Januari 2022 - Mexico - Mérida, Bacalar, Mahahual, Palenque

 apologies in advance - this is a long one!

Like Valladolid, Mérida is a town with a lot of colonial buildings, and is known to be a cultural hub in Yucatán. There are a lot of tourists, and therefore also a lot of air conditioned nice restaurants, souvenir shops and even a “food court”/market that directly targets tourists (serving things like pizza, burgers and sushi). As we arrived quite early in the day from Río Lagartos, we only left our bags at our hotel and then headed out to find breakfast. After wandering around quite a while, not really finding anything appealing, we headed towards the main square. There we found the weekly Sunday market which happened to include a number of food stalls. We ordered vegetarian tortas (sandwiches) and they were really good. Somewhat more energized, we went exploring the city, which of course entailed looking at churches. We walked along the famous street Paseo Montejo where all the grand colonial mansions are, and all the way up to the Monumento de Patria.

As we no longer had the ocean breeze, the midday heat was intense, and we found our escape at local food courts for some lemonade or juice. In the evening we returned to the Sunday market for dinner and tried tacos with cochinita pibil as well as a Jamaica juice (made from hibiskus flower), both things that we have seen around Mexico or read about but hadn’t tried yet. We were not disappointed! However, continuing on this trend we decided to also try esquites, which is a snack that we’ve seen all around Mexico and which is very popular among locals: a cup of corn, mayo, cheese and chili. Maybe it’s an acquired taste, or maybe we just didn’t go to the right place – we decided to go for churros instead which is always a hit.

The next day for breakfast, we found a local mercado which would turn out to be a great place for food. As they were only open in the morning, we could go there for breakfast or an early lunch, and also take the opportunity to buy some fresh fruit. Here we tried relleno negro (which gets its black color from charred chilis) and had great panuchos, tortas and huevos. 

The remaining time in Mérida we spent mostly at museums. There are a few in the center of town that are also free and very nice, including one with contemporary art, and the Palacio del Gobernador. Worth noting however is that several museums have little or no information in English, so at times we had to do with simply looking at the installations and pondering. We wanted to go to the World Maya Museum as well, but it required a bus and despite several tries we could not for the life of us figure out where to catch these buses. Everywhere online we read about Calle 60, and a local travel app also directed us there, but there was not a single bus that passed on Calle 60, so eventually we gave up.

In the evening we went to a cantina to get a feel of the pubs, and we had a very good time. The only downside was the music which was a bit too loud for comfortable conversations, but both the local beers and the mezcal we tried were good. We also got complementary botanas (nachos with a variety of dips) which were “included” but appeared on the tab for 3 pesos which is still a very reasonable price.

After Mérida we felt we had enough city life, and headed back towards the coast. We only spent two days in Bacalar, but we enjoyed them a lot. Bacalar is a small town situated by a big lagoon. The number one activity here is of  course to get out on the water. We chose to do that by kayak. It was a beatufiul morning when we headed out – and we spent the day paddling past islands, scouting for birds, paddling to and swimming in cenotes that were in the actual lagoon, and having a beer on a jetty in the rain. All in all an, adventurous day just in our taste.

Next, we headed out to the seaside in Mahahual, which is a small town south of Tulum and Playa del Carmen, and which consists mainly of a long beach and the hotels and souvenir shops along it. We booked our stay at Blue Kay, which is kind of a fancy resort but that also has very cheap and simple cabañas right by the beach. They also had a gym and free yoga classes. The beach area is dreamy and instagram-friendly, as there are swings on the beach, hammocks in the water and plenty of sunbeds. The one thing that almost ruins the atmosphere but which brings in a big part of the income to this town is the huge cruise ships that arrive daily to drop off hundreds of tourists.

The first thing we did when we came here though was to go to one of the many dive shops in town. From Mahahual, you can dive along the coast , but you can also go out to Banco Chinchorro, a reef about 1-2 hour boatride away which is the more popular location. We picked a 2-day package that would give us one day at the coast and one day at Chinchorro. But first, we get a full day relaxing at the beach, reading books and eating fantastic shrimp tacos at a seafood restaurant where we returned a few times.

Diving at the coast was pretty nice, though “cold” – a mere 27C in the water required us to put on an extra wetsuit so we wouldn’t get too cold. We saw a few nice things – stingrays, turtles, lobsters and a decorator crab. The next day we’re up early to head out to Chinchorro. Our first dive started out well with two nursery sharks that tagged along throughout the dive, but it ended spectacularly – dolphins. First two, then five, then ten, then twenty something dolphins swimming nearby, jumping and playing in the water. We were all amazed by this – not only seeing them but also hearing them, it felt surreal. When we got back to the boat, the waves had gotten pretty big so we head to a nearby island to wait it out a bit. The island was mainly mangrove and we spotted a few crocodiles while we snacked on lunch. After a while it’s clear that the weather is not getting any better, so we need to head back to town. Equipped with rain jackets to protect against the splashing salt water and the worst of the wind, our small boat took on some very big waves. Safe to say we were all grateful when we were able to put our feet in the sand again. The day left us all with a bit of mixed feelings, but in the end – there were dolphins. That was pretty damn awesome.

One of the nights in Mahahual we found a local eatery with Oaxacan food. Fun, we thought, lots of new things on the menu to try! We ordered three of those unknown dishes upon which the waitress looked at us skeptically and explained that they were all quite big. Thus, we settled for only two. When they brought out the first dish, a tlayuda, we realized we would probably have been good with only that! It felt sort of like a pizza, but with a crispy tortilla base instead of bread. The second one, a huaracha (kind of like a very big panucho) had us full to our limits.

Palenque was our last stop in Mexico, and one that we really, really liked. While we had to do some boring stuff here as well, like figuring out where to get a covid antigen test which we needed for Guatemala, the day trips we did were really worth it. Firstly, we booked a waterfall tour. This tour is a full day as they include a few hours of driving. The first of the two waterfalls, Misol-Ha, is a big one with a pool where you can swim. You can also walk along a path behind the waterfall and visit a small cave. Very impressive! The second waterfall, Agua Azul, was even better. Somewhat similar to the Kuang Si falls in Laos the light blue cascades are beautiful to look at. The cascades went on for a huge area, and while the parts near the parking was crowded with tourists and vendors, the further we walked, the more empty it got. A nice walk along the pools, a quick dip in the cool water, and walking across a suspension bridge – and a couple of empanadas with a beer before the drive back was the end of a perfect day.

The next morning we were up early, breakfast hunting on the streets near our hotel. We found a food cart selling tamales for about 12 pesos each, and we were happy to stand on the sidewalk munching on those together with the locals who stopped by on their way to work. After that we took a colectivo to the Maya ruins. Contrary to Chichén Itzá, these ruins are situated in the jungle which provides a lush and mysterious setting. We loved walking around this tranquil area in the morning sun, looking at the different temples. Before heading back to town, we decided to take a walk in the jungle following a trail near the entrance to the ruin. We didn’t really know where the trail would lead us, but were pleasantly surprised to discover several overgrown temples/buildings, hidden away among the trees, and completely by ourselves. We also spotted some howler monkeys high up in the trees. Another excellent adventure that I would highly recommend.

That was all for this long post, keep an eye out for the next one to read about our adventures in Guatemala!

Januari 2022 - Mexico - Cancún, Valladolid, Río Lagartos

 At the time of writing, we are on our very last day in Mexico. These blog posts will be slightly delayed depending on wifi-access, time and energy, so for shorter and more recent updates I recommend you to head over to my instagram account.

