#142. Explore Fuego (Sunday, December 21, 2025)

What was your best day…of voluntarily signing up for an adventure?

Given how epic my first night at Cancun’s Coco Bongo had been (#4), you’d think I’d have waited less than a decade to return.

By then, after plenty of other nightlife in plenty of other places, I could see Coco Bongo for what it was: a legitimately great tourist megaclub that had once meant much more to me than it objectively deserved.

It still formed the anchor of the weeklong solo Cancun trip over Christmas. The trip was almost bizarrely on-script: Coco Bongo was still fun, the Royalton Chic was a good resort, I spent plenty of time in the ocean, met people at the wet bar and after-hours lounge, and consumed an unreasonable number of strawberry daiquiris and tacos.

For my one “adventure” this trip, I decided to book an excursion to the Xplor adventure theme park, which contained an extensive zipline complex above the trees, a giant waterslide, sprawling forest trails for buggy drives, and a series of rivers in caves that you could swim and paddle through. Pretty cool. But I took it one step further, by booking the more expensive Xplor Fuego package—which lets you into the park at night.

Naturally, darkness elevated all of it. The whole park took on a mysterious, slightly alternate-dimension feel—even the massive dinner buffet. The underground cave-swimming became genuinely creepy, and the outdoor activities felt noticeably more dangerous.

In fact, heading into it, I was genuinely concerned that my general clumsiness could put me in mortal danger if I was not careful. Embarrassing as it might be, Xplor Fuego was an active step outside my comfort zone. That fear stayed at the forefront of my mind from the bus ride in through putting on the mandatory swim vest and protective headgear.

And as it turned out, even though I felt appropriately safe through all this, there were a few moments that suggested the place did carry some legit hazards.

First, the main attraction, the ziplines. They went far, far above the trees—up to fifty meters above the surface—and offered a pretty spectacular view in motion. The staff were professional, and you’re properly anchored while riding the ziplines. But… right before they actually strap you in on each platform, there are a few seconds where you’re standing on an angled surface about two meters from the edge, with nothing beyond it but fifty meters of open air and trees below. I was extremely careful in those parts.
There were two zipline routes: I took the shorter one while it was light outside, and planned to do the longer one—which went through a literal ring of fire at one point (hence the “Fuego”)—when it was dark. But then, as I got partway up, they shut the whole route down, because somebody just ahead of me had a “serious medical emergency.” I never found out what that was, but in any case the fire route did not reopen for the rest of the night.
Then, there was the dune buggy drive, which lasted forty-five minutes across an uneven, curvy, and (in some places) water-filled terrain. I am not a good driver (#52) and I was driving solo, so I was anxious at the start. But it all went smoothly for me. However, on two separate occasions, I saw the buggy ahead of me get stuck in some pit or some heavy patch of mud and had to be rescued by the park staff. The first time, literally all four people in the buggy had gotten out of the vehicle (which I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to do), and were all vigorously trying to push the buggy out like it was an emergency. That would’ve been one of the most hilarious sights I’ve ever seen—if I hadn’t been so deathly afraid that the same thing (or worse) was about to happen to me.

So, not quite the same adventure in Cancun as the one that defined the fourth best day of my life, but an interesting—and genuinely shelter-breaking—adventure nonetheless.