDo Cancun Map & Guide.

Please contact Susan to book your reservations: susan@cancunblog.info