Goodbye Belize, Hola Mexico!
It seems like nothing stops in Mexico. Yet we are managing to maintain the "go slow" creed we learned in Belize. Found a lovely garden hotel in Tulum town on the east coast of Mexico, along the Carribean Sea. It has cheap cabanas (bungalows), hammocks, shared bathrooms and some stalwarts living there (or rather escaping their past lives in North America). Although called Ranchos Tranquilos, the all-night truck route took the 'tranquilos' out of it. Nevertheless, we enjoyed it, as free breakfast was pancakes! We visited the famous Chichen Itza without a tour. Heavily bombarded with tourists, and touts peddaling their souvenier wares. The main temple was literally awesome, with the blue sky background. Nova bought a book with pictures and descriptions and we learned all about this ancient Mayan ruin site that won the National Georgraphic's 7th New Wonder of the World. Such a special place it is, that we saw a guy propse to his girlfriend... how sweet and romantic.
Tulum is part of the Mayan Riviera - famous for it's beaches (most popular being Cancun - our final destination). Neither Nova, nor I are particularly good at sitting still for long periods of time, but we rose to the challenge and gave ourselves a day at the beach. Beautiful clean and fine sand and clear gentle blue-green water. Tulum also has ancient ruins overlooking the beach; visible in the distance. That's as close as we got to it. We'd already seen two of the best and we were 'ruined' out.
The next day, Monday, we did a tour of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Park. After pancakes, our bus collected us and we drove past the beach-hotel-zone and into the 5,000 hectare park. Our young Brazilian/Mexican guide - Rene, explained the mangroves, the various trees, terminte mounds and birds. A mosi-infested walking track ended at a pretty dock on the lagoon, where a leathery-skinned man was awaiting on an outboard motorboat. We motored across the the huge lagoon for about 15km and then wound through the tight bends of canals between large expanses of Red Mangroves and Black Mangroeves. Mangroves are like sea grass or reeds that randomly grow up to three feet deep in water. Somewhere in the midst of these canals is a tiny island where a small ancient Mayan ruin can be found. It was either a religious building or a tax collection point, archeologists are not quite sure. With requisite life jackets, we jumped into the crystal clear fresh water and floated downstream for more than a kilometre, seeing birdlife up close and enjoying the refreshing coolness of the water in the middle of the hot day. Lunch was a Mexican feast at CESiak - The Centre of Ecology Sian Ka'an. This is a privately funded organisation with a centre of research, an eco-hotel and a restaurant. After lunch we swam in a cenote - a waterhole in the limestone base that makes up most of the land in the areas. It was peaceful and a beautiful setting, even though the water was brackish, combining fresh water of the lagoon and salt water from the Carribean Sea.
Being our spontaneous selves we decided to return to the lovely CESiak centre to stay the night after collecting our bags from Tulum town. We got Cabana 4, atop a sand dune overlooking the beach. On one side of the us was beach, on the other was the lagoon and mangroves. Our cabana was actually an army style tent on a platform with a thatched roof. It was quite luxurious inside with large beds, candle-lanterns and no electricity, communal eco-bathrooms. We slept with all the windows of the tent open and could only hear the crashing of the waves and wind in the palm trees. We awoke at 10pm to meet our guide for a turtle-watching walk along the beach.
Turtles
From May to September, female turtles all over the world, come on to beach and hatch their eggs. We listened to our expert guides talk passionately about turtles, explain mating, hatching and survival processes. As it was still a little early to go out and search for them, we went back to bed and were awoken about 2am for a two hour beach soujourn under beautiful a star filled sky with the yellow moon rising slowly.
The first of the two greenback turtles was incredible. 112cm long by 105cm wide, estimated at 70 to 75 years old. This beautiful sea creature had walked about 20 meters from the shore and dug a big hole where she began to lay thousands of eggs. The eggs take about 60 to 65 days to hatch and it's likely that only one out these thousand will survive. It can take up to three hours for the turtle to come up the beach, lay the eggs and burry them, then turn around and return into the water. She moves slowly as she weighs at least 100 to 150kg. A baby turtle will survive only on the amniotic fluids for the first five days after hatching while it makes its way down the beach, out and over the reef to hopefully catch the favourable current to travel the world (a bit like Nova and I). Research shows that the surviving female turtle will return to the same beach where she was hatched to lay her own eggs. In order to lay eggs, she copulates with up to five male turtles. She has five compartments where she can store sperm from the differnt males and she can choose whose sperm to use to fertilize her eggs - some from one, some from another - mix and match!
The second green turtle... (Americans call them Green Turtles because of their green backs; Mexicans call them White Turtles because their bellies are white)... was slightly smaller at 105cm long, estimated to be 55 to 57 years old. We actually saw the eggs as she was laying them, golf ball size and slimy looking. Then we got sand flicked in our faces as she covered the eggs first with her hind legs and then her front legs. Upon inspection, the researchers and volunteers check for tags in the webbing of their front legs. This turtle had never been tagged so we watched the experts do this. It is important for their survival and protection. She flinched a little but they spoke kindly to her while doing it. They also checked her shell and found the right shoulder damaged slightly, indicating the spot where the male turtle grabs on tightly during copulation. Copulation can last up to 48 hours, hence the damage to her shell and flesh (and imagine the exhaustion!). It was an emotional time seeing these turtles in their natural environment. And to do so with experts who are so passionate about protecting them. We were both moved.
It was a tough decision if we should leave this beautiful sanctuary or stay another night. Our trip was coming to an end. To avoid a rush panic, we decided to head to Cancun for two nights.
For some, Cancun is a beautiful package holiday destination filled with bikini-clad young Americans, chain restaurants and Hooters Bars. To us, the hotels were ugly and built right up to the waters-edge ruining the beauty of the aquamarine waters of this once small fishing village on the Carribean Sea. Luckily we found an oasis of a hotel in downtown Cancun (after some traumatic shopping around) with a pretty garden and a pool. We have been spoilt in the beauty of the places we have stayed over the past three weeks. Our good fortune though, once again found us a quiet spot on the sand today where we could dip in the water and top up our tans. Some shopping and local food and drink for dinner followed by a fabulous night swim in our hotel pool topped off the day fantastically.
This entire trip has been outstanding, filled with great weather, excellent accomodation, easy transport and our safety has never been compromised. We've gotten along famously and met some lovely people along the way. This is what it means to be a traveller and not a tourist. To explore, support local economy, view the beauty of our world and leave without leaving too much of a footprint.