A Trip Report
Our little trip started January 21, 2003. Arriving in Cancun at 12:30 p.m. and we chose a colectivo to take us to Cancun Centro because they were a little cheaper than the taxis. There was no way anyone would direct us to the employees' bus. Maybe our packsacks were too big. It is nice now (2004) that there is an economical Riviera bus for travellers from the airport to both Cancun and Playa Del Carmen, but we were a year too early for that luxury.
In Cancun Centro across from the main bus terminal we had a short wait for a bus/van that took us to Puerto Juarez to catch the people ferry to Isla Mujeres. The ferries are very modern now compared to those of a few years back. On the island we lugged our bags to the opposite end of the narrow part of the the town and settled on the east side in the pretty little Roca Mar Hotel, happy to once again hear the wild ocean slap the rocky shore beneath the balcony of our room.
There is a nice rock sea walk along the northeast toward the sandy north beach now. We walked that way to town and had some drinks that sent me wobbly-legged back to the hotel to snooze until the world stopped spinning. That might be why the only picture I managed to take was sundown through the Roca Mar Hotel room window.
When night fell we enjoyed a beautiful supper in the upper floor of the Na Balam Restaurant. It is a large thatched room building with trees all around, like a tree house. A cat or two appeared with the food, only to be chased away by the waiter. I felt our early morning catching up with me and we returned to our room and were asleep before 9 p.m.
Up bright and early the next morning, we looked for Captain Tony to take us on an excursion to Isla Contoy. He didn't have enough people to make the trip so he took us on his golf cart to Captain Gaetan's and we joined a group of ten or so other people. Our boat captain was assisted by his fifteen-year-old son. The man child reminded me of my youngest son. He also would so rather be a fisherperson than a student!!
We headed for the nature reserve Isla Contoy. On route we stopped and snorkelled the Arrecife Reef, the northern most tip of the Great Mayan Reef. We were surrounded by many kinds of beautiful coloured fish and coral reef. It is unfortunate that the water camera does not catch the intensity and numbers of what we can see.
Pulling in to the dock at Isla Contoy, the ocean surface revealed a fin… shark? Uh uh, it was a large triggerfish.
The beach was beautiful, and the water clear like glass. Beautiful star fish were scattered on the ocean floor and the small white fish nibbled at my feet in a tickling kind of way.
I had never before seen a ray. There were two at the beach that swam toward us when we slapped the water. They took food and brushed themselves on our legs like a cat rubbing against a person. The larger one was smooth and gentle when it brushed against me.
Before we left the island we walked to the east side and enjoyed the view of a swampy pool with neat birds called frigates flying and nesting about it. After a lovely time we returned a little sun burned and a lot more relaxed than usual to the beautiful Isla Mujeres for one more night of enjoying the ocean roars as we drifted to sleep.
The next morning we awoke and got going early enough to make a morning ferry to Puerto Juarez on the mainland. Tourist books would have you believe you can bus from there directly to Chiquila. The taxi drivers at the ferry departure spot would have you believe you can only get there by taxi, their taxi to be specific. After many poorly spoken Spanish attempts to convince the taxi drivers that they should just fess up and point out where we catch the bus, we gave up and caught a city bus to the Cancun City bus terminal instead. Once there, no problemo! We hopped on a second class bus and began a pleasant journey through increasingly dense bush.
There are beautiful little towns with children playing amongst the thatched roof huts while chickens, dogs, pigs, sheep and roosters meander anywhere they choose, even bringing the bus to a stop when they choose to be on the road. The bush thickened to a jungle and I was again thrilled to be among the huge trees that have always fascinated me, though I don't know what they are. They have no leaves at this time of year. They have only large pink spiky blooms at the tips of their grey bark branches.
The sky was menacing with dark clouds and a nasty wind had picked up.A norte had arrived with us! The jungle gave way to mangrove swamps as we neared the northeast coast of the peninsula and we soon arrived at Chiquila. After waiting for some time on the windy dock we boarded a medium sized boat and sat under a canvas cover on benches with others bound for Isla Holbox. It was choppy and cold as we crossed the dark water connecting the peninsula to the mainland.
Once disembarked we met Motocito (“like Robocop”, he saidof his name). He showed us pictures of a house that he carried in a photo album in the basket on the front of his bicycle and he asked us to come and see his Uncle Giles' house. He offered us lodging there for $20.00 USD/night. We stayed a couple nights in the top room.
It's was little dirty, yet comfortable. It would have been even better if it had a kitchen. The view was mainly residential. Down the road a bit it was swampy. Three blocks away there was a remarkable beach extending as far as the eye can see in both directions. The ocean was cloudy with sand or sediment and there were lots of broken shells on the beach. It was hot when the sun shone and cold from the still strong wind when the clouds blocked the sun.
A dog on the beach wanted us to be his people.
We left Isla Holbox after Motocito and Uncle Giles served us an overpriced breakfast of coffee, burned toast with marmalade, and orange juice. That's not why we left.That was just a bad morning in the kitchen. We headed on because the weather was chilly for Mexico and it was simply time to move on. I'd like to visit Isla Holbox again and hopefully hit it in its hot, hot, hot time because it is a great little fishing village and I think that part of the ocean would have been wonderful for body surfing. The wind likely saved us from the mosquitoes though. We were not bothered at all by them and Isla Holbox is kind of notorious for bad mosquitoes.
