Information For Your Vacation In Puerto Morelos
Here are the cash exchange rates for February 23, 2018 at CI Banco in Puerto Morelos. I post these rates on occasion so that you can compare these rates with the rate your bank or the ATM may offer. To see where the rates have been in the last couple of years, search “exchange rates” on our page at InPuertoMorelos.com
Did you know that Puerto Morelos has been used as a location for many films, TV shows, commercials, and music videos. Everything from Mexican telenovelas to Spanish music videos have been shot here. One of the most recent videos featured American country superstar Dierks Bentley. His follow up song to the hit “I’m Getting Drunk on a Plane”, was titled “Somewhere on a Beach”, and Puerto Morelos played the part of the beach. You will likely recognize Unico and Que Hora Es in the video.
And HGTV is no stranger to Puerto Morelos. They have taped many episodes of their popular series House Hunters International as well as Mexico Life here. They featured real estate agents Amber Pierce and Kim Temple.
Before the tragic death of their lead singer, Dolores O’Riordan, Irish rock band The Cranberries shot their last album cover here in Puerto Morelos. In this picture you can see our local crew from Mayan Riviera Grip.
Popular Spanish pop band La Oreja de Van Gogh (Van Gogh’s Ear) did a walkabout around Puerto Morelos and the Ruta de Cenotes for their video featuring the song “Las Noches Que No Mueren” (“The Nights That Do Not Die”). If you don’t blink you will see a quick shot of the iconic Alma Libre Bookstore in the video.
And supermodel Heidi Klum created quite a stir when she visited our little fishing village to film a perfume ad. She really did “Shine” when she took over the dock at Pelicanos.
Puerto Morelos is such a beautiful and diverse location that we make a great backdrop for filmmakers. These are just a few of the more popular pieces that have been shot on location in Puerto Morelos. Our beautiful little town makes a great location and a great backdrop for your next vacation.
We love to travel and we do it as often as we can. Usually our journeys are within Mexico, but we recently completed an 11 week trip through Europe, which had us staying at 16 different vacation homes and renting four cars (which turned into 6 cars after 2 broke down on us) and taking a variety of trains, planes and ships for transport. Moving around this much, we found a few items that came in extremely handy and we thought we would share them with you.
When you travel to several locations, we cannot say enough about the humble little packing cube. These zippered bags kept our luggage organized, our clothes wrinkle free and allowed us to unpack and repack in seconds, saving precious vacation minutes. We bought ours in the family section of Ikea. But you can get similar ones here on Amazon.
I went even one step further with my cubes and used some liquid paint to tell me what is inside each cube, so that I don’t have to go looking through them when I am in a hurry.
Another thing that I found invaluable, is this little travel blow dryer. My husband actually laughed out loud when he opened the box that this came in. It is so small that it looks like a toy, but it isn’t. It is a really powerful travel dryer. A lot of hotels in Mexico do not offer blow dryers, so this one comes in really handy. And you can switch it from 120v to 220v for travel abroad.
We seem to travel with more and more electronic devices that need constant recharging. When overseas, we like this one. It converts 220v to our 120v. It has four USB plugs, and it comes with enough adapters to plug in anywhere from from Albania to Zimbabwe. It works when plugged into 120v as well, so you can use it anywhere. It’s compact, but has lots of places to plug in, because there are never enough outlets in most hotel rooms or vacation rentals.
In Mexico we use one like this that has a built-in surge protector for the sometimes unsteady current we get in Mexico. This has saved our gadgets on many occasions, plus the USB connections come in really handy.
Good idea to have a two-prong adapter as well, as you will see two prong outlets in older Mexican hotels and even some vacation rentals.
And one last item. If you are renting a car, most of the cars in Mexico are very basic and don’t come with USB chargers. We highly recommend bringing a USB lighter/adapter to keep your phones/GPS charged while you are enjoying that driving trip to Chichen Itza.
If you have any travel gadgets your can’t live without, drop us a line, we would like to hear about them.
Mike is a runner/blogger from Canada. He loves to run, but that has got to be a bit of a challenge in winter in Winnipeg!
Recently he visited Puerto Morelos, and he loved it so much he recorded his runs on our beach and through the town.
Join him! You’ll get all the sights, and you’ll never even break a sweat or get sand in your shoes! You may recognize a few faces!
Visit Mike at SeeMikeRun.ca
See you at the beach!
We frequently get asked about staying connected while you are on vacation in Puerto Morelos. If you have your own unlocked smartphone, getting it set up is relatively easy. In Puerto Morelos, the easiest/fastest way to get a chip is at your local, friendly OXXO. They carry the Telcel Amigo chip. This is a pay as you go, no contract phone and data service. They chip is $150 pesos (about $8USD/$10CAD). This cost gets you the chip only, no phone time. If you need a little more hand holding or your Spanish isn’t great, you may want to go to a official Telcel office in either Cancun or Playa de Carmen to set up your phone.
To put phone/data time on your phone you need to charge your chip. You can do this again at any OXXO (there are several in town). All you do is tell the cashier that you would like to add credit to your phone. You will need your phone number to do this. Your phone number will be given to you when you buy the chip. Or you can charge the chip or check your balance online at https://www.mitelcel.com using your credit card. Once you activate the chip, your phone number is held for one year from the time you stop charging it.
Once you have added credit to your chip you now have phone time…. but to make your phone time last longer and cost less, you need to buy a package. You can do this online or by texting a code to 5050. When you buy a package you will get data, SMS, some social media time and calling. Calls within Mexico, the USA and Canada are all treated the same when you have a package. Packages start at as little as $20 pesos (30MB) for 1 day and go all the way to $500 pesos (4,000MB) for 30 days depending on the amount of data etc, you would like to use. If your data expires or you go through your allotted amount and you don’t text in a new code, your phone charges will go way up!
That is the very basics to get your started using a local Mexican cell phone and hopefully saving you some money while you travel. There are other cell phone companies in Mexico, this one just seems to be the most ubiquitous and easiest to get started fast. Now you can enjoy your stay and not worry about any huge cellphone bills when you return home.
The restaurant scene in Puerto Morelos is very lively and you really can’t tell the players without a program! (That is why we publish our voluminous Restaurant Guide)
Here are a couple of new news items…
We noticed that La Casa del Pescador, never one to be in a hurry, finally opened for the season! They have been a perennial favourite in town for many years. The restaurant has been closed for quite a while, then started doing some renovations that took a loooong time, but now they are open. If you have forgotten, they are located on the north side of the square, right above the fish cooperative (convenient), between Panna E Cioccolato Gelato and Richard’s Bistro. The menu has not changed a bit. If you had a favourite before, it’s still there.
Don Mexkal, one of PM’s premier late-night spots has a big new space. They did not move far, just 21 metres (less than 70 feet) down the road, but into a whole new venue, formerly occupied by El Sabor. Now they have much, much more space for people, food, Mezcal and music! They list their hours as 6:30 PM to 4:00 AM every day except Monday. We had a chance to visit last week and caught this cool band in the leafy backyard. They were just one of two bands that played that night.
La Parilla, which is a small restaurant chain from Cancun, closed their place in the south end of Puerto Morelos in the spring. Right before Christmas about a month ago, they briefly…and I mean briefly, re-opened in the big space above the big jewelry store at the entrance to the town. I took this photo on December 11. Just a couple of days later, they removed their little plastic sign and went dark. I never got a straight answer on what happened, but I think it is safe to say they will not be opening in that location any time soon.
La Parilla’s old space in the south end of town did not sit empty for too long. The space has been split in two, with this half being taken over by Easy Way Rent A Car. They are just getting opened as you can see. The other half is currently being worked on, and looks suspiciously like a restaurant. The other locale in the building is empty, you may remember there was a women’s swimsuit store there last season.
There are a few new choices for breakfast in town this season. One we can tell you about is Cancun Billy’s. They are getting up early, real early to serve breakfast on the beach starting at 7am!
All the info you need for a great vacation in Puerto Morelos is at InPuertoMorelos.com Check out our up-to-the-moment restaurant guide, our interactive map, practical info, business & service guide and more. We had a record number of visitors to the website in January! Check us out, and sign up to receive an email every time we post a new “Beach Reads” InPuertoMorelos.com
For a great place to stay, check out Casa de los Viajeros.
Consider a Spring Fling in Puerto Morelos! We have space for you at Casa de los Viajeros. One and Two bedroom suites, fully equipped, private and affordable. Check them out at www.CasaDeLosViajeros.com
