december-2009

PHOTOGRAPH OF CHILIS BY SHUTTERSTOCK
3PD RIVIERA MAYA
SADDLE UP! Patrolling the beach at Punto Venado
DAY TWO The arpeggios from Coco Bongo still ring in your ears this morning
2 as you smear on some SPF 50, hop in your car and drive 10 miles south. You’re
going to see a man about a horse at Punto Venado (1). Here, you help your guide,
Tomás, saddle up a handsome bay, and you take off for a jaunt into the jungle. This
area of the Riviera Maya is untouched by developers, and the low-canopy growth is
pristine. As you clop-clop along the trail, spider monkeys follow, swinging along the
mangrove branches and screeching critically at your poor riding posture. As you
fi nish the trek on the beach, you realize you haven’t seen another tourist all day.
Take a quick refresher in the Rosewood’s rooftop plunge pool, check out and head
to the Banyan Tree Mayakoba to sample the magical world of Saffron (2), the
signature restaurant at this brand new, Asian-themed resort. Accented with
curving, wood-planked roofs that arc above the jungle canopy like wings, Banyan
Tree has a zenlike hush. At Saff ron, you take a table at the end of a narrow wooden
pier, and watch the alligators patrol the still
water of the lagoon below. Servers deliver
Thai dishes cooked with local fl air—
delicate squid rubbed with black habanero
peppers and grouper grilled with pineapple
and green curry.
Time for a dive. You pull off Highway 307
at the sleepy town of Akumal and bounce
along the rutted road that curves the length
of Half Moon Bay until you arrive at the
extra-friendly Akumal Dive Shop (3). Strap
on a scuba tank—or snorkel—and follow
your guide out to the nearby coral recifes,
where you fi nd a wallowing procession of
tortugas, large, highly charismatic sea turtles
that call Half Moon Bay home. You rub one’s
SYLVIA ARANDA, 19,
SHOPKEEPER // “Tulum has
a lot of really nice places
to walk in the jungle and
see nature. Go south on the
beach road to the Sian Ka’an
Biosphere. There’s a trail that
starts in the Maya Tulum
parking lot.”
shell, to the dive master’s consternation.
On your way out of town, stop at Turtle
Bay Bakery & Café (4), a cheerful watering
hole where you replenish your fl uids with a
pitcher of sweetened chaya iced tea. Order a
crisp and citrusy ceviche with prawns,
calamari and fi sh caught in the bay to go
along with it. As you cool off , you spot a
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM | DECEMBER 2009
FOOD OF THE GODS //
How to eat like a Mayan
// Ancient Mayan cuisine was
based on the “three sisters,”
the staples of all North
American food: maize, squash
and beans, together with tapir,
peccaries and various other
animals you’ve never heard
of. Experts say the Mayans
also dosed every dish heavily
with fi ery chili peppers, which
grew like weeds in the Yucatán
3,000 years ago. Today, the
basic ingredients are the
same with some extras. Chaya
is a delicious leafy relative
of spinach and is found
throughout the Riviera Maya in
everything from veggie juices
to omelets. Signifi cantly, the
Mayans are believed to have
been the fi rst people to use the
cacao (a.k.a. chocolate) bean,
in a dish called xocolatl, which
was a fi ery mocktail meant to
please the gods. Made of corn
meal, honey, cacao and chili
peppers all ground together,
this bitter and incendiary
concoction is more diffi cult
to fi nd today, but it’s worth
the effort.
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