Where do I start? Letter to the owner: You have a wonderful opportunity here for a world-class ecologically-sensitive center to the amazing Rio Bec ruins, why not take advantage of this, instead of your gaspingly expensive Holiday Inn'ish generic tour-bus hotel spread, that is "eco" in name only?

With the northern Yucatan quickly becoming overwrought with tourists and the Cancun-Tulum coast already ruined, southern Yucatan and Campeche have such potential as educational and ecological centers, similar to places in Costa Rica. This hotel feels such a waste; a tour bus warehouse with prices comparable to elegant world class hotels.

The good: Peaceful, quiet location with great proximity to amazing ruins.
Swimming pool for cooling off.
OK food in the restaurant though way too expensive. Decent portions.
Wireless internet in the (strangely barren) office.
Birds and butterflies.
Rooms pleasantly cooled with fans.

Suggestions:
Large spigoted water bottles for refilling glasses or smaller bottles: far more ecofriendly.
A library or bookshelf area in the office with info on Mayan ruins or culture; maybe a few maps or other educational information. (Maybe even bringing in local guest speakers when the hotel is full.)
Alternatives to white rolls and white bread, such as whole wheat.
Can anything be done about the sewage smells?
Nontoxic approaches to mosquito control instead of fumigating.
Upgrade the rooms with a more traditional Mexican feel: a culture of such artistic beauty.
Lower your prices; they are ridiculous. Or create a sliding scale of amenities so guests feel they're getting something for their money.

For some reason, I wish this place luck. It's run by a Mexican family, and I hope they can recognize the potential for a longer term investment. Truly go green (there is a market); take advantage of the tranquil, natural location; highlight local Mayan treasures/history -- for your country, for local communities, and for the millions of tourists hungering for this in the Southern Yucatan. . . .

Meanwhile, don't expect anything special, and expect to spend a lot.

Checked out Rio Bec Dreams and this hotel, and decided on this place. Rio Bec has the tours and the Canadian owner seems to be THE person to take you places you can't get without a 4WD or on your own. Rio Bec is MUCH more rustic, and not really in a cute way, but when I go back I may stay there just to make the day trips easier as I will use her for guided trips to the more remote places we missed this trip. Also heard the food there is good. Chicanna Ecovillage had nice enough, large rooms with decks. Actually a bit nicer than I had expected for this area, but obviously tourism is on the rise here. Plenty of very hot water after days in ruins was very welcome. We had quiet, good nights sleep on a decent enough mattress. But, food was the only bad food we had in 2 weeks in Yucatan, as noted by other reviewers. Edible for sure, but given how good the basic Mexican food was everywhere else, this was definitely worse, and service disinterested. Think it is most expensive in the area, though like all the hotels, if they are not full they will give you better rates.

We stumbled upon Chicanna Ecovillage after spending 3 hrs lost and driving at night in the dark on a highway which was undergoing much effective construction. Although the stress of navigating the detours, and trying to figure out the signs may have coloured our first impressions, our second impressions the next day remained consistent with the first, so we've concluded this place is just great and suited our needs wonderfully.

The minute we hit the security gate at front we felt welcomed and then David at the front desk just made it all that much better. He gave us a great room and breakfast for a reasonable cost for the area and had us settled into a room in a jiffy. Our room was close enough to the parking lot that we didn't strain ourselves lugging our suitcases to the room.

We usually self-cater but decided to break with tradition to celebrate surviving the construction and went to the on-site restaurant. Let me preface this by telling you I travel a lot, so our vacations don't involve eating out at restaurants. For me, eating in is the treat, however, the meal we received here was fantastic. I had the chilaquiles and my husband had taquitos which came with this superb guacamole. Serial, our waiter, made sure we had everything we wanted or could need. He made the best cappucino, 2 times for me! Gerardo at breakfast was as accomodating and efficient as Serial was the night before, and David was there with a welcoming smile in the morning and went out of his way to see how we were doing. They were all just great kids.The breakfast was a big American breakfast with eggs and fresh fruit, toast and a jam they make right on the premises. It kept us going through our adventures both days.

David suggested that we would require 2 nights and that Calakmul would take the better part of a day. We didn't believe Calakmul would take a whole day, but believed we would need two nights to see everything in the area. He was right, we only did see Calakmul which means we'll have to go back to visit the other sites, but somehow I'm looking forward to that 'hardship'.

We didn't use the pool but the pool area had lounge chairs and was a nice clean area. The gardens are tastefully done and the whole area was lovely, it is in keeping with the environment. The doors were decorated with bows for Christmas and there were little Christmas touches everywhere. We did enjoy the balcony off of our room; the chairs were comfortable and there was a good breeze and we were able to access the wireless internet from there. Normally you would have to go to the building that houses the lounge with Satellite TV to get reception for the wireless, but our room 232 was close enough I guess. David was great about printing off our car rental form for us for our Cozumel portion of our adventure as we had left that to the last minute.

We didn't hear any noisy generators, although they do power down at night to conserve energy, which just makes sense. We had lots of hot water, peace and quiet, and the bed was fantastic. Service in the restaurant was superb, although we were here in just prior to the start up of busy season. There are no TVs or phones in the room if you need those amenities. What I can say with confidence is if you did receive poor service in the restaurant, it wouldn't be because these young men weren't trying. They bent over backwards for us and we certainly did appreciate it. Thanks guys!

Our 2 days stay in Chicanna was very very good; but the quiet of the place was disturbed by the frequent noise made by the power generator which was in an unhappy place ( especially early in the morning, too close from the rooms. Fortunately, it was not disturbing that much at night...