Mexican Caribbean

Continuation from < Page 1 < !

A lot of the tourists here are day-trippers from cruise ships that dock at selected spots along the coast - many in Cancun. The day we left Xpu-Ha to travel further south, we visited the ruin site in Tulum and discovered almost more people than there was space for. The site is not that exciting, except for the fact that it overlooks the ocean, but it was interesting to see so many tourists in one place - and this is the off-season. Don't ask how Juergen managed to get a few photos without people in them...
Our next destination was Mahahual. From all reports it is a sleepy little village except when the cruise ships dock, and we should be able to find somewhere to stay along the beautiful beach. It is about 60 kilometres off the highway, but we decided to give it a go. The beach was not that beautiful - it has far too much seaweed to be inviting to swim. Evidently the main attraction is diving on the reef, but that wasn't what we were really looking for. We spent the night at the Cabañas Solymar, which also gets a good write-up in the 'bible' - and that is now also out of date. The place used to have cabañas and a restaurant, as well as places for RVs to park. We even considered renting a cabaña, if it was nice there. The owners were happy for us to be there and encouraged us to stay as long as we wanted to, but apologised that they couldn't provide us with bathrooms as they had rented all the accommodation to a group of 'English students' for a year. It turned out not to be a group of students but rather a volunteer programme run by Global Vision International, which is carrying out some kind of research programme on the reef. One of the group, who had arrived to get the place ready for the volunteers - they would arrive in a couple of weeks - came to speak to us. He was very polite but made it clear that they considered that they had rented the whole property and, although we were welcome to stay, we got the impression that the sooner we left, the happier he would be. I think they need to have another talk with the owners and clear up a few misconceptions on one side or the other. So that was also not our place to stay - just as well because, although it looks idyllic in the photos, the beach was covered in seaweed and washed up rubbish.
So further south and still looking. We were driving through quite heavy rain by now and started to realise that the rain season is upon us. First we checked out Bacalar which has a couple of places to stay near a cenote and a lagoon. Both looked deserted and uninviting, so we drove on to Chetumal. And there we found probably the most attractive campground that we have seen so far in Mexico. It is a grassy area with lots of coconut trees and right on the waterfront of Chetumal Bay. It was a little expensive, but there is a pool, WiFi and very nice bathrooms. It seemed to be a lovely place to stay until we were ready to leave for Belize.
Unfortunately, overnight it didn't prove to be. The first night we were woken at 5.00am by a group of people, who had set themselves up in a nearby palapa with alcohol and music from their car stereo. I got up and went and spoke to them as politely as possible - as a result they turned off the stereo, but stayed to enjoy their party. The next night it was just after 1.00am and this time it was a group of 3 in the restaurant, which was considerably closer than the palapa of the previous night. They sat down at a table and were chatting animatedly about 20 metres from our camper. First Juergen spoke to them and then I did and finally they left. When I spoke to the staff of the campground the next day I was informed that it was normal. The gate is closed overnight, but if people want to come in they pay and the gate is opened for them.
After that we decided that it was really getting to be time for us to leave. But we had to stay one more night in Mexico to finish emptying our fridge in preparation for crossing into Belize. We moved our camper right away from the restaurant into the farthest corner of the park in the hope that we would have a better night. It was Friday and they seemed to be setting up for a party, with a tent and extra tables and chairs. The party didn't eventuate but we had inadvertently moved ourself closer to the street and could hear a disco clearly until the early hours of the morning. Needless to say, we left the next morning (yesterday) rather tired, and crossed the border into Belize.
One thing really worth doing in Chetumal is to visit the Museum of Mayan Culture. They don't have a lot of original artefacts, but they have it set up with a lot of models of the archaeological sites and copies of artefacts that have been found there. They have a reproduction of one entire room of the murals we had seen at Bonampak, which we found particularly interesting. It is a really well presented history of the Mayan people and their civilisation.
I can't say I was sorry to leave Mexico - everything in the last couple of weeks seemed to point to it being time to move on. I loved Mexico until that time, but many things were starting to annoy me. The final straw is that I am fairly sure that a guy on the border ripped us off by saying we had to pay to leave Mexico. In the stress of a border crossing one doesn't always think clearly. The most important thing seems to be not to annoy anyone who looks or acts officially. Well, I paid him and I'm sure it went straight into his pocket. 'Gringo Tax' right until the end! But I will go back to Mexico in the future if the opportunity arises.

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