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Tulum and Cenote Dive

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This our last day in Mexico and we haven’t been on one dive so we decided to do a cave dive into the Dos Ojos Cenote outside of Tulum.  This little fellow was in the parking lot watching the happenings. The water in the cenote is crystal clear. The light streams down through the holes in the ceilings with stalactites and beautiful rock formations. This is the mouth of the cave and we were scheduled to do 3 dives, one into the Barbie cave and the next into the Bat cave. This cave system is enormous and continued for a hundred miles underground. The Barbie cave is so called because there is a toy crocodile at the half way point with a barbie in its jaws.  It was my favorite because we were there early and nobody else was there. The dive circled around the cenote and you could always see a little blue light from the outside shining.  The bat cave dive went into total obscurity and our flashlights were the only light around. Sometimes a tiny fish would pass in front of the fl...
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Mahahual

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We have come to Mahahual for the Easter weekend because it is a quiet place but on arrival in the town which is tiny there were hundreds of cruise ship people crowding the streets.  I believe it was a  small fishing village before the cruises started coming here.  It is now a zoo when the cruises are here and a ghost town when they are not.  Totally geared towards the massive tourist industry.  Massages on the beach and kitschy shops on the one boardwalk, hundreds of taxis trying to pick up and drop off at the boat or at the town. In the distance here at Mahahual you can see the cruise boat docked at Costa Mayan.  Below the circus on the beach.  I think it appeals to some but not us.  We went 20 kilometers up the coast to a little hotel with cabanas on the sea where we are isolated but it is calm. This below is where we are and the snorkling demands swimming out a bit to the reef but we have seen lots of fish, a torpedo ray and a moray eel.  ...
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Bacalar

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Our guide Andreas, day tour Bacalar Bacalar is a fresh water lagoon just north of Chetumal.  The waters colors range from emerald to turquoise. It is formed by 4 cenote and it is a special biosphere because the bottom of the lake is basically a desert.  No grasses or weeds apparent because the water is so high in mineral salts (but it is not very salty).  It has one passage called Pirates pass that leads to the Carribean.  Pirates would come to hide out here or later to cut the wood from its shores. Now it is a playground for the tourists that don't like the sea or sargasso grasses that clog up the beaches in the late spring on the Carribean side.  Sailing is a common sport here but there was no wind on the day we went.  Storks and spoonbills nest here on the mangrove islands. The emerald cenote, Esmerelda. Here are some views of our place just north of Bacalar.  Our taxi driver didn't want to take us all the way to the villa because the road was so ba...
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Going batty

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This evening we went to a cave called volcano de Murcilagos which is a sort of cenote that housed millions of bats.  At 30 minutes before sundown they all fly into a batnado at the entry of the cave and fly off to eat mosquitos and pollinate plants.  There are 7 differnt bats here and all of them are important.  The sonar signals were binging. You can’t really photograph them and they don't make much noise but it was very impressive.  The birds of prey accumulate at the mouth of the cave cawing and screeching before the bait ball appears and we could see a few of them catching a bat in their becks.  They all come back in the morning to nest again in the cave.  We had to wear masks because the guano of bats can be toxic. Well we have been in Mexico for a few weeks now and this post will go into all the ways Mexico has tried our patience.  Above you can see a cabana that we stayed in at Ypijil in Campeche.  You will note there is no car in sight. We...
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Xpujil

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Our plan was to head from Mexico City to the coast of Yucatan.  It is a lot of bus hours on rocky roads and from Palenque we had a 6 hour ride to Xpujil which is halfway to the coast and has some nice biosphere parks and mayan ruins.  We had reserved a room in a nice place, it was a cabana with all amenities.  But the problem was we were arriving late at night, 11:30 so the hotel gave us instructions on how to get there.  Well on arrival at the bus station it was a crazy mess of people leaving for the vacations of the "Semana Sainte"  and it was festive.  I couldn't roll my suitcase because of the beer cans on the ground.  We didn't see a taxi anywhere until we went down the street and found a taxi stand.  It worked well and Yves was able to flag down a taxi.  But when we arrived at the location the instructions the hotel gave were not correct and we couldn't find our cabana.  We were at wits end so decided to try to find another hotel r...
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Jungle friends

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 We had some time before catching the bus from Palenque to Xpujil on the border of Campeche and Quintana Roo.  We went to a park that had many jungle animals.  Here below a Croc is smiling. A can do Toucan. Jaguar, a magical animal.  Most animals in the reliefs of Mayan mythology are jaguars or snakes. These chairs are very common in Mexico and comfortable! A peccari in his bath. The monkeys are always fun to watch they are up to some crazy antics.  I can't believe how the tail is like a 5th arm.  It can grab limbs with it. Tortoises, flaminos and the jungle canopy.  Sorry I couldn't add the Howler monkeys crazy concert.
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