#10 - My new love: Mexico & Chasing again a Sunrise

This time I want to feature some upbeat summer music which represents my summer vibes in Mexico.

Have fun guys to listen to this music and to read my blog #10! 

👇🏻

25.01.2018 in the airplane from Paris to Milan

The time has finally come that my trip to Mexico is over. 

But let me first finish the last story…

 16.01.2018 9.08 pm - in the overnight bus from San Cristobal to Campeche  (still 12 hours to go)

So i take this long journey (14 hours) in the bus as a chance to reflect...

I actually just watched a movie with Tom Cruise in Spanish and I think I could follow the movie. I didn’t understand every word but that is not that important. I’m not too bad in Spanish, well done Irene :-)

The bus ride until now is very comfortable. This time it isn’t even that cold. Of course I’m well prepared again with a lot of warm cloths: my big winter jacket and my beach blanket which I’m using now as a blanket :-) I still have two seats to myself and I hope it will stay like this throughout the whole journey. 

We just stopped at Tuxla Gutierrez, a few passengers left the bus and a some new ones joined us. I think there will be more stops ahead. Until now it seems I’m the only tourist on the bus. At the recent stop a cleaning man swept the floor of the bus and collected garbage - not bad. I even used the toilet on the bus and I have to say I was surprised to find toilet paper, soap, water and paper towels. Well done!

After finishing the second movie as well (How to become a Latin Lover) I tried to fall asleep. Somewhere at 2 am the bus stopped and all lights were switched on. Of course I woke up. Hmm, my plan to sleep through the whole bus ride wasn’t going to work out as I just had to witness. Well, you never know what you get when traveling on busses in Central and South America. In the end I still managed to get a few hours of sleep. In the morning when I woke up, the bus was still on the road. The 14 hours were passing by slowly. 

17.01.2018 Campeche 

I arrived very wrinkly in Campeche. The weather was great. I left cold San Cristobal behind me. Getting a cab to go the historical part of the city, where my hostel is located. 

The hostel seemed okay, and when I arrived, I’m the only guest again. I got my private room right away, even if it wasn’t check in time yet. I like it a lot when the room is earlier ready than expected. I couldn’t wait for a shower, to brush my teeth and to freshen up. I felt like putting on a nice dress to explore the city. After walking around, the to me new city, I couldn’t get a vibe for it, I really don’t know why.

The doors of the city seemed to be very unique and therefore I started making a series of door photos in Campeche. Later I decided to have a beer in the sun and to chill. A second beer and a nice chat with some locals followed before I had the urge to take a nap in the afternoon. I fell asleep right away from the exhausting journey.

18.01.2018 Merida

The next day I left Campeche and headed to Merida, which is the capital of Yucatan. I reached the capital after another ADO bus ride, but this time a very short one (2 1/2 hours). 

In Merida I stayed in a hotel because I was going to work on my new blog and I noticed that I can do way more work in a hotel then in a hostel. There I’m less likely to talk to other travellers. For me hotels feel more private, not many people would be likely to talk to strangers - I noticed.  

2 pm - Lunch time in Merida

So I’m sitting here in this restaurant called „Amaro“ closed to the main square (plaza) in Merida. It has a very nice atmosphere with some nice jazz music. I just got served my food (some vegetarian dish), therefore I should actually eat. I’ve just asked for a paper sheet to write down these lines as I don’t carry my Mac with me when exploring a city.

At the moment I’m figuring out what to do next, where I want to go from Merida. I want to see Chichen Itza and then to stay at Valladolid. From there I can go to Ria Lagartos and Los Coloradas. 

I think I actually like Merida. I just arrived from Campeche which I somehow didn’t like. I’m not sure what’s the reason for it but I guess as an experienced traveller I get the atmosphere from a place right away. Maybe because it seemed too touristy. Or maybe my expectations were too high due to some recommendations from other travellers. It looked to me more like a big museum. 

