I can't tell a story about Sol Caribe without discussing the food. So... in this little place in the middle of nowhere, Mike manages to create amazing food on a daily basis. The all inclusive package is quite pricey, but the quality of the food exceeds most places we've in Mexico. And we've eaten A LOT of places. he will pull some steaks out of the freezer or some fresh fish brought in by Raul and work his magic. We tried to save money by eating in Punta Allen some of the time and bringing in some of our own food. It is probably best to bite the bullet and pay for the package. We normally don't ever do all inclusive's but this is the place to make an exception.

click the arrow to go to part 5....

One of the claims to fame of the area is fly fishing. Apparently bone fish and permit fish are the two favorites in the shallows of the mangrove shallows on the interior of the peninsula. You can reach this unique body of water by walking a couple hundred yards across the road from Sol Caribe. Mike, the owner, has partnered with Raul and provides fishing packages for the fly fishing fanatic.

Raul exploring the flats for wildlife

We on on the other hand are not avid fisherman, and fortunately Raul, was willing to take us on a wildlife tour of the mangroves. We saw a remarkable number of birds, such as spoonbills, heron, storks and boobies. We continued out into the open ocean for some very nice snorkelling on patch reefs. Not hundreds of fish, but a very nice variety if you are patient and enjoy paddling around in the sun. On the way out, we saw a dolphin and played chase each other around with the boat.

We were especially impressed when Raul spotted a rain squall coming and outran it and dropped us at the front side of the resort (inconvenient for him) just before it hit.

You can see the Sol Caribe resort and some of the birds we spotted by clicking here for our sol-caribe-punta-allen photo gallery.

Scroll down for more...

Sol Caribe is on the left, only 8 miles or so before you would get to Punta Allen. It is a neatly kept little resort consisting of the owners house, a small open air restaurant, and 4 or 5 small Cabanas with thatch roofs. Each Cabana accommodates 3 to 6 people. If you have a small group, you could easily reserve the entire resort!

The resort sits on the edge of a spectacular, empty beach (this is the beach on he Random travel Home page)

Full disclosure requires that we let you know that the beach has a lot of trash above the high water mark all along the peninsula. We suspect this is the result of cruise ships dumping their trash. Fortunately, Mike, the owner, keeps the beach clean and manicured for a ways in both directions. it is easy to walk the beach for miles and ignore the stuff, because it is washed well away from the waters edge.

This is kind of place where the busy-ness of life soaks out of you a little more every day. Better take some good books. There is sparse electricity and no TV. Mike does have XM radio in the restaurant. Usually on "The Loft"

There are several hammocks and I have personally tested them and pronounce them perfect.

Scroll down for more...

The Riviera Maya is normally associated with posh resorts , Cancun Hotel strip and maybe smaller, more intimate resort towns like Akumal. If you are up for a little more adventurous side trip without actually roughing it, Read On !!

Beginning at Tulum (80 miles south of Cancun), the coastline bumps out into the Caribbean to form a peninsula that is the Sian Ka'an Nature preserve. No more development is allowed here, so the few places that alreeady exist have a unique spot on the planet.

the two places we have experienced are the small village of Punta Allen and the tiny resort of Sol Caribe. The entire peninsula has pristine beaches and a huge variety of wildlife. Teh road to Punta Allen (which runs past Sol Caribe) is notoriously bad. Periodically it is improved and wehn we drove it a couple of years ago, it only took 1 1/2 hours from Tulum to Punta Allen compared to 3-4 hours i the bad times. It is still a bumpy tedious drive and we don't recommend doing it at night like we did !!

See the next post for more...