ive heard yaxchilan avenue has quite a lively atmosphere at night and its different to the main party place in cancun....has any1 been and could give me more info on the place on what its like
Yaxchillan has a very different atmosphere to the party centre, popular with locals and expats, a few tourists but not many. Lots of smaller bars and restaurants with a local flavour. Live music at weekends at some of the bars and a few nightclubs (although I havent personally been to any). La Taberna is probably the busiest spot, there's also Los Arcos and a whole host of other bars. La Parilla is a nice restaurant and usually has mariachi bands. Look out for the Taco stands for authentic Mexican street food.
Steve, A couple q's about this area, if you don't mind. - Are US$ fine here also or should we have pesos? - Will the water/ice be OK in these bars and restaurants? - Are they open late, even on Sundays? Thanks, Marty
US$ will be fine at most if not all places, although you wont get the best rate of exchange, best to pay in Pesos if you have them. Water and ice will be purified - locals don't like to drink dirty water either Many places close when they run out of people, so it might sometimes depend on how busy it is. La Taberna stays open until 6am every morning apparently, although I've never lasted that long. It's probably fair to mention that about a month ago there was a shooting along Yaxchillan, a drug gang drove down the street in a pick up shooting up several businesses at 3am. One guy was killed, presumably unintentionally, as he waited for a taxi. http://www.cancuncare.com/forum/living-cancun-riviera-maya/22984-yaxchillan-shooting.html I havent been down there since, not because of the shooting but I just dont go there very often these days. I heard as a result things got quiet, but I guess it's probably picked up again now. The bullring area and opposite it (Plaza Solares) is a nicer place for a night out these days imho. Cantinita and Black Pub are good places to go that stay open late on busy nights.
Just back from a great meal at Los Arcos and drinks on the deck at El Chickto's across the street. Was a quite Tuesday night but nice just the same. There is lots of police presence but it's just usually them driving by in their pickups. You might get to see a raid while you are there but that's just them trying to keep the mob and drugs out. Tourists are known to go there and everyone knows that tourism keeps the money flowing in Cancun. So if the mob and drug dealers know that if you bite the hand that feeds everyone there will be hell to pay. Live bands usually come out Thursday through Saturday and are usually very good. They'll play a mix of English and Spanish toons. Well worth at least one night of more sensible partying (if you know what I mean). Jamie
I don't consider either Av Yaxchilan or Plaza Solaris to be unsafe, but there've been two people shot at Plaza Solaris since I've been here, according to my count, and two killed in the Av Yaxchilan area- the one Steve referred to, which was a random shooting, and on a separate occasion a guy who had just made an ATM withdrawal there. Plaza Solaris may be the safer, since both killings appeared to have been hits. This doesn't scare me off anymore than it would to hear about similar things happening around bars and clubs in Dallas, where I'm from.
