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Published: November 22nd 2019
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I loved all the places we had visited so far on our trip...Isla Mujeres, Merida, Valladolid, Tulum (a bit less so though the ocean and beach were stunning and I particularly loved Punta Allen and the lobster evening with all our friends) but I was most excited by our next stop... Bacalar. The lake of the 7 colours that Maria had so highly recommend and spoken so dearly of. My plan all along was to spend a minimum of a week here doing absolutely nothing but doing nothing with Marco can be a challenge as he loves exploring and being active 😉 so we settled on 3 nights 4 days and were also joined by Michelle and Enrico. We rented a house on the lake that had a huge terrace with swings and a barbecue as well as its own pontoon / pier down into the lake. The house was a bit rundown and smelly but we were in good company and the scenery was breath taking. Plus, Bacalar has become mega expensive in recent months (probably all those people from Tulum slowly migrating down the riviera) but we had been really lucky to find a private house with a private
jetty into the water. The house even came with its own guard dog called Campeon (Champion). He really was a little Champ! He lived outside on the grounds and was so friendly and cute that we couldn’t stop cuddling him and would have liked to bring him back with us. Campeon was popular with the ladies too - he loved me and Michelle but his biggest love was his doggy girlfriend who came to visit him each day. They would fool around kissing each other and playing. What a nice life for Campeon and his girlfriend.
Back to the lake...I have never seen such a stunningly beautiful lake. We don’t know how it came about but what we know is that there is nowhere else like it. It looks like the calmest of Caribbean waters; crystal clear with 7 echoes and shades of blue and green, and a white bed of both sand and stone. There are barely any fish or marine life which makes me wonder how it stays clean and non-contaminated. No crocodiles here either; just lots of birds chirping up above in the trees. Essentially there’s nothing to do in Bacalar other than chill
out like you’ve never chilled before so we did just that.
Instead of our morning runs, we had morning swims followed by a couple of hours kayaking. It wasn’t exactly hard as the water is so flat, but still we worked our arms and there was something especially liberating about being able to kayak far out feeling totally safe that no current would suddenly sweep you away into the wrong direction.
It’s somewhere Maria wanted to organise a yoga retreat and while kayaking we saw a suspended wooden yoga platform up above. I tried to find out what the place was called but I think it was 3 separate plots of land. It has definitely piqued my interest as a place to hold a yoga retreat and I hope to organise one soon with Maria.
Other than chilling and the Chinchorro biosphere, Michelle and I also went to the market in search of fresh fish. Strangely it was hard to find. We found a stand full of flies that were selling fish from 3 days ago from Campeche which is a state that’s actually pretty far away. Luckily as Michelle is
Mexican, we asked around until we were told where to go: El Guero fish market where we bought 2 massive fish and probably way too many XL prawns for 4 people. We wrapped the fish in a big leaf that the fishermen gave us and put it on the bbq. Our final meal in Bacalar was very rich and delicious. Marco also made linguine with prawns, Michelle made guacamole the real way and Enrico barbecued the fish. I ate! And helped a little 😉 It was the final evening with our friends after just over a week travelling together. They were going off to Xolbox for a week together and we were leaving this paradise for another state Chiapas that I had yet to visit. I felt a little sad at the end as I don’t like goodbyes or endings and Bacalar had enchanted me so much that I wasn’t quite ready to leave. But a different adventure awaited us and so at 8pm we boarded the overnight bus to Palenque in Chiapas where we were scheduled to arrive at 4am...
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