Advertisement
Published: September 24th 2011
Edit Blog Post
At the SER 2011 Conference in Merida, 20-23 August, I presented a poster on my honours work. Wow - what an inspiration to be around so many smart people working on environmental restoration projects! Over 1000 people attended – a community inspiring in itself - from Canada, the US, Central and South America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and of course Australia (it was great to hear about all the fantastic work being done at home and sit with the Perth crew at the gala dinner!). We both went to some great presentations and got chatting to some wonderful people. I left the last day feeling totally exhausted from taking it all in, but also motivated and reassured to keep doing what we’ve been doing (when we’re not travelling!).
We went on a post-conference tour to Celestun and the Rio Lagoon Biosphere Reserve surrounding the town. Once off the bus, we were onto a small motor boat up the ‘river’ for some birdwatching. I use the term ‘river’ loosely as technically the whole Yucatan Peninsula has no real rivers. Ages ago a meteor crashed into earth just off the coast of the Yucatan (the same meteor that took out the
dinosaurs). The impact caused the rock to kind of fracture (feel free to correct me on the details) and since then, the rivers have all run underground, scarce and only surfacing as ‘Cenotes’, fresh water lagoons in the limestone rock. Which is why the ancient Mayans had special beliefs and ritual revolving around these cenotes.
Back to the boat trip. About 15 minutes up the lagoon and we came to the nesting location of a bunch of Frigate Birds – huge and beautiful Further up we saw Pink Flamingos, the highlight of the trip! Such beautiful birds, wading through the shallows on long legs, a long neck, and a beak to reach into the water to grab larvae (which turn their feathers pink). After flamingos we went for a swim where a freshwater spring bubbles up from the ground in the middle of the salty mangroves. Awesome! After lunch, a swim at the stunning beach (luke-warm water) and a look at a mangrove restoration site, we headed back to Merida.
The next day we farewelled the beautiful city of Merida. The breakfast staff at the hostel – Hostal Zocalo - were fantastic ; making crepes and omelettes on
request and preparing huge platters of fresh tropical fruit, banana, red papaya, pineapple, melon. The people around town were so friendly – locals who spoke some English stopped to explain some of the local cuisine, give us their recommendations and even help to order. Sunday festivities in the main plaza, music, dancing, markets, food. The beautiful Mayan people with lovely faces, who returned a smile. The local cuisine – punochos, tomales, frejoles, enchiladas. Merida is a very raw city – I fell in love.
Tulum was our next stop. We treated ourselves to one night in an air conditioned room in a small hotel in town, where we promptly hired bicycles, rode to beach and went for a swim. The beach at Tulum was absolutely breathtaking. It was like 10 kilometres of Whitehaven Beach – turquoise water and bright white beaches. Along the beach stretch there are tonnes of cabanas and hotels. Again the water was absolutely beautiful, with the sky half covered in a huge storm cloud forming! In Tulum we discovered cocktails (so cheap!) and cocktail deals – Brad’s favourite became Pina Coladas, mine was Margaritas (hold the sugar).
We spent another two nights in Tulum;
first in a beachside cabana, so romantic!; second in a hostel (not so romantic! Days were spent on the beach, eating papaya, homemade guacamole and fresh tortillas, wandering the streets to see how the locals live, investigating the Mayan ruins or swimming in one of the local cenotes just out of town.
Our final three days in Mexico were spent on Isla Mujeres, just off the coast of Cancun. It was a crazy juxtaposition to travel from Tulum, where half the town is ‘not so touristy’ and pretty cheap, then pass literally hundreds of huge resorts and hotels on the beach, basically lining the shore from just north of Tulum, to Playa del Carmen and finally up to Cancun. Huge concrete or fountain entrances... just crazy!
Isla Mujeres was again, amazing! We stayed in town, a few blocks from the marina strip and 4 blocks or so from the famous Playa Norte. Time spent on the beach, strolling the streets, shopping at local produce markets, eating fresh seafood and of course, drinking our favourite cocktails. We hired bikes and rode around the island, stopping for a fresh papaya and banana shake, then to pick up fresh made tortillas near
the Grande Lagoon. A pit stop at the turtle sanctuary then we continued our circumnavigation around the stunning island to have beer and lunch in the shade of a cliff overlooking the Caribbean Sea (with small to big iguanas closing in on us!). We discovered Agua de Guayabana (custard apple water) from our favourite shake stand and fish tacos at a local eatery at night.
Finally, we took at day trip out to Isla Contoy, 20 miles north of Isla Mujeres with some VERY cool Meixcan fellas, recommended by a guy we befriended at a dive shop. Unfortunately the weather turned sour, with strong winds and high seas and we couldn’t stop for a snorkelling on the way, which was sad. Isla Contoy is the northern tip of the second largest barrier reef in the world, which extends all the way down the Yucatan, Beliza and Honduras. We did however have a guided tour of part of Isla Contoy, a guided snorkel in the bay (beautiful big fish) and a beach side lunch of grilled fish and salads. The trip back to Isla Mujeres was rough, both of us and pretty much everyone on the boat were soaked through,
though with the techno-Euro-pop blaring and the mixed crowd on the boat, it was hard to stop smiling and laughing!
Mexico was a fantastic vacation within a travelling trip – the food is cheap and good, the people and scenery are beautiful... just stay away from the huge resorts and enjoy the surrounds!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.101s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0425s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb