Yucatan peninsula - part 2

Dec 14

Howling monkeys screams woke us up in the middle of the night. They were protecting their territory. We felt they were just right around our tent. Quite spooky! And tough to get up early then! It's still dark outside when we start driving deeper into the jungle, hoping to see some wildlife on the way, and so that we escape the stuffy heat when we hike around the Calakmul Mayan ruins. Soon enough the light comes in. It's a 1&1/2 hour drive to the ruins site. 

It is a long way to see stones in the middle of the jungle but I'm hoping to also find big trees and with extra luck some wildlife.

On the way we see some wild turkeys and other same sized birds. It looks like they congregate by the road, maybe they feel a little protected from the big wild cats around?!

Calakmul, one of the most remote Mayan ruins accessible by car. We're approximately 30km from Guatemala, as the crow flies.

The jungle could easily take over these ruins if we didn't care for them. It's very unique with trees and dense vegetation growing over and around. And it extends on a vast territory. We'll be hiking for 3 hours from pyramid temples to ball courts to aristocratic palaces.

There are some big majestic trees, but they are a minority.

We climb every accessible pyramid (steep and grueling) and manage to hike the longest loop (even though it was marked as closed!). 

We hear again the screams of "Howling Monkeys" nearby. Cherry on the cake, Muriel spots a few "Spider Monkeys" on our way out.

This isn't our picture. We don't have a zoom camera, but this is very close to what we saw up in the trees, these monkeys use their tail as a 5th leg/arm!

Overall I'm a little disappointed by the "jungle", the trees aren't as big as I was hoping. On our way back we stop for lunch at Campamento Yaax'che's restaurant where we end up having a very interesting discussion with the maya lady managing this place. Look at the size of the tabletop on the right, it's a huge trunk tree slice with a 5-6ft diameter.  That's also the size of the trees that were here before. 

They're mostly gone now. Europeans, Asians, you name it ... lumberjacks have come here and still come to clearcut big chunks of the forest. That's why the forest is currently made of small trees. 

Dec 15

We have switched from jungle to Caribbean waters.

We are in Bacalar lagoon. We enjoy the day exploring a few spots with turquoise water and amazing stromatolites formations.

And we find lodging in a pretty  fancy resort: Ecotucan cabins.

We meet two french families both traveling for a year with young children and an Italian that has been traveling for the past 4 years in the Americas.

Dec 16

From Bacalar we drive to Mahahual.

It's pinnaple season!

After all these days we finally get to the Caribbean sea. It was about time! We quickly avoid the main town area where 2 to 4 gigantic cruise ships are regularly docked and is invaded by many tourists.

We're pretty happy to have found this hotel just far enough from town but still with some beach restaurants nearby.

It's a bit windy though; I wonder if snorkeling will be any good. I go for a swim with my goggles and manage to see a few fishes but nothing special.

Dec 17

After a little hike along the beach I ask the local diving shop if there's anything worth going on.

There is. I end up renting snorkeling gear and spending one hour in the water; it's amazing! I had to swim a little further following the diver's advice and there I found the reef with many fishes.

I saw most of the fish in this poster. No turtles though but a moray eel! That kind of impressed me. The biggest fish was an Ocean Triggerfish. A ray. Squids. You have to be patient and keep looking around and they'll show up!

A little lunch break and time to go back again!

In the evening we enjoy the warmth and the colors.

Dec 18

We're flying back to Connecticut soon but we're finishing our trip with some amazing stuff.

Playa Paraíso in Tulum. It's busy tourist land here. We hike the whole length of the beach and go for a swim to cool down.

Post card stuff.

But our best find is the little lodge 15 km away from the crowds of Tulum: Casa Mango .

That makes a very happy Muriel 😉

Dec 19

For our last day we want to try to find a less busy beach so we drive south of Tulum, we actually enter "Reserva de la Biósfera Sian Ka'an" and the road is the worse we have ever driven during this trip. I have to be careful not to scratch the bottom of our car! Really huge and steep potholes we call canyons.

But it's worth it.

Not only we get to this lagoon but the beach on the other side is not crowded.

And there's a restaurant / camping with a view!

A little sad note about this magic place: the sand is filled with tiny tiny little pieces of plastic. The most visited beaches are somewhat cleaned but as soon as your start walking away this is what you find:

In just a few seconds I gather this much. In the water I also had a big piece of plastic tangled around my legs; and I saw other people having the same issue. We live in a plastic world! And it seeps everywhere; our civilisation pollution is pervasive, even reaching paradise!

We make it back to our gorgeous cabin surrounded by amazing foliage for our last night. The temperature never drops below 22 Celcius in Yucatan. We've seldom felt that comfortable anywhere else in the world. It feels like our body, short of exercising in the sun, is never tasked with much temperature management work.

Dec 20

That's it! Time we drive back to Cancun airport.

The fancy, heavily fenced resort concentration increases as we approach. COVID test done we return the rental car and embark to Hartford via Philadelphia.

We deliberately ignored Cancun and the associated gringo Riviera around, which we'll only see when we briefly overfly it. No regrets! We experienced this amazing peninsula at its best during our road trip. Of course speaking Spanish helped tremendously. Bye bye Yucatan! We'll come back...