One of the things around Cancun that looks interesting from the guidebooks for my couple days here is a day trip to Isla Mujeres, a five-mile long island a few miles offshore that's a resort in and of itself. And, of course, it’s not somewhere I’m going to go with my rental car like other sites on the Yucatan Peninsula. It sounds like it’s a good beach and snorkeling spot and some of the recommendations are to rent either a golf cart or a bicycle (likely more my speed).

Isla Mujeres – island of women? So how did it get that name? Sounds like a name for a lesbian resort themed on ancient Greece . Well, if there is one on the island, I didn’t come across it, but what’s a Bad Hombre like me doing on an island of women anyway?

So I got to the ferry port expecting a little water taxi like the boats to Caye Cauker and San Pedro in Belize where I just came from. I bought my ticket, reasonably priced at about $15 USD round trip, and my jaw dropped as I got out to the docks. On both sides the holding areas were absolutely full of people waiting for ferries in corrals like the ones they have to manage lines at amusement parks. Shit, this is like Disney World! And it took three ferries to depart, one each half hour, before I finally got to go, a wait of almost two hours.

The ferries are fast catamarans on which you must stay seated, so the ride takes under half an hour. I managed to get a seat on the open top deck for better picture taking, but didn’t choose my seat very well. There was a local singer with a guitar playing covers of American hard rock songs very badly, the noise amplified through massive speakers, one of which was right in front of me. The rest of the crowd seemed to enjoy it as part of their Cancun experience, though.

Arriving so late on the island, I decided forgo trying to find a bicycle to rent and just spent my afternoon around town. Isla Mujeres town site is on the northern tip of the island and is almost entirely given over to tourism, from small hostel to large resort hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops selling the same kind of junky Mexican "handicrafts" you see all over the country, many of which are now just Made in China tourist tack .

Isla Mujeres is known for its many murals around town, many of which are colorful and really quite nice. They help make up for any real sites to see, but I wasn’t expecting much in terms of history, culture, or ruins. And Playa Norte at the northern tip of the island is said by some to be one of the 10 Best Beaches in the World (or maybe one of the 200 "10 Best Beaches"). That’s not because the people on it are so sophisticated or beautiful, though - mostly the same kind of chubby Americans you’d see at Myrtle Beach or Daytona. The bragging rights come from the stillness of the water because of its location sheltered from the open Caribbean waters, the incredibly turquoise color of shallow water for hundreds of feet out from shore, and the fineness of the white sand on the beach. To me, though, top beaches are those I have almost entirely to myself, so Playa Norte doesn’t cut it for me.

I decided to make my few hours on the island as close to authentically Mexican as I could by eating lunch at inexpensive stalls outside the Mercado, drinking cheap beers in a delightful little bar filled almost entirely with Mexicans, one where they serve free tapitas with each drink . That just doesn’t happen much in Mexico. And for dinner I had a fantastic Ceviche Mixta (mixed Ceviche with fish, shrimp, octopus, and conch) at a little family-run place named La Lomita. I was quite intrigued by a restaurant mentioned in my Moon Guide named Restaurante Justicia Social described as being run by a local fisherman’s cooperative. Food for SJWs (social justice warriors) – Ha! Like any enterprise my by or for SJWs, though, it didn’t last long. The place was gutted, fenced off, and partially boarded up.

So I got back to the ferry port around 8:00 P.M., expecting the crowds would have dissipated by then. Not a chance; the lines were even longer than on the mainland. To hell with standing in line for two hours – I’m going to find a bar to hang out in for a while! When I returned for the 10:00 P.M. sailing the lines had dissipated, and it was mostly local service workers heading home for the evening rather than tourist day trippers. I honestly don’t see the appeal of a destination that’s so busy and overrun as a vacation spot when there are so many around the Caribbean and the world that are much more relaxed. I guess many people find the Disneyesque atmosphere appealing, though.