But let’s get to it! This will be the first of two parts about Mexico. I’ll try not to let it get too long, but if you’ve been around for a while you know that it probably will. Overall we’ve really enjoyed our time here. Some overall impressions:

• The public transportation is great, even if I sigh every time they put on a dubbed movie without subtitles (which is always, by the way). Long distance buses are easy to book in advance and timely. Colectivos and local buses are usually very easy to use and cheap.
• The food has been mostly great, though we gave up on trying to go for a completely pescetarian diet after only a few days. We’ve tried as many local dishes and drinks as we could, but still we keep seeing new things on the menus. Ordering the same thing at two different places can bring you very different results, which means sometimes you will be thrilled, and sometimes you will be disappointed. 
• On top of that, we’re still not really used to the size of drinks as they are often served in huge glass goblets or styrofoam cups, and rarely smaller than 0,4 liters. 
• Opening hours are also something that continues to confuse us, as many things are closed on Sundays,  Mondays or Tuesdays, or any combination of those.
• Mostly we get by just fine with our basic Duolingo-Spanish. Occasionally we make an educated guess on what people are trying to tell us by interpreting single words, context, gestures or just gut feeling :D
• I really enjoy the breakfast food here. Especially chilaquiles (as seen on the photo below) and huevos rancheros. 

But let’s get to the specific places, and the first one is of course Cancún, where we flew in a spent just a few days in order to recover from the jetlag. We found Cancún to be a strange city. Not so appealed by the idea of the Hotel Zone – a 20km long sand strip packed with huge hotels and resorts – we opted to stay in the centro. However, it didn’t feel like there was much of a city center. It was all huge roads with little traffic. We did find a plaza that had some food stalls, which is where we had our first taste of tacos, panuchos, empanadas, burritos, licuados and agua fresca. One day we took a bus over to a park that was supposed to have some animals and birds (plus, nice to just walk around among trees) but it turned out to be closed on Sundays – which unfortunately incuded the new year’s day as well. 

chilaquiles for breakfast

Another day we took the local bus out to the Hotel Zone to spend some time on Playa Delfines – a nice beach, especially if you get there early before the masses arrive. Just taking the bus itself through the Hotel Zone is kind of a bonus sightseeing tour, although they drive like crazy and the buses are barely keeping together. It also became clear to us that in terms of covid and precautions, mask-wearing, hand sanitizing and temperature checks are everywhere, but there is absolutely no social distancing, especially in public transportation where the bus or minivan is not full until every inch of the floor is filled with people.

Our first stop after Cancún was Valladolid, which is the classic starting point to visit the Maya ruins of Chichén Itzá. It’s a quite cute city with colorful colonial square houses, a big plaza and plenty of churches. As check-in time is normally at 3pm, wandering around the town looking at buildings and churches is quite a nice pastime. Valladolid was full of tourists, more than we expected, and quite lively. We found a  nice foodcourt which worked for both breakfast, lunch and dinner, and occasionally we wandered around the streets in search of a restaurant or a café. Turns out the food court can sometimes have great and cheap food, but do not go there for your coffee! We thought we would order café con leche with our breakfast but what we received was quite literally the opposite – a styrofoam cup with hot milk and a jar of nescafé on the side. Luckily we found the cute café Kux Tal which served great coffee – well worth the walk.

Of course, we took the opportunity to go to Chichén Itzá. As we followed the instructions of guide books and internet, it did not tell us that the parking lot for the colectivos (minivans) had moved, but thankfully some locals could point us in the right direction as we wandered around at 7am. If you are reading this in/after 2022, the parking lot is on the same street as the ADO bus terminal, just a bit further down. While the site of the ruins doesn’t open until 8am you want to get there even before that to start queuing for the entrance. Naturally, because it's touristy, there’s a Starbucks where you can get some coffee while you wait in line. We were quite happy to be able to explore all of the ruins at our own pace before the huge busloads of tourists arrive and fill up the area. It also allowed us to wander around most of the site before all the vendors had opened up their shops and started calling out to passing tourists to buy souvenirs. It was really nice walking around these old temples and ruins, though we felt we had seen all of it in less than two hours, so we were quite early back in Valladolid again.

