December 6 to January 7, 2016: Izamal and Xpu-Ha
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| carriages lined up next to the church |
From Merida it was about 40 miles east to Izamal. I drove into a small town along the way that was celebrating something thereby blocking the main road in and out and, unbelievably, I got kinda lost in this tiny little town. An old man on a bicycle guided me out and I gave him 11 pesos, all the change I had at the time.
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| Izamal...about as yellow as you can get |
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| the pyramid Kinich-Kakmo |
Izamal is a pueblo magico that is distinctive for the many buildings painted a shade of yellow ochre, originally done in honor of the pope's visit in 1993. It's also different in that several Mayan structures are right in town, including the large temple in the photo.
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| the "stalkers": Joanne, Jan, Dave, Victor |
Way back in San Miguel, I had met these four Canadians (in photo). Later, they caught up to me in Catemaco, then Isla Aguada and here in Izamal. They said they were stalking me, but I don't really believe that (?). I haven't seen them since, it now being March, but they were fun to hang out with.
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my new camp spot in Xpu-Ha,
iguana lower left |
After a couple of nights in Izamal, I was itching to get to my favorite beach in all of Mexico (and Central America, for that matter). I booked it down to Xpu-Ha in less than 3 hours. I stayed here for a full month, for about $10/day.
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| where I used to camp in Xpu-Ha (it's even my screensaver!) |
Unfortunately, where I camped on my previous visits, right on the crest of the beach, is now crowded by more palapas, and more people. Chalio, the beach owner, said I could still camp there if I wanted to but the spell has been broken. My new spot (shown in the photo above) was just back off the beach in the small, often crowded campground that was less than ideal. I suppose it was inevitable as the whole Riviera Maya struggles with growth issues. As it was explained to me: the owner of the beach, in order to keep the beach, must continually add more services in order to collect more money to pay the ever increasing taxes. The end game doesn't look very pretty.
Xpu-Ha has always been like a three-legged stool to me. One leg was the people, still as strong as ever. The second was the water. Though this year has been marred by seaweed (all over the Caribbean), it is still gorgeous and damn near perfect. The beach is the third leg. With all the new palapas and lounge chairs - bringing more people - this leg has become very wobbly. Of course, I'm comparing to what I saw 5 years and 10 years ago, but the aesthetics of it are simply disappointing. I mean, this beach has been used for Corona commercials, that's how perfect it is, or was. Also, it may be a seasonal thing, but there has been some beach erosion as the pictures show. Ten years ago I was here at the same time of year and the beach was quite a bit larger.
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| stretch of Xpu-Ha in April of 2011 |
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| same stretch of beach in December, 2015 |
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| no seaweed at first |
To be fair about the seaweed, it wasn't there at all when I first arrived on 12/8, but the winds changed making for a fairly unattractive situation. As you can see above, they would rake it up into piles, carting it off in a pick-up, or burying it right on the beach as the resort just to the north of us was doing. It was a never-ending battle until the winds changed again around the first of the year.
Which brings me to a final "negative". It was the holidays, and the beach was often really crowded. NEVER, never go to a beach in Mexico during Christmas, New Year's or Easter. Unless you love crowds.
But back to the people, thanks to Audrey for keeping me company, even if she did go on the wagon for awhile, and to locals Victor and Damien and Roman. And to Mario and Nicole from Quebec, who adopted a puppy (with shots and papers) that had been abandoned by its' mother right next to where I was camped. And to Jerry and Ann, also from Canada, who told me stories of what this coast and the rest of Mexico was like 25 and even 40 years ago. And numerous others, as this traveling/camping lifestyle brings one into contact with people from all over the world. I love that.
January 8-18: Punta Allen
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| crossing the Boca Paila bridge |
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on the way to Punta Allen in the Sian Ka'an, some of the last
undeveloped beach on the Mexico Caribbean coast |
South of Tulum (talk about developed)
there is a beach road that goes for some 30 miles over about 3 hours to Punta Allen, the end of the road in these parts. What I had envisioned as a two or three day "fact finding" trip turned into 11 days. The bridge picture is taken from the newer bridge with the old one in foreground. It's 17.5 miles from here to Punta Allen. This area is all part of the vast Sian Ka'an Biosphere, which is also a World Heritage Site.
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| camping spot in Punta Allen |
I had been in touch with Niki, the owner of Serenidad Shardon, about camping on her property and when would be the best time to avoid people. It turns out that just after the holidays and before February is a good time.
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| snorkel boats gather offshore |
This town is generally a fishing town and if you don't fish there isn't much else going on. While I thought I may have escaped the crowds of tourists, even here they show up most days. Jeep tours from Tulum and Playa del Carmen barrel down the road for the day mostly to snorkel off the reef.
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| with Niki, Bill and Ursula (from Austria) |
One of the guests at Serenidad was a fellow Coloradan named Bill. He loves to fish and comes down every winter for three months, or so. One day he took pity on me and asked me to join him on the kayak to paddle across the bay that is on the west side of P.A. to look for bonefish. We spent several hours wading through the shallow water and, while we saw some bonefish, none were caught. I think this is standard for bonefish. And for permit, too, the fish most people come down here for. But I loved being out there and I've even considered that maybe I should take up fishing in my old age. I really enjoyed Punta Allen and the people I met there and it may become my new place on the Caribbean. My favorite place to eat was Lucy's. She has a killer salsa - actually, this same salsa is served at other restaurants in town, like a local specialty - of roasted habanero, onion, garlic, oregano and olive oil (although I think she told me corn oil is better) and a few other things I forgot. I really wish I had asked for a recipe to try at home...even if I don't have one of those at the moment. Details.
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| about 15 miles of this leaving Punta Allen |
On the night of the 13th a really strong storm came in. The winds were so strong some of the many lanchas that anchor right off the beach were sunk and at about 2am some 20 men swarmed the beach pulling as many lanchas as they could onto the beach. My tent was rocked pretty good and it was impossible to sleep. But, the tent once again held up to some fairly extreme conditions. I left on the 18th and the beach road was still full of water. The locals tell me that the majority of road damage like the extensive "pot holes" shown in the picture is due to those same jeep tours flying down the road to create some sort of an off-road adventure. I think there is something of a love/hate relationship with those tours around town.
This map shows Merida to Bacalar, days 30-81 in blue.
