A quick 20 minutes south of Cancun, down in Puerto Morelos, is a small but “big-enough” new and used English bookstore called Alma Libre Books. Avid readers who spend any real time in Cancun and the Riviera Maya (long enough to finish a book) will appreciate it. The selection of books is wide and deep and used books are surprisingly cheap. My 11 year-old always finds a few treasures there and quickly retires to the car so she can start reading. And each time I visit I struggle to drag myself out of there before I spend the farm on books.

Not only do they have a nice selection but they have a nice store. I find myself wishing they’d add a few overstuffed chairs and a cafe to the place, but if they did then I’d really be in trouble and I would NEVER get out of there.

The store is located on the main square and is easy to find but be sure to check their hours before planning your trip there since they are not just always open. Here is a link to the Alma Libre web site. Enjoy!

Blogging is “in” right now, and it seems to have hit Cancun with a vengance. Maybe because everyone here and their brother is a web designer…

I was recently approached by the owner of www.CancunMX.com to build a blog site for him which would be decicated to Cancun. That site, The Cancun Blog, was launched this past week and is already a hit with his regular users. I built it using WordPress and couldn’t be more impressed with how configurable it is.

This week I also came across afterwilma.info which seems to have recent info on business reopenings around the area, it is another WordPress blog.

Longtime Cancun resident Brant Boston has a blog of sorts (it uses Cold Fusion instead of blog software) on the site for his famous 2 for 1 Entertainment Card, he writes about life in Cancun and how he came to live here. Brant offers a unique perspective on living here.

Everyday we hear of more attractions and more hotels opening back up here in Cancun. Well it seems the tourists have gotten the message. Today there were more than 15,000 international tourists who entered Mexico through Immigration at the Cancun airport, and they arrived on more than 100 flights. These numbers are not back up to what they were a year ago when a busy day might bring 25,000 tourists in; but this are a very welcome sign that Cancun and the Riviera Maya are back in business.

Here’s the real reason to visit the ruins at Tulum:

One of the smaller cliffside buildings at Tulum.

Even for us locals there’s something special about the color of the Caribbean Sea near the Tulum ruins. Somehow it’s just a little more blue than anywhere else. It’s no wonder that the Mayans decided to establish a community in that lovely spot.

Tulum never had more than about 600 residents, which is nothing compared to places like Chichen Itza or Coba, which were both home to around 50,000 people. If you are interested in majestic Mayan ruins the small ones at Tulum will likely disappoint, but if you want to visit one of the more lovely spots on the planet Tulum will qualify!

More info on the local Mayan ruins is here.

We started the New Year off right by taking a quick 3 day trip to Merida, Yucatan.

Merida was founded in 1542 on the site of an older Mayan city, and has a very long and interesting history. The thing that most impressed me was the architecture. After living in Cancún, which is very young and has no buildings older than about 30 years, I was enthralled by the many, many beautiful buildings in Merida which are hundreds of years old.

We were also impressed by the very large number of tourists we saw in Merida. The hotels were not packed but they were doing a brisk business and we saw tourists almost everywhere we went.

We spent most of our time wandering around the downtown area. We spent a lot of time enjoying the beautiful churches, going to museums and lounging around cafes and restaurants. We enjoyed the Museo Macay, which is right next door to the fabulously beautiful Cathedral San Ildefonso. We visited the Museo de la Canci&#243’n Yucateca, which is a museum dedicated to the famous Yucatecan song style. The Government Palace is a lovely building and has some very moving murals depicting Yucatecan history. We wandered through several of the markets, and interestingly did not see many tourists in those. We made our way to Paseo Montejo and saw the Monument to the Flag. We also went to the Canton Palace which houses the Anthropology and History Museum. The Anthropology Museum has a large collection of Mayan artifacts from all over the area.

On Monday night we were lucky enough to see an exhibition of Yucatecan dance, which was performed in the street in front of the Municipal Palace.

Finally, as our time in Merida, was ending we decided to take a quick drive up to the Port of Progreso. Progreso is only a 20 minute drive from Merida and there’s a well maintained highway going there. I was impressed by this because, due to traffic, it takes more than 20 minutes for me to get from my home in the center of Cancún out to the beach area in the Cancún Hotel Zone. Progreso has a decent beach, the water is not the same turquoise blue as the water here in the Caribbean but it’s still very pretty. There is a boardwalk along the beach where people stroll and there are street vendors selling all manner of Mexican junk food. We made our way to a sea-side restaurant called Eladios (it’s a small chain) and enjoyed seafood, cold beer and Yucatecan appetizers.

During the ride home we indulged in fantasies involving buying an older home in Merida and restoring it. I highly recommend a trip to Merida to anyone who comes to the Yucatan. It is a very busy and charming city.

Check out my Mérida Photo Album