We have never been so hot in all our lives!!! And after a month of visiting this wonderful peninsula, the heat just got the better of us and we had to get out of there. But we do not regret making that right turn from Palenque for a minute. One can do a lot in a month and we sure made the most of the states of Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo.
And our first stop, at Isla Aguada, was the perfect starting point for us. What a delightful setting! We were welcomed by schools of dolphins joyfully leaping over the calm and tranquil waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The sun was beginning to set and it was so good to put our feet in the sand again amongst the palm trees and their coconuts. Oh, and go for a dip! Zoe couldn’t wait to whip off her clothes and jump in! Stating; “Come in, come in, it’s lovely!” Yes, these waters were like a huge warm bath!
Swiss couple Jürg and Irene had also just arrived. They were travelling in the opposite direction, and thus had a wealth of Yucatán knowledge for us.
So, after some well-deserved seaside relaxing, a dolphin tour in a speed boat and lots of fun conversations to be had in “Schwitzerdütsch”, we started our Yucatán tour, making a beeline to Campeche’s capital: Campeche.
This city took us by surprise. A very bright and colourful historic port town, it is full of colonial buildings, defensive walls and fortresses; most left intact. And with the majority of tourists bypassing this city, it had a very cool and chilled vibe. We were there on a Saturday morning, almost alone whilst wandering the cobbled streets, and taking in the sights. We finished our visit with a treat at one of the many seafood restaurants on the seafront. We were on the coast now, so the meat just had to wait, but check out these boys here…
Clinging to the coast, we crossed over the border into Yucatán. This was flamingo land and we rocked up at a Cabaña resort in Celestun in the hope of catching a glimpse of the pretty in pink birds. We were in luck because our very friendly host Humberto knew just where to take us. Following him on his moped, we drove off-road to some nearby swampy lagoons, where hundreds of flamingos greeted us. Well, maybe greet isn’t quite the right word, we needed to be quick because these birds were timid.
Very pleased with the photos taken, we enjoyed a few more days with Humberto and Gerry, a Newyorker, making use of the communal pool and direct beach access; purchasing and eating Pulpo most days – there ain’t much else in this town at this time of the year.
Driving inland was the next course of route for Silverskin. We’d heard about Yucatán’s many great Maya ruins such as Tulum and Chichén Itzá, but to be perfectly honest, we were much more keen on jumping into the many cenotes (sink holes).
These refreshing pools are the result of an asteroid that crashed into the Yucatán peninsula over 66 million years ago. This, by the way, was the same asteroid that was responsible for making the dinosaurs extinct. What an event!
The groundwater in these cenotes was previously used by ancient Mayan people for water supplies and sometimes seen as sacred places to carry out their rituals, but nowadays offers a much-needed escape from the heat. What a perfect solution for the locals who live there! And there are plenty to choose from. One can spend months just visiting the cenotes alone, with a unique surprise waiting at each one.
Take, for example, the caves; some, a divers paradise with endless, deep waters and some full of stalactites and stalagmites. Then there are the open sinkholes, set amongst jungle, monkey-swinging trees. So much fun!
It was at one of these open cenotes, where we met Giriam and Juanita. Running the parking lot where we camped for the night, this couple was more than hospitable! Upon our arrival, they pulled up some chairs and were quick to offer us oranges and grapefruits fresh from the trees and of course a cervesa. We hit it off immediately and decided to extend our stay to two days, exploring more cenotes, eating delicious tacos and taking in their rich Mayan culture. We tried our luck at some key Mayan phrases and were honoured to get a taste of how they live. Their concrete home which is architecturally designed to keep them cool during the heat of the day had little more than a few hammocks to sleep in. But what more does one need in Yucatán?
Our time with Giriam and Jaunita, their daughter Ida, and their colleagues, Pedro and Marcello was definitely one to remember. We were very thankful to have them, and in true Mexican style, crammed into our Silverskin that day, when we ran through a low hanging cable that cut off the power supply of the whole village. Their presence certainly saved us from paying, what could have been a hefty bill! And the joke for the rest of the day was definitely centered around cables. Thank you guys for the great company!
In Yucatán, official campgrounds are a little hard to come by. The last couple of weeks had been spent overnighting in many cenote car parks. So, as you can imagine, we were quite excited to find Xkopek campsite, located in the city of Valladolid. Thank you iOverlander! Fully equipped with a pool, hook up (necessary to run our air-con) and believe it or not, an official center for beehives, this place was just what we needed to cool down and chill out for a few days. The tour of the beehives was free and an added bonus, especially given the delicious organic honey we were able to try. Nearby restaurant ‘Ix Cat Ik’ was also a visit worthwhile. We indulged in traditional Mayan dishes such as Sopa de Lima, (chicken broth with fragrant local citrus and tortilla chips), Poc-chuc (a combination of pork with tomatoes, onions and spices), ultra-smoky longaniza sausage and the fluffiest handmade corn tortillas we’d ever eaten. Yum yum!
Talking of food; on our way to the northernmost tip of the peninsula, Los Colorados, in search of colourful waters and more flamingos, we stopped in Temozon, to eat the local specialty ‘Carnes Ahumadas’. This was recommended to us by locals, and what a recommendation it was! ‘Carne Ahumada’ is smoked lean pork but not smoked in the bbq pit as we know it, it’s hot-smoked over charcoal. The different marinades are the secret to its success…and they do keep it a secret!
We purchased about two kilos of two different kinds of that perfectly smoked pork and immediately pulled over for a picnic. We ate two more days worth of tacos, it was simply delicious!
We did make it to Los Colorados by sundown but the purple and pink waters, we’d heard so much about, were nowhere to be found. I guess being on the tail end of the rainy season was always going to be a gamble; we were a tad bit early. Oh well, we did see hundreds more flamingos and found ourselves a wild camp for the night. But with a billion sand flies, another hot and humid night (in fact the hottest) and an ant infestation the following morning, we needed to move…FAST!
So it was back the way we came and straight over to the other coast: The Caribbean Sea. We had entered the state of Quintana Roo, passing touristy Tulum and finding ourselves at an overlanding camp directly on the beach; Xpu-Ha. The wifi was incredible, we could plug in again, and we’d never seen such beautiful turquoise waters in all our lives. Yes, we could see why the American and European snowbirds flock to the Playa del Carmen and Cancun area in the winter. It really did look like a scene out of a travel brochure. We stayed for an entire week, making sure we finished editing another YouTube video. But it wasn’t all hibernation in our Silverskin (yes the air con was running on high), we enjoyed many days at the beach and hung out with @Dickerbrummer, a family from Germany, who we also happened to bump into a few days prior, in Valladolid.
The travelling world is a very small one and what we love most about it, is those people we ‘meat’!
Thanks for reading and we’ll ‘meat’ you guys around the world!
