After a two hour bus and then a ferry we arrived on the island of Holbox, our first new stop in Mexico. The island is separated into nature reserves and a tourist section of several blocks, criss crossed by sandy roads. Well, the roads are normally sandy, but it would appear we arrived after quite a bit if rain and the roads had turned to a more clay like consistency and in some places more of a lake-like consistency, with large impassable puddles.
We arrived in the afternoon and it was sweltering, so we headed straight to the beach at the far end of the island. It’s known to have bio-luminescent plankton so we planned to stay until dark to look for some.
It took a while for us to reach the beach, as we had to keep doubling back each time we came across an impassible flooded road. Eventually we just took to the sea to wade around to the beach. After setting out our towels and opening our books we felt the first drops of rain. The bad weather had followed us to Holbox. After a while of trying to wait it out we gave up on the beach and the plankton and headed back.
The next day we booked a Kayaking tour around the nature reserve part of the island. We were picked up at 6:45am and driven to the mangrove section that marked the beginning of the nature reserve. There we received an introductory briefing. We would be in two man kayaks and were told not to touch anything or make too much noise and that if a crocodile approaches it’s best to just keep still inside the Kayak. Until this point I wasn’t aware there would be crocodiles, the guide reassured us with the information that the big crocodiles over 5/6 meters were caught and moved to another part of the island and usually didn’t come back. I can’t say I was very reassured to be honest. The guide also asked if anyone hadn’t kayaked before, I’m not sure why he asked this as even after we’d confirmed we were new to it he offered no tips or advice.
We did however get given a life jacket, I’m not sure why as the water only ever came to knee height at most. I assume it is an attempt to fill up any attacking crocodiles before they get to eating your vital organs?
We set off into the sea in our two man kayak and discovered within the first 5 minutes of out 3 hour tour that we were absolutely useless at kayaking. We were constantly spinning in circles and seemed to spend most of our energy keeping ourselves in a straight line. Our guide didn’t seem to notice/care and no helpful tips were given. In fact most of the trip we could just about see him off in the distance with a fag hanging out of his mouth. He seemed to chain smoke the whole way round and glide about with ease while we struggled with our full lung capacity.
Eventually we got into the mangoes and fared a bit better without the tide pulling at us. We got to see various different birds, some flying fish and even a crocodile, luckily only a small one!
After an hour or so paddling through the mangroves we headed back out to the sea for the return journey. At this point our arms were killing and we seriously considered just calling it a day and letting the sea take us, but we paddled on until we really couldn’t be arsed anymore and I just got out and pulled a knackered Grace and the kayak along the shore. We decided we wouldn’t be sea kayaking again any time soon.
Our last day in Holbox was not a fun one, we had two issues: 1) all of the buses to our next stop of Mérida had been booked except from the late one from 5:30pm-11pm and it only had 4 seats left. 2) Grace had been getting some strange bites on her, we had been watching for new ones hoping it wasn’t what we feared it might be, but when she awoke that morning with another set of bites in a straight line we knew we had picked up the dreaded curse of travelers everywhere… bed bugs.
So our last day in Holbox was spent trying to sort these issues. We had a tense time trying to book two of the last few bus tickets as the internet kept dropping out. If we couldn’t get on this bus we would be slightly screwed as all of the hostels in Holbox were already booked for that evening. Luckily we managed to find good internet in an expensive cafe and book the tickets.
The rest of the afternoon we spent running around various laundry shops, seeing if anyone would do a boil wash and high temperature tumble dry (the only way to kill bed bugs) on all of the clothes we owned and have it dry and ready before we left that evening, no small task! We eventually found someone and handed over our huge bags of washing and then went and checked every seam and crease in our backpacks themselves to make sure they were bug free.
It had been a stressful last day, Grace had dealt with it by chain smoking and I had dealt with it by chain eating a pack of three small muffins. We all have our stress dealing techniques. After repacking our bags, we finally started to relax as we were waiting for the bus to our next stop, the city of Mérida. A cat came up and decided Grace’s lap would be its next nap spot which Grace declared a good omen. It was only when we got up to leave we realised the cat had an injured paw and had gotten blood all over Graces shorts, I’m not sure what that means in terms of omens but I’ll guess we’ll find out soon…
Lots of love, Alice x