When taking my first steps in Merida I liked the city from the first second. It feels more like a real city with real people walking on streets. I even saw real big shops. 

Maybe it was just as well the result of visiting too many touristic locations in the past days/weeks. Yeah, that’s maybe the reason. Therefore, I appreciate now a bigger normal city like Merida. I usually like to visit smaller places but I guess a change is now a welcome for me.

Ok, well. I’m getting the check now and then I’ll walk around the city. I actually wanted to take it easy today but I will probably just have an early night then I guess. 

I decided to take a guided tour to see Izamal, the yellow city, then to check out two cenotes (until now I didn’t see any) and to finally see Chichen Itza - the big pyramid. 

19.01.2018 6.30 am Merida

Getting up early to have some breakfast at my hotel, packing my bags and then to get picked up by the tour at around 8.30 am. With packing I’m already very fast - I have my own system. As traveling with a suitcase makes it way easier for me: opening the suitcase and everything is where it is supposed to be. Organised I like it, so I find everything fast. A smaller backpack for daily necessary and my laptop. A handbag does it for the rest. 

The breakfast was nothing special, American style due to the many American tourists.

The tour picked me up and we drove out of Merida. I was the only foreigner on the big van - as I noticed after a short while. I started talking to some of them and to ask where they are from in Spanish. I wanted to know how long they are traveling for and what they have seen so far, etc. As I sat in the front of the big van next to the driver and the tour guide, I even talked to them and by the end of our day I was joking with them a lot and the whole bus was laughing to our jokes. 

As i started my last blog „Chasing Dreams in Mexico“ exactly at this moment, I will fast forward now and I’ll continue my story in Valladolid, where I got of the tour. If you missed my last blog, please head over now to get up to dated.

20.01. Valladolid

I booked a hostel which is a bar as well and Fridays and Saturdays night the whole area turnes into a club.  Before taking a shower and to wind down a bit I wanted to organise my tour for the next day. I decided to stay in Valladolid because I really wanted to see the pink flamingos and the pink lake, which are right north of it and can be reached within a 2 1/2 hour drive. When I was in Merida looking for my past trip I asked the possibilities. I got told they would offer a tour from Merida, which wasn’t an option for me. But for sure I could find a tour directly departing from Valladolid or I could even try to reach Ria Lagartos and Las Coloradas with local transportation.

When I booked the hostel in Valladolid, I called from Merida and I asked right away for a possible tour. So when I arrived there I asked straight the manger to know more about the possible tour offers. The local tours were too expensive and didn’t include Las Colorados but instead another ruin which I wasn’t interested in at all. The tours from Merida were way cheaper even if they would have a longer ride. I was determined to find a better and more efficient  solution. Tired and exhausted from the whole day trip I still managed to walk into city centre, which was luckily just some minutes foot walk away. I found the first travel agency which unfortunately could just recommend another agency. When reaching it, I had to find out, that it was already closed. I tried to call the number displayed on their poster, but no one answered. It was getting late, already 8 pm and I was tired-very tired. I needed a shower. But I first wanted to solve my issue. I remembered I took the business card from my agency in Merida and so I called him up and asked very kindly if I could join the tour departing from Merida in Valladolid. I was thinking it would be on their route anyway. My travel agent explained me that they take another road and I responded I would be able to meet them wherever. I was very content to got offered to join them in Tizimin, another town further up north which I could reach within an hour of local transportation from Valladolid. I just saved myself over 700 Mexican Pesos and a not satisfying tour with my fabulous idea and I had to high 5 myself.

Now I could finally take my shower and unwind - what a great feeling even if the shower had just cold water and I even had to wash my hear. But never mind. After finishing up the cold business in the shower I took my laptop and climbed into bed, where I made myself very comfortable for a long writing session on my Mac. I had to listen to some music with my earplugs because the neighbours had a very very annoying children party there with a hosted „clown“ who used a microphone, played stupid annoying music and screamed in the microphone. 