Another day we rented bicycles to go visit some cenotes – big sinkholes filled with water where you can swim. We really enjoyed the bike rides even though the bikes themselves were not the most fancy. As soon as we got out of the city, there was a good bike road all the way to the cenotes. While the cenotes were very pretty, we were unfortunately a little bit disappointed as they were of course also very touristy. Apparently there is some general rule that you need to wear a life vest in order to swim in the cenotes, and this is not alway included in the entrance fees - it felt more like a way for them to earn more money, than something that was required from a safety perspective, but maybe there is a good reason for it.

We did find a nice restaurant in Valladolid, La Selva, which also happened to serve excellent margaritas with a bit of chili salt. We also tried the famous chelada & michelada drinks, but were a bit sceptical - while they got better towards the bottom of the glass, we prefer the beers as they are.

Margarita

Chelada & Michelada

Originally, we were looking to go from Valladolid to Isla Holbox, but it seemed most of the budget accommodations were already fully booked, so instead we ended up going to Río Lagartos. It's a very small, but cute, fishing town by the water where pelicans, frigates and other seabirds are plentiful. Strolling along the water (or even on random streets in town) people will try to sell you boat tours. We had a really cute accomodation at El Faro ("the lighthouse") with a private room on the roof of a building. Unfortunately, our terrace was overlooking the town rather than the water, but it was still very nice. 

The main attractions in Río Lagartos are of course the boat tours, so we booked one of those for 300 pesos (roughly 150sek). The boat tour includes a few different things: stopping for some photos of pelicans and seabirds (not super exciting as you can get plenty of those in town as well); finding one or two crocodiles in the mangrove; trying to scout some other cool birds from the boat (there are about 400 different bird species in Río Lagartos, though you probably want to pay for a proper guide if you want them pointed out to you); going to a shallow area to see some flamingos; stopping at a beach with white mud "Maya baño" that you can apply to your skin (it has some sulfur and is supposed to be rejuvenating for the skin); lastly a long boatride back (when the mud really dries in) to a beach where you can go for a swim and wash it off. I will say honestly the best part of the tour was to see the flamingos - although you can sometimes see a few of those flying by the town too. It was a nice tour, but not amazing.

The very best part of Río Lagartos, which we experienced the next day, was an area just east of town, easy to walk or bike to. An area called Sendero Petén Mac, and the Cenote Chekila. In this area there was a short wooden walkway into a mangrove forest, with a small "pond" where you can see crocodiles. As we walked here in the morning, we saw two of them sleeping in the sun - lying so still we nearly thought they were fake! We were also completely alone there which made a great opportunity to get some photos of them. When we walked over to the cenote, which was just by the ocean, we spotted another croc, with a snowy egret nearby. A local man told us that they have two different species of crocodiles in Río Lagartos, and that this was the smaller kind. They lie in the sun with their mouth open to clean the bacteria of their teeth, and occasionally the egret might help by picking their teeth - a risky hobby it might seem! 

Overall we really enjoyed our stay in Río Lagartos, and especially going to that small area outside of town that I'm sure a lot of tourists miss out on. Unfortunately, it seemed the town was not at its peak as most of the restaurants and food stalls (as well as some hotels) were closed. At first we thought it might be because it was Sunday, Monday or simply too early in the day, but seemed like most were permanently closed. My best guess is that it was a lot more lively 2-3 years ago before covid. Most tourists that come here only go on day tours from nearby cities rather than stay the night. But if you're looking for something relaxed, it's a nice place to spend some time by the ocean, watch locals fish for shrimp at night, and maybe take the opportunity to eat some nice fish and seafood dishes.

Our next stops in Mexico were Mérida, Bacalar, Mahahual and Palenque - which brought some museums, kayaking, scuba diving, beach time, waterfalls and more Maya ruins. More about that in the next post!