Baking in Bacalar

Our romantic escapade in Belize has come to an end. We return to business as usual with a horrendous border crossing into Mexico. Our transport is over an hour late, it’s a cramped collectivo rather than a coach, we have to pay $20 each to leave Belize (expected but still) and to add insult to injury we’re strong armed into paying $45 each(!) to “enter” Mexico. For some reason we need to pay the exit tax as we enter the country, even though we’ve already paid it via our airline to leave Cancun, apparently we can claim it back from the airline, yeah right. We were warned about this somewhat scammy procedure by a couple of Brits in Lanquin but were later reassured by our transit company we would not have to pay it. They were wrong, every gringo in the queue gets pissed off and tries to argue their case to no avail. After this debacle, the military guys responsible for scanning our bags make us wait until everyone is through before getting off their arses to do their only job… Not a great welcome to a new country! Things do get better once we eventually arrive in Chetumal, albeit a few hours later than planned, as we’re greeted with a free beer. Now that’s a proper welcome.

Despite the rough journey, Alex still befriended a new creature:

We swap buses and continue the last short leg of the journey to Bacalar. We’re dropped on the main plaza and it’s rather pretty with lanterns and fairy lights adorning the trees and restaurants. On our way from Belize we got chatting to a girl from Sunderland called Ashley, which we later learn likes to be known as a Mackem, NOT a Jordie. She’s been travelling for a few months like us and we reminisce about how amazing the Patagonia Brewery was in Bariloche and many other locations we’ve both been to. We part ways as she goes to immediately book onto a boat tour for tomorrow. We’ve decided against this as we’ve got an extra night here and it’s forecast to be 38°c tomorrow. Having read you’re not allowed to wear sunscreen while on the lagoon we decide to wait until the day after where it will be much cooler. We check into our Airbnb and head straight out for some grub. Our last meal was eight hours ago in Belize City. We find a nice pizza joint and make the smart decision to get it to takeaway and enjoy it in our lovely and peaceful Airbnb.

Lost Lalo

Like most first days in a new country, today is mostly getting our bearings and a few admin bits and bobs. Before all of that we pop down to have a look at the lagoon. Most areas of this stunning piece of nature have been commercialised and consumed by the tourism machine and so require payment to enter. There is one last bastion of public space at the Balneario Municipal El Aserradero. We pop down to take a look and enjoy a few moments watching locals splashing around in the surprisingly choppy waters. We vow to return later with our swimming gear ready.

Returning to the main plaza we book onto a boat tour for tomorrow. We haggle down a small discount on one of the sailboat tours. The sailboat option will be a slower, smoother ride and better for maintaining the lagoons beauty compared to the motorised options. We head to the nearby ATM and see Ashley waiting for her tour to start, we have a quick chat and agree to meet her later on by the lagoon. We’ve not timed this well as the cash machines are being topped up and there are several security officers with multiple guns each so we won’t be going anywhere near them. We pivot to another option nearby, here after queuing for a while, the girl infront of us has her card swallowed by the machine… We decide not to risk it.

Retracing our steps we notice a large dog that was sat in the ATM booth has started following us around. We think it’s a coincidence at first but he follows us across the road and waits for us when we stop. He’s a little on the skinny side but he’s a handsome, friendly dog with a collar suggesting his name is Lalo. He tracks us all the way back to where we saw Ashley and embarrassingly barks at a local man in the queue. “He’s not our dog, sorry” we plead while it growls at the innocent looking chap. “He’s protecting you from something!” One of the local policewomen quips. Not quite sure what to do with him, we go back to our Airbnb and give him a bowl of water which he inhales without pause. We give him a bit more and although we feel terribly sorry for him we can’t let him follow us around all day. We make our way to the supermarket and attempt to keep a few aggressive street dogs away from him. We saw a proper dogfight in the street earlier on and it wasn’t pretty. We don’t want that to happen to our new best friend. We reach the supermarket and of course he follows us in. After a few minutes an attendant comes and chases him out, Lalo gives us the puppy dog eyes but there’s nothing we can or should do. We buy our items and heart-breakingly have to ignore him as he sits and waits for us a few meters down the street. (Don’t worry, this story has a slightly happier ending later on).

Mr Taco

Later that evening we head back to the jetty we were at this morning. It’s busier now but we find a spot and soon see Ashley and a new friend come to join us. Ashley has met Nicholas on her boat trip and despite his heavy French accent he is in fact from Canada. We sit and chat for a while before we try our first dip in the lagoon. It’s cooler than we imagined and the waves give us an unexpected slap in the face on more than one occasion.