After some time I noticed the children party was over and to my delightful surprise a live band, playing Salsa music, was giving their best at the bar below my private room. My writing was accompanied for a bit by the live music from the bar. It was sweet to have a company, I could even hear the guests talking. I had my private room (yes, again - I don’t do different at this trip) on the first and last floor of a small building in the middle of an outdoor party area. It was such a beautiful location to have my own little privacy with access to the outdoor & indoor bar. Awesome for someone like me. I knew from the beginning that I won’t be sleep for some hours.

As I was working on my blog "Chasing A Sunrise - A new day is on the horizon_Mexico Part 2" till 11 pm and I was getting really tired in bed, I decided to get up and join the party.

Ordering a beer at the small bar and observing the guests: I saw a mix of travelers, locals, other foreigners and the staff members. The band was in full execution of their assignment. I got talked by an Argentinian guy who was working with his team of three on a project. He was a professional drone-flyer and his team consisted by a photographer and a filmer. Awesome group and I enjoyed the conversation as I got to meet the rest of his team as well: another Argentinian with name Daniel and a Mexican called Ludo. They left when the live band stopped and a local DJ got onto the deck. The night switched to electronic music, therefore I was very happy about it. As you know it’s my preferred music at the moment and I just recently started to play myself music as a DJ. I talked to the DJ and asked him if I could play two tracks. 

20.01.2018 - 01.33 am Valladolid 

And now I'm in the back of the DJ-deck 

With my Mac

Giving the DJ my music

Sending him an email

Because he uses an old Traktor mixer with an external sound card

So i can’t connect my Mac

20.01.2018 Rio Lagartos & Las Coloradas

The party last night was great but I had to wake up very early to get ready for my tour. I needed to get cash, to buy some water and snacks, to purchase my bus ticket, to eat breakfast and to be punctual for the bus ride to Tizimini, where I would get picked up at 10 am by my tour from Merida. My bus was departing at 8.45 am and would need about an hours to reach Tizimini, so perfect. I first left to hit a ATM, hoping I wouldn’t have trouble again with my cards. In Mexico just the local banks seemed to work with my cards, so I don’t like the big international banks. On the way to an ATM one of my flip flop broke, shit! Really great. When I travel the almost essential thing are my flip flops especially when having a shower or just walking to the beach. Lucky I wasn’t far away from my hostel yet, so I could go back and put my normal sandals on.

I made it in time to get picked up and again I was the only foreigner on board. But this time I was not as talkative as I’ve been on the last tour due to the party last night.

We went right away to see the Pink Lake at Las Coloradas. The Pink Lake! What a magical place. I was soooo happy, I couldn’t believe my eyes: A Pink Lake. Have you ever seen one? Me, never until that day! I had to walk around, all over the place and to take of course many pictures.

We got told, that there is a salt company which controls the whole area. Back in the days tourists would get into the water and contaminate it that way. So nowadays people are still allowed to visit but no more entering the water. No problem, for me it was already wonderful and priceless enough just to be there.

On the right side there were the pink lakes and on the left there were dark yellow lakes. Wow, what a surprise. And at the shore there was even salty foam which formed little balls. The salty balls rolled away with the wind. Magnificent, there it was again: my inner child got excited from all the wonders of our wonderful world. Magic!

Our tour guide showed us the little pink microbacteria, which are eaten by the flamingos and that’s the reason that the flamingos are pink. In April and July the water is supposed to get even more pink.

After leaving me speechless, we drove to have a little break in the sun and to enjoy the beaches on the way to Ria Lagartos. We were the only ones at the beach and I took the chance to nap in the shade. 

About an hour later we arrived at our next stop: a boat trip through the mangroves and into the wildlife of Ria Lagartos. I got to see finally pink flamingos! What a splendid view of these elegant creatures. We didn’t just see flamingos but as well lots of pelicans, crocodiles, other birds and even an eagle. 

