“Ándale, ándale!” says Speedy Gonzales with gusto. “Arriba, arriba!”. So far, we’ve found that Mexicans are lovely people but aren’t all quite as ‘speedy’ as the iconic mouse might imply. After three years in Latin America we’re used to the mañana approach. But even by the standards of the region, things are slooow here. We’re in Yucatan, in limbo. How so? Read on…

In Limbo Yucatan

No, limbo isn’t a little-heard-of village on the outskirts of Cancún. It’s the situation in which we find ourselves, whilst earnestly pursuing a new windscreen here. Back in Belize ours suffered a bad crack and we were assured that Mexico would be the place to find a new one. But after three weeks of enquiries with several major windscreen chains, we’re still no nearer to receiving a quote. We haven’t even established categorically whether any of them can actually procure one for us at all. We have, with some degree of certainty, established that no such thing exists within Mexico. Whether or not they can import one for us, remains on the ‘mañana schedule’.

The heat and humid here in the Yucatan rainy/hurricane season means we would ordinarily have moved on up to the high ground with some haste. But the cities of Cancún and Mérida seem to be our best chances in southern Mexico for sourcing a windscreen. So we’re waiting… and waiting… in limbo, in Yucatan. One of the charms of overlanding… it could be much worse! The good news is, there’s lots to do in the area and it’s not a bad place, if you get away from the touristy areas.

Bordering on the Walmart

First, let’s step back to our arrival in Mexico. The border crossing was by far the most hi-tech crossing we have done in Cuthbert. Ever. Through Europe, Africa and the whole of South and Central America… nowhere have we had scanners so powerful that all occupants have to get out of the vehicle and stand behind a two-foot thick concrete wall for protection whilst the geekiness does its thing. It’s all fair-do’s. Not unreasonable for them to check, and we’ve nothing to hide, so it all goes smoothly in the end. Cuthbert is entitled to a 10-year temporary import permit into Mexico – until October 2028!! Don’t think we’ll be staying quite that long 😊

We’re excited to enter Mexico. We’ve been looking forward to some authentic Mexican food and a peaceful ocean-side camp-spot. But we’re also tired after the drive and the border crossing. It’s getting dark, we need some Pesos, we need fuel, we need food and we need a SIM card. We spot a Walmart – legendary in North America for allowing campers to park-up for free overnight.

Looking into the precinct we see it has a cash-point, it has a TelCel counter (for a data-SIM), it has cold beers in the fridges, it has a ready-roasted chicken in the deli-counter, and it has a fuel station nearby. It’s kills all our proverbial birds with one stone. Practicalities win the day and we reluctantly acquiesce to spending our first night in Mexico in a Walmart carpark. ‘Real’ Mexico can wait.

On the edge of Mitch

The far south-east corner of Mexico is the State of Quintana Roo on the Yucatan Peninsula. There’s a nice beachy coastline and some beautiful lagoons. Our trusty inflatable kayak, Mr Boaty McBoatface gets put to good use in the first few days, then the weather turns stormy. A check of the US NHC site reveals that we’re sitting on the southern edge of Hurricane Mitch. It has hit land just to the north of us and is hovering around the area. We’re far enough away not to bear the brunt of its force, but as we sit in its periphery for a few days, the weather is not Boaty-friendly ☹. The only thing the weather is good for is sitting in Cuthbert and watching DVDs!

When Mitch has moved on, so do we. We see Laguna Bacalar, the coast around Mahahual, then move on north towards our first Mayan ruins of Mexico: Tulum. Here begins ‘tourist land’ in earnest. Cancún and the north-east corner of the Yucatan Peninsula is one of the world’s biggest tourism hot-spots. The densely hoteled coastline isn’t really our thing, but we have to admit it’s popular for a good reason: there’s so much to see and do here.

One thing very noticeable on the Yucatan coast is the red-tide that we mentioned back in our Belize Blog. They’re doing their best to clear it up for tourists, but it keeps on a-comin’.

Cenotes

Factoid of the Day: Did you know that the Yucatan Peninsula is riddled with a network of deep underground channels and caves? (top marks if you did – your prize is in the post 😉). Most of them are flooded with crystal-clear fresh spring-water. On the surface above the caves, natural holes known as Cenotes have eroded so that the underground lakes and sink-holes are often easily accessible. Any land-owner who has lucked-in by finding a Cenote on his plot, is now charging a modest sum for visitors to descend and swim in these fabulous underground lagoons. The larger ones attract coach-loads of tourists from Cancún, but there are trillions (well… almost) of smaller, less visited Cenotes sign-posted down dirt-tracks, where you can be totally alone and contribute to the micro-tourism economy of Farmer Juan.

Each Cenote is unique, varying hugely in size and shape and they are gob-smackingly beautiful. Some are cathedral-like caverns with stalactites dangling over aquamarine pools. Others are smaller, with roots dangling down through the ceiling from trees on the earth above. Some are left in their totally natural condition; others have been developed with artificial lighting to illuminate the water and the cave-walls. The very low light makes the caves difficult to photograph and it’s deeply frustrating trying to capture the exquisite beauty of these places with mere ordinary cameras.

Some cenotes are extremely deep and Marcus booked with a local SCUBA operator to do some deep-cave dives, going down to over 41m. He’s a Dive Master with 220 dives in his log book, but these were the deepest he’s ever done. Here’s a little vid-clip:

Meanwhile, back in sanity-land, I took a tame snorkel tour through an underwater field of stalagmites. These were formed many thousands of years ago, before the water flooded the channels that we can snorkel through today. It’s fascinating stuff, but even if you’re not after an underwater kind of adventure, a swim in a few of the Yucatans stunning Cenotes really is a highlight of travel here.

The Croc Frustration

One of the nicest spots we’ve found so far to escape the Cancún tourist crowds, is up on the north coast. We’re always on the hunt for good spots to deploy Boaty McBoatface and the lagoons around Rio Lagartos looked pretty good on the map. But there was a niggling doubt in the back of my mind… the name of the town. I understand ‘Lagarto’ in European Spanish to usually mean ‘lizard’. But I’d heard it used in Latin America to mean ‘alligator’. A river of alligators might not be the best place for our inflatable Mr Boaty. Hmmmm…

We headed up there and found a very beautiful area with a stunning red lagoon near the tiny fishing village of Las Coloradas. However, my fears about the ‘gators turned out to be well founded. There were indeed alligators. Plenty alligators. Even just parked up by the lagoon shore for the night, we saw several swimming around us some 2-3 metres long. The locals said the largest are around 5-6 metres long. Call us old scaredy-cats, but majestic as these creatures are, we prefer not to be paddling an inflatable kayak through their ‘manor’. It’s frustrating as it otherwise looks like a perfect Boaty spot, but today Boaty stays well and truly packed-up in his case on Cuthbert’s roof.

Soon looms the famous Mexican Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) and we’re looking forward to seeing the celebrations in Mérida. But in the meantime… we’re still in limbo. Tune in again soon to see if that windscreen ever materialises 😊