Satellite
  • Day 182

    Isla Holbox

    November 4, 2015 in Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    We said goodbye to Dona and went to the bakery - everything at this one was about 6P (compared to 35P at the other one) so we stocked up! Then we got the 8:10am bus (ADO; 272P) to Chiquila, which took 3.5 hours. It dropped us off right at the dock and we all jumped on the ferry (100P), which left shortly after. Twenty minutes later we were at our destination: Isla Holbox (pronounced holbosh), which is north of Cancun, in the Gulf of Mexico.

    I think the bus journey is a new route; Holbox used to be more of a mission to get to, which means it's still very underdeveloped. The island is 40 by 2km and only a small part is inhabited. There are no big hotels and no cars on the sandy streets, just golf carts. From mid July to mid Sept they have whale sharks...and according to a diver on Roatan, there are tons of them, it's guaranteed to see them during this time so we'll definitely be back to do this!!

    We got a taxi (a pimped up golf cart) for the short journey to our hotel as it was so hot (30P). The roads are full of huge puddles / lakes as there's been a storm recently. We checked into Casa Del Viento (750P) which took a while as the wifi was down so the lady wasn't quite sure where to put us. She ended up putting us in a superior room which is huge and beautiful with a hammock inside!!

    We went for a wander to wake Anna up with a huge iced coffee at Colibri (30P), got me some ice cream at Porque no? (Why not?; 20P per scoop; average taste) and then some cheetos for a bargain 5P per bag and some stale pretzel m&ms.

    Anna swung in the hammock whilst I went to read on the beach just down the road from our hotel. It is beautiful and seems to be unaffected by the seaweed plague. Anna came to join me once it had started to cool down and then we went for a sunset walk. We stopped to chat to a tour guy and as soon as the sun was gone the mozzies came out in force and we ran back to the hotel - they must be loving the stagnant puddle water!

    I had a lovely long hot shower (only cold at last place) in the huge shower and then we went out searching for dinner. Dona and the secretary had recommended a place but it was closed today. Most of the other places seemed overpriced and touristy. We ended up at Taco Queto, a fast food type Mexican eatery, full of locals. I had a mushroom quesadilla which was lovely but small so had a second. Anna ordered the big nachos and had a huge dish with half a pig on top! (165P). We grabbed some dark choc m&ms (also out of date!) and a beer and retreated for an early night.

    I had just started to doze off when Anna’s screams woke me up...a flying ant had startled her! I got up to find a swarm of them by the door and bathroom. I tried to shoo them out with a towel but to no avail, then I tried to batter them with the towel but they are resilient little buggers. I decided the zapper bat was the most humane method and fried the poor things. The room then smelt of barbecued ants! We then spotted a firefly flashing green on the wall - we let him be as he was pretty and not trying to crawl on us.
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