We were offered a healthy mud bath and although it wasn’t very warm I decided like some of our group to take the chance. During the boat ride back to a lonely beach we got dry and the salty mud sand felt great on my skin. We could wash it off. We got back cold from the wind and the water. We received a very late lunch/early dinner at a restaurant nearby. I talked now a bit more with the other passengers and I discovered that employees in Mexico have generally just five days vacation a year!!! I was shocked, very much so! I didn't know that. I can't believe it. And I just read an newspaper article about Mexicans working the longes hours.

After everyone wished me good luck and a great stay in Mexico I got dropped of again at Tizimin and an hour bus ride later I arrived very tired but very satisfied and happy at my hostel. I took a nap again before I went on the search of a quiet bar to eat a vegan dessert and to do some writing. 

21.01.2018 Holbox

I left Valladolid the next day on a bus to Chiquila (a 2 hour ride) where I took a ferry to reach the small island Holbox after 25 minutes. 

The ferry ride was windy, I sat in the front row to be able to admire the short ferry ride without other people in front of me. The island got bigger and bigger: I could see some small beaches and a boat laying on one of them. When we hit the harbour I could see yellow golf cars which turned out to be taxis. On the whole island there were no cars, just small little golf cars. What a great surprise. The streets weren’t asphalt but instead just earth and soil. 

After a lovely shower (i had again warm water available) I took my bag filled with my beach blanket, some water, sun protection, my book (I’m reading Osho at the moment) and my working sheets for my year 2018 with me and went to explore the island. I walked far out of the city centre on the beach to find a quiet lovely spot. The water was crystal clear, it was shallow far out and the people got less and less until I found a quiet spot right next to the water. I took a refreshing bath and then I decided to chill. 

The time has come to slowly finish up my travel experience in Mexico and to have more time to connect to my inner me, my soul and discovering my new me.

I went all the way to the west side of Holbox to find Punta Cocco. The walk there was long and lonely, for some parts there was no-one expect me. I started already wondering if I was still on the right path. I was, just Holbox is this quiet and not over filled with tourists. I didn’t mind it at all. I saw fisherman fish with just a tiny shiny plastic rope and I even saw a starfish. 

At Punta Cocco i bought a coconut to drink from a local vendor. I met two Italians who are living for already 30 years on this island. Massimiliano and his father owned a hotel in the centre and invited me for a drink later on and to show me the island. Happy for that invitation I stayed a bit longer until it was time to walk back. I wanted to avoid the mass of mosquito which would appear soon when the sun would set down. I still was on time to see the sunset back at the main beach. 

Unfortunately the sun set behind clouds and there was no sunset to admire. My first bread with avocado and tomato followed and I discovered that the internet was very slow in Holbox. I decided to work a bit on my blog but after some unpleasant long waiting time to post my blog I was ready for a drink and a nice chat with the Italian locals. 

I met Massimiliano for a beer and he told me about his life: He came to the island with his dad when he was 4 years old and he got even to school in Mexico but had to return in Italy to do some proper studies. He is living now in Holbox most of the time and is managing the hotel. He lives three months out of a year in Fuerteventuras (one of the Canary Island). He told me about the very different life and about the working attitude of the locals and the problems he has to face managing a hotel. The locals like to say „in a rattito“, when agreeing on business or general work, which doesn’t give a specific time indication, it can be from one day to a week or more. So you need to be patient and to be not too annoyed of their habits. But other then that the island is magic, the centre got bigger and bigger with the time.

He showed me around: the centre and the beach. He showed me his preferred location to enjoy a cold beer and a nice chat with some friends. 

He tells me as well that on the island you get really to connect with yourself, because there is not much to do. People who live here have so much time to themselves that they get to discover themselves in a way, that for someone  could be too much. I like the idea of having so much time for myself and I could see myself coming back to Holbox and stay longer.

