Colourful buildings are a requisite on Isla Mujeres, Mexico. -- Photo by Paul Turenne, SUN

Although Isla Mujeres is only a few kilometres off the coast of Cancun, it might as well be halfway around the world. The small outpost, whose name means "island of women" in Spanish, is nothing like the gringo paradise located a mere ferry ride away.

For one thing, it looks like Mexico.

Cancun's "hotel zone" is a narrow strip of sand that features nearly 100 highrise luxury hotels, shopping malls, U.S. chain restaurants, overpriced taxis and all the Corona a T-shirt-wearing guy can shake a stick at.

Isla Mujeres doesn't escape Cancun's influence completely, as it is only a 25-minute ferry ride away and many tourists visit for the day. But it is a peaceful (and often cheaper) alternative for anyone who wants to escape the Miami of Mexico, as Cancun has been called.

The ferry from Cancun docks at a small, unnamed town that is the island's main hub, and has anything a visitor will need -- hotels, restaurants, supermarket, bank, Internet cafes and other shops.

The town is also home to several souvenir stores, fishing, scuba and snorkelling outfitters, and "agencies" that rent bicycles, mopeds and golf carts to scoot around the island.

The most popular, and by far the best, attraction is Playa Norte, a white-sand beach at the island's northern tip. The beach is an easy walk from any hotel in town, and although it attracts hundreds of people every day, it is large enough to hold them all without feeling too crowded. The sand is soft, the palm trees are shady, and the turquoise water is shallow enough to wade out for a few hundred metres and still only be waist-deep.

There are a few luxury resorts at one end of the beach, but they are perfectly happy to let you hang out in front (all Mexican shoreline is public property). A few rent beach chairs and umbrellas and will serve you food and drinks at inflated prices.

There are a handful of vendors and beggars on the beach, but generally it's easy to find a peaceful place.

The only thing of any real interest in the town (other than the restaurants) is a small cemetery that features, like many Latin American graveyards, little individual tombs located above the ground and adorned with miniature Virgin Marys.

Fermin Mundaca, a 19th century slave trader and pirate, has a grave in the cemetery marked with a skull and crossbones, and an ominous-yet-truthful epitaph that says (in Spanish): "As you are, I once was. As I am, so shall you be."

The rest of the island features a few lame attractions like a corral with a suspiciously sedate nurse shark that you can touch, an overpriced nature park, and a ramshackle zoo.

But it is worth a trip around the island to see some of the rocky shoreline and an oceanfront home shaped like a conch shell that has been featured on many cable TV shows.

The island's food makes it an easy place to spend some time, as there is an abundant supply of fresh seafood caught every day by local fishers and delivered to many small restaurants.

Shrimp, lobster, conch and fish are prepared in a variety of delicious ways, with the local specialty being a barbecued fish dish called Tikinxic.

And of course, the beer and margaritas taste great when you're sipping them in bare feet staring out at the Caribbean Sea.