Is Cancun safe in 2010? – Cancun Beach Sunday – Spring Break Cancun 2010

Dear Friends:

Hola from Cancun!

Hola from Cancun!

As a result of the recent travel warnings issued by the US State Department, once again many of you are worried about your safety when traveling to Mexico. This is understandable, and I’d like to help you be relaxed about your upcoming Mexico vacation by showing you how a Sunday at the beautiful beaches of Cancun is like!

The beautiful beach of Cancun!

It is true, we are not perfect (as no country is) and there do is crime and violence in Mexico, but you have to keep in mind that the drug related violence is currently happening in border towns such as Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez, where the violence is at the worst; not in places such as Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and any other beach resort in Mexico.

The Mexican government takes good care of its top tourist destinations obviously, as it is in their best interests to keep the tourism flow coming. Taking a few general safety tips can help you be more relaxed and have a fun & safe holiday!

I hope you enjoy the trip report!

It had been a while since I had visited my beloved beach, so I decided this was a perfect day for doing it!

Now that the Cancun Beach Recovery Project is finished, this is also a great opportunity to show you how the beaches of Cancun are looking right now: Long strips of pure, powder-like white sand next to the turqouise blue warm waters of the Caribbean sea! Paradise!

Beautiful brand new beaches!

This time I went to my favorite beach to start a beach walk in Cancun: Gaviota Azul Beach! You can find the public access to the beach located just beside Plaza Forum Mall and Cocobongo Nightclub.

Big blue "Playa Gaviota Azul" sign marking the entrance =)

I arrived around mid-day, so there were many people already at the beach! There was some kind of spring break event going on hosted by Corona Beer. They had a sound system, a dj, MC, dancing girls on stage, and they were giving away prizes such as a free bottle of wine for dinner, t-shirts, etc to the crowd.

The Corona event beach hut!

The Corona girls at stage!

The day was perfect, sunny and blue skies! The beaches are really looking great, take a look!

Beautiful beach of Cancun!

The day was beautiful!

Though wave activity in Cancun is no match to other places in Mexico or the world, there do is a surfer-bodyboarder state association here, and you can find surfers/bodyboarders at any day on the beach, like these guys!

I had a chance to talk to Cleofas, a friend who works as a lifeguard for a hotel, and he informs me that all public beaches in Cancun have lifeguards on duty daily from 9am to 6pm. You can easily spot them by their red trunks and/or tshirts with the red cross logo!

Lifeguard post on the beach in Cancun!

Cleofas, my lifeguard pal in Cancun!

And last but not least, heres a short video of this beautiful day at the beautiful beach of Cancun! Enjoy!

Wanna see more cool Cancun videos? Checkout our YouTube Channel!

You can see the full photo gallery for the day at our Flickr page!

Don’t forget to Follow us at twitter & Facebook to have access to the best tips for this Spring Break Cancun 2010!

Cancun Beach Sunday:  Gaviota Azul Beach!

Hi friends! Its your pal Camilo again, bringing you another great Cancun Beach Sunday!

This time, I had the pleasure of having my good buddy Jorge come visit me straight from Cuernavaca!

Jorge is the founder, producer, and CEO of Chai Tassajara , his recent tea startup; specializing in making fresh, organic, 100% natural and sugar free, not to mention DELICIOUS Chai! I’m a fan of his chai!

You can follow Chai Tassajara at Twitter and Facebook

Jorge hadn’t been to cancun in years! Around 10, to be precise. So, you can imagine his surprise when he saw the city has changed quite a bit!

I decided to take him to the beach straight away, what else is one to do with a Cancun visitor? lol

I took Jorge to my personal favorite Beach in Cancun: Gaviota Azul Beach!

Gaviota Azul (Blue Seagull) Beach, Cancun!

Located right behind Coco Bongo / Plaza Forum Shopping Mall, Gaviota Azul Beach has been my favorite Cancun Beach for quite some time. Why? Because I personally like some wave activity, to play around in the waves, either with or without a board Gaviota Azul Beach has some medium wave activity, sometimes when the weather is bad, waves can get bigger, and you can see the local surfers enjoying them.

Gaviota Azul Beach is also a family beach, where lots of locals go, though only a couple of them dive into the sea when there is wave activity…

Locals enjoying Gaviota Azul Beach!

Cancun Is Safe Tip: BEWARE OF THE UNDERTOW! The sea of Cancun, although BEAUTIFUL, can also be DANGEROUS, if you dont take PROPER CAUTION. ALWAYS pay attention to the flags at the beach! If you see red flags, better to stay away from the sea that day! The Undertow current CAN GET REALLY STRONG, and FATAL ACCIDENTS CAN/WILL HAPPEN. Even if there are lifeguards always on duty (except at night), even if you know how to swim, always respect the sea!

Getting to Gaviota Azul Beach is really easy: Just take any bus going to the Cancun Hotel Zone, and ask the driver to let you know when you are at the “Party Center”, or “Plaza Forum”. Once you get off the bus, just ask anybody for directions to Plaza Forum or Cocobongo, those are 2 really well known spots in Cancun, and literally anybody can easily give you directions. The entrance to Gaviota Azul Beach is right between Coco Bongo and The City Beach Club. Can’t miss it!

Gaviota Azul Beach is highlighted in red in this Cancun Beach Map!

Big blue "Playa Gaviota Azul" sign marking the entrance =)

Both Jorge and I were surprised when we arrived! I hadn’t visited the beach for a couple of weeks, and it was amazing and really great to see the Cancun Beach Recovery Project coming along! I don’t remember having beaches this BIG! I guess I saw them in the “old” Cancun, around 20 years earlier, or more! It’s been a while, and its really nice to see we have big & beautiful beaches back again!

The new, big & beautiful beaches of Cancun!

Beach club at Gaviota Azul Beach,Cancun

Gaviota Azul Beach, Cancun! Cheers!

Couple enjoying a walk at Gaviota Azul Beach, Cancun!

We walked for a while, looking for a place to sit down and relax, and we finally chose one.

Jorge making himself comfortable at Gaviota Azul Beach,Cancun

Weather was strange! At moments, gray clouds would cover the sun, and then, the sun would shine for a while, and then it would get covered by clouds again. lol! This continued all day.

Cancun Is Safe Tip: CAUTION! Even if clouds obstruct the sun, YOU ARE GETTING UV RAYS. Do not think that because the sun is not “burning” you, you are not getting sunburnt! You have to ALWAYS use sunblock! Cloudy or not, the sun rays will harm your skin if you don’t protect it!

Unlike Playa Tortugas, there arent that many street vendors at Gaviota Azul Beach. The ocassional one, but thats it. Like this one pictured here, a street vendor of cotton candy! I loved the colors!

Street vendor selling Cotton Candy

Jorge chose to take a nap at the beach, while I went for my usual swim! I love to get into the sea, swim and play around with the waves! I used to do Windsurfing back in the day, now I only use my body as a board! lol

After a while, we decided to call it quits. Jorge still wanted to see other parts of the city, since its changed so much since the last time he visited, and I gladly went into my “tourist guide mode” for a friend, once again

Just another Cancun Beach Sunday! Stay tuned for the next!

Warm wishes from Cancun!

Links:

Cancun Beach Sunday – Gaviota Azul Beach – Full Photogallery!

Cancun Beach Sunday – Gaviota Azul Beach – More videos!

Just another sunday at paradise…

I woke up early, around 7 am, to be on time to pickup Oscar & Camila, my friends that came to visit Cancun for their very first time all the way from Brazil! I picked them up at their hotel at 8:15 am, and from there we took off to the hotel zone.

This is the first time they came to Cancun, so I decided to take them to my favorite beach in Cancun, just at the end of the hallway between Cocobongo and The City. I love to always begin my visits to the beach there, and from there just walk and walk until I get tired and then comeback to the starting point!

We got there fast and quickly found a spot we liked!

Then we took our clothes off (we had bathing suits under ready lol) and voilá! Ready for a Cancun beach sunday!

Oscar & Camila, our Brazilian friends, ready for a hard day ahead!

Tip: Its a good idea to arrive early in the morning to the beach, since in that way the beaches are almost empty, very calm, and the sun is still not that hard on you. So, I recommend to make that extra effort, sleep early the night before, and wake up at 7:00 am to get to the beach at 8:00am, if not earlier! You won’t regret it!

We immediately proceeded to take pictures of this beautiful paradise!

Turqouise-blue Cancun ocean!

Blue skies, blue sea! Cancun!

Cancun Beach!

Checkout this beautiful paradise! Don’t you want to come?

Beach Club

Theres also a beach club at the beach, very cozy & relaxing as you can see!

Love in Cancun!

Ah, Love in Cancun! Inevitable!

A local Cancun family enjoying paradise!

Like every sunday, local (and non local too) families come to enjoy this paradise!

Mother & daughter at paradise!

Mother & child enjoying paradise!

Tables & Sunshades at Cancun beach

You can rent these tables & sunshades for 100 MXN pesos (approx 9 USD) for the whole day!

Hard day at the office!

A hard day at the office!

Father & Son @ Cancun!

Father & son enjoying Cancun!

After a 4 hour (Aprox) stay at the beach, we decided It was time to go, sadly! Oscar & Camila had to be on time at their hotel for the checkout, and we still had to have some lunch. So, after a nice trip downtown, I decided to take them for lunch at another personal favorite spot in Cancun: a delicious and not-so-expensive seafood restaurant in Market 28 (Mercado 28), the “Pescado con limón”! (Fish with lemon). (Hi Mariana! =) )

The heat was now on and feeling really strong, so , wisely, first thing we did was order the company of 2 beautiful and ice cold brunettes and a blonde! lol

2 ice cold brunnettes and a blonde! Need anything else?

We began lunch with an entree for the 3 of us, a delicious mixed ceviche. The ceviche had shrimp, fish, and shellfish! Absolutely delicious! We wolfed it down pretty fast! lol

Mixed Ceviche! So delicious!

The ceviche was joined by a side order of delicious, fresh guacamole!

Fresh Guacamole!

After this, we ordered fish fillet smothered in grounded bread and fried, “Filete Empanizado”, as we call it in Mexico. Delicious as well! The order comes with a side order of french fries and a little salad… This time there were no pictures! No time to take pictures! lol

After resting for a while, we went walking around Mercado 28, looking for a Corona Tshirt for Oscar. We found one pretty quickly, and after a little bargaining with the shop clerk, Oscar walked away happy with 2 Corona Tshirts!

Shortly after we left Mercado 28 and I proceeded to bolt to their hotel, as time was a little tight. After an emotive good bye and promises to see each other again soon (hopefully) They were off to finish packing, and I was off to my appartment, to take a bath to remove all the sand and salt water, and chill for the rest of the sunday!

Just another hard Sunday at paradise for you!

Cheers!

To view the full photo session of the lovely day please click here to be taken to our Flickr account. Thanks!