When I got back at the hostel I stayed up till 3.40 am to work patiently on my past blog. 

22.01.2018 Holbox

I enjoyed to sleep until 10 am the next day and I got some very basic breakfast at the hostel. This time I decided to go better prepared to the beach: I bought fruits, some nuts and more water at a local store. I decided to take my backpack so I don’t have to bother with holding my bag in one hand.

Before hitting the beach I met Philippa, a 24 year old England girl, which was on the road from Cancun and didn’t know where to go next. We had a very long loving chat about our life and about our next steps which we still had to discover in the near future. 

I enjoyed my full day at the beach, met Massimiliano for sunset & a cocktail at a new location with a rooftop bar and pool. I rented a bicycle at my hostel and we both bicycled to the other side of the island. Fast fast, to be on time for sunset - and of course we were. We enjoyed a cocktail and the stunning view for sunset, I even got to work a bit more on my blog. Riding back the bike to the centre before it would get too dark and before the hunger would take over. Massimiliano took me to a restaurant for dinner. 

At the hostel I finished my blog again late at night and I was happy, tired and ready for some hours of sleep before I would get up early again to chase the sunrise. 

23.01.2018 In search of Sunrise Holbox 

Waking up early and seeing the people of the island starting their day, too. Walking down the dusty road to the other side of the island. It just takes me 10 minutes, the island isn’t wide.“

My adventures with finding the perfect location to shoot photos of the sunrise: I almost fell from small boat down in the dirty water of the harbour. I climbed before onto this little boat to have a perfect shooting location. But the boat started floating away from the harbour and I was getting nervous of being stuck on the boat. I then just noticed other boats closer to the harbour and I made it safe to the coast.

After rescuing myself safe to harbour I went back to town to have a breakfast and to prepare myself for yoga. Philippa went the other day there and on the whole journey I already wanted to do some yoga. So it was perfect, the location in a hotel right at the beach. Doing yoga in the morning after a beautiful sunrise, hearing the waves and feeling the breeze from the sea. How much better could the day get? 

3.15 pm - Leaving Holbox

The time to leave Holbox came and to get on a bus back to civilisation. I said good bye to Philippa and Massimiliano and I got on a ferry back to Chiquila and from there on a 3 hour bus ride to reach finally Cancun, where I had a last night booked in a hostel. Therefore, I could reach the airport the following day easier and without a rush. 

Oh! I almost forgot to mention the algae plague that hit Holbox just before I arrived at the island. Due to the very bad and cold weather for about three weeks the algae got washed up the coast and left some parts of the island full with them and the result was a stinky air next to it. I luckily found enough free clear beaches at the far West out. 

23.01.2018 11 pm - Cancun 

At the pool from my hostel I met Juan Pablo from Argentina and we both were on our last day of our Mexican trip. He draws every day a small drawing in black and white in his booklet, he is traveling with, and he writes a particular phrase to it. Wow, i loved his work. 

We talked a long time about our past travel adventures and about our goals and life and about what we would like to do. He was fed up by his work as an attorney and wants to find another way of life as well. So we had lots of things to talk. We were both very annoyed with our private rooms: We both had just a very small room without a real window. I mean we both had windows but they reached indoors to a hallway which didn’t let fresh air in. In Cancun there was no wind, not like Holbox. The air was standing still, it was damp and hot. So we spent a long time next to the pool where it was sligthly cooler. 

24.01.2018 - Time to Leave

The time has come that my trip to Mexico is over.

But before that I still went with Juan Pablo to have a healthy lunch in town and to go shopping souvenirs. We met on the way Virginia, another Argentinian woman traveling Mexico who joined us.

28.01.2018 Italy

As I'm working on this blog I can emerge one last time into the magical world of Mexico! Thank you all and everything for showing me such an awesome time, the new year has started the best way possible and I will be back.

Hasta pronto! 

xoxo

Irene - Chasing Dreams 3.0