On my recent trip to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, I stayed in some hotels, guest houses and camps that I really enjoyed. There were also some places I was not keen on, notably one which I will mention. In this article I will described the places I where I stayed that really stood out and tell you why. Here is a list of the hotels in this and other articles

1. Eco Genesis Retreat, Ek Balam (recommended)
2. Alvarez Guest House, Merida (recommended)
3. Rio Bec Dreams, Calakmul, Becan (a poor choice)
4. Camping Yaax Che, Calakmul, Becan (recommended)

Rio Bec Dreams - Not Great

This is one place I did not like, and I think it is worth sharing my experiences about it. Were it not for the incident I will relate at the end of this section, I would simply leave them out of the list and say nothing, but they seemed to go out of their way to annoy me. I don’t think these people should be in the hospitality business, because for that business, you have to be, well, hospitable.

Diana seems to think that the guests should conform to her needs rather than the other way around. With that attitude, some people (including myself) do not feel comfortable staying there.

THE GOOD: Great food, and great social environment. Before eating , I enjoyed having a drink at the bar and meeting other guests. The sort of people who visit this area tend to be my kind of people, so I really enjoyed this part of of my stay.

THE BAD: On their website, they say that they are in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, that they own 50 hectares of jungle, and that you get to stay in “jungalows”. All this is true, but it is misleading.

The accommodation is in a sort of garden with trees (one species only) but certainly not jungle.

The rooms are very close to the highway. I fell asleep to the sound of trucks passing by, and woke up with the feeling that I had heard trucks passing by all night - not constantly, but enough to disturb my sleep. I did not find my stay here relaxing. Breakfast is on their schedule not yours. They don’t like to get up early. They don’t like to serve dinner too early either.

The toilet block has the faint smell of sewage. Not nice. The jungalows are OK, but I’d not want to be in one in a driving rain storm. They have screens, but no windows you can close. When I arrived, Diane asked me why I had not made a reservation.

When I told her I had in fact sent an email she told me she had been too busy to respond to emails lately! She has another business on the side, and guests are supposed to accept that as an excuse for bad service. I met another couple who had sent numerous emails and left phone messages that were not returned, so this was not an isolated incident. (They stayed else where).

I ordered a packed lunch. It was tasty and nicely packaged and presented, including a frozen water bottle to keep it fresh. However, it was not exactly what I ordered. Diane has fixed ideas of what food should be, and refused to make the kind of lunch I wanted. The result was not sustaining.

I had wanted to stay at Camp Yaax Che for a real jungle experience. I made the mistake of telling Rick this the night before I left. He treated me differently after that. He seemed to take it as a personal insult.

By neglect or by intent, they wasted my whole morning with slow service. They seemed to think that I shouldn’t mind driving an extra 100 km (50km each way) to stay at their place rather than somewhere else more convenient. They seemed to be setting about destroying this advantage. I left extremely angry with them.

They say they give lots of information. This is true to some extent, but the tour they suggest for Calakmul is silly - they suggest you go around the park in the opposite direction to what the park suggests. There is no advantage to this. It is just confusing because the maps and arrows in the park are designed to go the other way around. In summary: I recommend eating dinner there (the food is great, show up early for a drink and meet some of the guests). I do not recommend their packed lunch although it might work for some. Better to get it at Camp Yaax Che if you are going to Calakmul. I honestly don’t think it is a good place to spend the night, and they don’t deserve the business in my opinion.

Camping Yaax Che

Of all the places I stayed this trip, Camping Yaax Che was the most special. All the more so, as I came here directly after experiencing the hotel described above. Just arriving here is relaxing, the people are so laid back! Actually, I arrived feeling furious, but it was just impossible to remain in that state of mind in this place, and I soon calmed down and my mood returned to feeling good.

My first experience here was getting a packed lunch for the day. I discovered real Mexican food, in a way I had never before experienced. Everything is hand made in their kitchen (see photo) over semi-open wood fires. The tortillas are the best I have ever had. The corn is ground by hand, and I think that makes a difference. Try them with the honey they serve (they produce the honey there too, it is really special). The food is simple, basic traditional Mexican food. Simple does not mean boring however - the meals I had here were the best I had on the whole trip. Even when the tortillas were a couple hours old, they still tasted better than some fresh ones I have eaten.

Accommodation is in tents, permanently set up under shelters to guarantee they stay dry inside. I love sleeping in a tent, so I found this to be a wonderful experience. If you need a bed though, they can’t yet offer this. If you want to camp though, this is your chance!

The camp is far away from traffic, so you will get a restful sleep, and wake up to the sound of birds. This is a great place in Campeche for bird watching in the jungle. Although the trees have been thinned in a small area around the camp, it is surrounded by a two-canopy jungle. I was able to really understand what this means when I walked the paths they have cut through the jungle, and climbed the wooden tower that they have built on their property. There are four levels, so you can really see what the jungle is like at trunk-level, lower-canopy level, upper canopy level, and above the tree tops.

The owners really care about the environment. They have 250 nectars of land which they leave in a natural state to protect wildlife.

The bathrooms and showers are “rustic”. The bathrooms are open-pit, but they don’t smell thanks to the wood ash the you add after each use. The showers consist of a dipper and a bucket of water. Not for everyone, but it would be a shame to miss out on the experience just because you are used to hot showers in a tiled stall. I highly recommend staying here to anyone who loves camping and being outside.

You can email them at ciitcalakmul@prodigy.net.mx, or phone them at (983) 871-60-64 or toll free (in Mexico at least) 01-800-5053-648.