For our evening meal we go to check out the famous ‘Mr Taco’ we’ve heard so much about from blogs and other travellers. It does not disappoint, with a huge selection of fillings for your taco, quesadilla or burrito. We opt to share three quesadillas and a burrito all with different fillings. A live band plays music in the background and it’s a really nice atmosphere. We’re joined for dinner by Ashley, Nicholas and another person from our minivan yesterday, Misse from Sweden. It’s nice to have dinner with fellow travellers, something we always intended to do but for one reason or another hasn’t happened as often as we thought. At dinner we mention Lalo and Ashley says he also followed her around for a while today. Clearly he is a fan of tall blonde gringos! We actually saw him on the way into Mr Taco’s waiting for his next temporary friend. We wish him all the best.

It’s gonna rain all day

We’re up early at 7am to have brekkie and make it to our boat tour starting point for 9am. Hmm. What’s that sound? Bugger, it’s raining. Not only that but those heavy dark grey clouds don’t look like they’re going anywhere and the forecast suggests it will stay like this for the whole day. We’ve been super lucky with the weather throughout our trip so far, so we figure it’s about time that balanced out. “Why don’t you see if they’ll let us switch it to tomorrow?” I desperately ask Alex, doubting we’ll get much response at all at this time on a Sunday morning. “Yep that’s fine, see you tomorrow 🫡” Gaby the tour organiser replies. Wow, result.

The rest of the day is spent writing blogs, watching football, washing clothes, calling home, relaxing, cooking and more food shopping. I even start to plan the Asia leg of our trip with my newfound spare time, we’ll be in the Philippines in just over three weeks. Yikes.

Breakfast beers

We repeat the same process as yesterday morning except this time the clouds have disappeared and the weather is back to normal by Bacalar standards. We leave our bags at the Airbnb and make tracks North of town to start our tour. We’re delighted to see we’ve got a sturdy looking catamaran and the lagoon is much calmer than the rough waves from the other day. We meet our shipmates (all seven of them are French) and our captains Alex and Mario. We set sail for the ‘Laguna de los siete colores’ / The lake of seven colours. The water turns from a deep navy blue to a clear turquoise.

Sailing along past the San Felipe fort we walked past a few times, Mario explains it was built by the Spanish to protect the area from pirates! The Spaniards used to export Palo de tinte (logwood in English) it fetched a high price back home as it was used by the monarchy and other wealthy customers.

The area here is known as the Mayan Gate as it’s where the Mayan communities would come to trade with the Carribbean traders. The Mayans built canals to reach this area using rudimentary tools like sticks and logs then used the power of water currents to finish the job naturally.

A final interesting point here is the long reed-like grass which was named the door to paradise and is how the area became known as Bacalar.

Our first stop is to visit the cenote negro / black sinkhole. Here the water depth immediately drops from 1 meter to a staggering 180 meters in the blink of an eye. What could cause such a dramatic geographic phenomenon? A meteorite of course.

Notice the change in water colour where the sinkhole begins:

Soon after passing over the sinkhole, too dangerous to swim in because of strong currents, we stop in a much shallower area and are ready for our first swim. The water is both a little bit deeper and a little big warmer than we were expecting it to be.

After climbing back onto the boat we’re offered our first beers of the day at 10.30 in the morning. Why not.

As we’re drying off in the sun, enjoying our beers, we pass Bird Island. This cluster of mangrove trees was formed when a hurricane ripped them up from the edge of the lagoon and dumped them here in shallow waters. Since then they have thrived and provided an ideal home to many a species of bird including the stork or “the one that delivers babies” as Mario puts it forgetting the English name.

The next stop is by the Pirates Canal, not hard to work out why it got it’s name, a short and narrow canal perfect for a quick getaway or ambush.

On our way back to where we started, the crew desperately try to use the sails to guide us home. After several attempts zig-zagging across the lagoon against the strong wind, we’re not makin much progress and they resort to using the motor. Sorry Pachamama but we’ve got a bus to catch.

It’s a bit of a safari on our quick march back to our Airbnb as I nearly step on a bright green leaf sprawled across the road ait, on closer inspection that ain’t no leaf 🐍

A chunky Iguana:

and son:

We make it in plenty of time for our bus. Especially as we’re told it’s an hour late, ah Latin American transport eh. Still, it gives us time to get some chicken, potatoes and tortillas from across the road which we eat with great difficulty and improvisation on our knees in the bus stop #BackpackerLife

As we wait outside for the bus to let us on I notice my arms are lobster red… Whatever good the lack of suncream does for the lake, it certainly does no good for me.

---

Adventure – Sailing around on the beautiful lagoon. Getting through Mexican immigration.

Excitement – Mr Taco’s. Making a new four legged friend. Free beer on arrival. Discussing our dream ceremony. Waking up to clear skies and still waters to sail on.

Trauma – Endless mosquito bites. Border crossing.