the wooden house on Isla Holbox

After spending the morning running around the magical garden at Mi Casa es Su Casa and reorganising the UNO cards so that Zoe and Mimi would have all the best cards in the pack, while i blogged and Ati napped, we finally set off. The girls we so excited - giggling, tickling, teasing each other in the back of the car. There was a lot of poo talk... and while their playing was mostly harmless, the lack of humour in their "humour" was offending Mr Sabbag. Trying to direct their attention to the magnificent scenery, i launched a game of "I spy". The obvious first choice was, "I spy with my little eye something that is green"... "trees". The road was lined with lush forest of millions of varieties of trees, the odd garbage burning sites. We passed through a few random villages, with a handful of colourful houses, shops (many abandoned).. the kind of villages you wonder what goes on there or how it got there. We asked the girls if they would want to live here... mimi gave a definitive "yes", based on her desire to be in a hot place year round... i guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. Her dad would drop everything for a chance to be by the sea and swim every morning for the rest of his life...

We arrived in Chiquila where we would leave the car. We greeted by parking attendants waving flags to attract passing tourists. We drove past them and straight to the port found the parking unattended so returned to the lady with the orange flag. Squeezed ourselves gracefully into a spot so tiny, one more piece of papaya and I would not have fit out of the car. The dutch boys before us struggled until Alex offered them my services. They didn't take them up, but invited the parking warden to do it for them. We collected our things and trecked to the ferry terminal. Alex got us tickets and then we raced to the boat. Got on with one minute to spare. As the boat left the port we were asked to sit down. Zoe asked, "why is it going so slowly?"
It was nearing 15h and we had been up since 3:30am and had breakie at 8:30... the girls were clearly famished. I pulled out the crackers and we had a feast. rThe wind pick up and Zoe's pulled a marelyn, so i said, "I see england I see france i see zoe's underpants" We made up several versions to pass the time - I see england i see a vipper, i see baby ati's diapper" I see england I see hong kong, I see mama's thong and for the finale, I see england I see a rocker, i see papa's boxers!!"

On arrival we noted the lush mangroves, abandoned boats washed up inside, one larger boat the must have beach 10 years ago and now was the home to a large family of birds. The water was still a mirky green, i.e. not the tropical Caribean clear waters we were expecting. We disembarked and decided to find a place to eat before going to our secluded house by the beach. We lugged our two suit cases, bags, baby bed, and hand luggage, with ati in the pram and the other girls marching along side. This island without cars was now overrun with heavy duty golf carts and all terrain vehicles. We walked straight by the taxi stand, and they muttered under their breath something in spanish which i took to mean, "all these taxis and the tourists choose to walk with their luggage..." I felt kinda bad but didn't expect to be going far. We walked about 800m in total I expect. Almost gave up at one point as we had to jump on and off the tiny sidewalk to avoid massive puddles from the rain that had come down almost a week before leaving massive puddles (read lakes) everywhere. After a bit of encouragement from the tourist information desk we made it the last 200m to Rosa (something). This wooden restaurant was part of a complex of restaurants, shops and rooms. We sat at a table by the road and watched the people go by. We were quick to order some breaded shrimp on a bed of coconut rice, some of the most amazing guacamole and home made nachos, spicy octopus, and margaritas for the kids and lemonade for the adults. We gobbled up our lunch and then the girls spotted some swings in the restaurant around a counter. This seems to be a trend in Holbox where rather than seats they put swings or hammocks. The kids swung which alex sorted out the bill and I tried to score a taxi. After asking a lady in a yellow golf cart if she was a taxi, we walked the extra 100m to find a taxi. Our home was not known to all, but someone seemed to know the way. We piled our luggage in and the kids and me faced backwards as we meandered through the roads, avoiding puddles where possible, and gliding through puddles where avoiding them was not an option. We drove for what felt longer than the 20min walk the host had mentioned... arrived at a house and the taxi said convincingly we were in the right place. We hesitated, but unloaded and made our way to the door. As we walked to the door we noticed a pair of running shoes and no code on the door. We were clearly not in the right place... in the head of the day, no GPS, no phone network, no taxi, no water and no idea where we were... we didn't panic but rather had a good laugh. Alex set off to explore the surroundings, while I stayed with our stuff. A kind lady peared her head out to ask what we were doing... when I explained she said she had not phone battery and could not help, but we were welcome to hang on the terrasse till we found out way. It wasn't long until alex found our place... just on the other side of this massive puddle. We removed our shoes and shuttled ourselves across one by one, bag by bag... made it to the house with about 100 mosquito bite between us. Pulled out the spray and began to settle in.
Our wooden house was made with love and totally suitable for us... it was just a 20 min walk from the center, and just 10 min from the beach. We opened the fridge hoping to find water after this excursion and... nada! (just ground coffee and sweet and low!!). We still had a micro bottle of water from the plane that we shared between us. We got our swim stuff on and went for a dip.

On the way to the beach we saw two huge lizards, and many houses under construction. Our beach was lined with mangroves and still didn't have the caribean blue colour we were expecting, but it had a feel of something that was about to happen. The kids were over the moon... ran in splashing and frolicking with glee! I carried baby ati and we got our feet wet. We made our way pack to the point where people were collecting for the sun set. Our beach was known for its sunsets. We thought about staying, the girls set up their towels for a lay down. Before the sun was down we realised that if we were gonna walk to town for dinner with the kids for dinner. So we packed up our stuff walled home, got our pyjamas on, sprayed up and headed to town.
We didn't really know where we were going but Alex was quite confident it was straight. We started the walk barefoot so we could get through the massive puddle and the girls skipped gleefully down the dandy roads, following and enjoying the adventure. We laughed a lot as we searched for the best path not to step in the squishy and wet parts.
We arrived in town and tried two restaurants recommeded on trip adviser, but they were closed. The kids were starting to express clear signs of fatigue. We went into the next restaurant that looked inviting. We up stairs..and the girls flopped over o to the table. They were asleep almost before we had chance to order. When the lemonade arrived we invited them to drink, held the strap their lips...but the were no vital signs!

I ran off to get the breakfast supplies while our food was being prepared. I got back to find kids more asleep then ever. Alex and I enyed chocolate chicken, shrimp taco, and the breaded shrimp we got for the girls and a couple of beers.
We got our share of sympathetic looks, and offers to help. When we finished our delicious meal, I ran down to get a taxiRead more