Early that morning we ferried back to Chiquila to find plenty of taxis wanting too much money to take us to the main road so we could catch a bus to Coba. “No bus at Chiquila for along time,” they said in Spanish. We decided to wait and see what could transpire over the next little while. We had a pretty delightful coffee at a house-turned-small café. The lady there chatted with us best she could with our poor Spanish and her non existent English.
Eventually she arranged for us to share a taxi to the main road with some local people heading that way. It helped bring the cost down and was kind of fun. We started with my spouse in the front with the driver and me in the back with a lady (and I think her little girl but I'm getting mixed up now, maybe she didn't have a little girl with her!) Anyway soon we stopped and picked up another man who squeezed in beside me. A little later we let the lady off and picked up another man, two women (one of whom was quite along in a pregnancy) and a little girl. My spouse got into the back with me at some point and there was then in the front the driver, a man, woman, and little girl; while in the back squeezed the pregnant lady, my spouse, and me. This was a mid-size Datsun or something like that. I am content that I didn't have to sit on the gear shifter in the front!
So that fun ended at the main road where we stood for a short time with our big pack sacks and waited for a bus. The man who picked us up had a bus with many seats removed. He had tools and greasy rags strewn about the bus and he used a vice grip or similar to turn something on the dash when stopping and starting. We paused along the way while he helped some other bus drivers with a petro problem. Seems they siphoned gas from one bus to put in another. We passed many a pretty little town.
There were lots of chickens, goats, pigs, roosters, turkeys and such along with the beautiful children looking like they needed new clothes and a bath. They didn't at all look like they lacked love though!
There was no one but us on the bus and I think the driver was a mechanic moving a bus from one place to another. Perhaps we just happened to make the trip a little more worth his while. I do mean little, about $3.00. U.S. that is! Anyway he wouldn't take us to Coba because he was going to Valladolid . So we went to Valladolid . We've been there before and it's a good old colonial village with lots of history and pride. Our Hotel San Clemente was cheap, clean and comfortable. The pools are most too refreshing for me to go in, but they looked pretty in the courtyard.
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From the court yard the top of this beautiful old fortress church loomed. Beside our hotel was a Dominos Pizza. I took a picture on behalf of our eldest son who was back in our hometown delivering Dominos Pizza while we were enjoying our vacation! We also took a short walk to one of Valladolid 's natural attractions Cenote Zaci. It is very nice but my photos did not turn out very well. We bussed from Valladolid to Coba.
Coba was a very pretty town in the jungle. The sun sets beautifully over a small fresh water lake that is lined with almond trees. There is a lot of wild life.
The crocodile was about ten feet away and I think it is about ten feet long. A pelican or something that reminds me of a pelican perched on the hut roof. I think someone said the big bird in the centre of the lake photo is an egret. Anyway it was a remarkable town complete with sheep wandering around the street. There were also cats, chickens, dogs, roosters, and turkeys wandering freely about the street (there is only one street) and at night the cacophony of the animals amused us.
Early next morning one little goat was lost. It stood bleating pathetically on the restaurant lawn until another goat came and butted it in the direction of the flock grazing in someone's front yard.
Air plants blown off the large trees made themselves at home on the electrical wires.
We stayed in a dive, I mean really bad and dirty place the first night. I whimped out and went for luxury the second night. $65.00 US per night! “Oucho”, says the cheap part of me but Coba Club Med really was comfortable and pretty. Then we traipsed around the not very excavated Coba ruins in the fragrant and plush jungle.
It was hot, humid and the only time I resorted to wearing insect repellent. The mosquitoes were nasty to me, although they didn't bother my spouse.
The next day we bussed back to the coast. The bus trip took a nice jungle road. It was at least a lane-and-a-half with not too many potholes. More quaint villages appeared and folks got on and off at the small towns. We stopped in Tulum to transfer to another bus. We were aiming for a beach, the name of which escapes me now. We hopped off the bus at the place with the right name and walked down a long dirt road, only to meet a security guard and locked gate. No, we were not allowed to pass. So back to highway we staggered in the heat and under the weight of those too heavy packsacks. We soon were back on a colectivo getting off at the entry to Paamul. I had often wondered what Paamul was like and I found it to be beautiful. It is an RV park that is very well blended in to the surrounding beauty.
The beaches were vast and secluded. A walk-in reef complete with a tremendous number of multicoloured fish and invertebrates greeted us as we swam below the bath tub warm surface of the calm turquoise sea.
We stayed in one of the beach front cabanas. They were very comfortable. The only thing missing was a kitchen. We walked to the road, caught collectivos to Playa Del Carmen for food and brought it back to eat in the room. After a few wonderful days we moved on to Cozumel by way of ferry from Playa Del Carmen.
Playa Del Carmen was pretty but too busy for me. It was trendy and crowded and had a magnificent beach. We had a quick lunch before boarding the ferry for Cozumel . Lunch was a wonderful mixture of banana, mango, papaya and pineapple along with a blob of the always scary Mexican ice cream. Cozumel 's main town was also way too busy for my liking. We moved down the south of the island and stayed close to Chakanab Park .
Knowing the trip was coming to a close; we rented a car and toured the island. I liked it a lot and we did not have enough time to take in the full sights of the park at the south tip. The sights along the east coast were magnificent and we enjoyed a stroll amongst the iguanas and ruins of San Gervasio. Too soon it was time to return, we boarded the ferry and once back at Playa Del Carmen we bussed to Puerto Morales, returning to the Villas Playa Sol Condominium for a night and day of enjoying this less touristy seaside town.
That was February 4, 2003. I hope this has been an enjoyable read. :^)
No more dialoge just photos...
