Mahahual

Por fin, sol y playa! Por lo menos por un par de dias, porque estan anunciando una ola de frio (que por supuesto nos seguio desde Canada)! Llegamos a Mahahual el lunes cuando ya estaba oscureciendo. Despues de preguntar en un par de lugares pensamos que nos ibamos a tener que ir porque era todo muy caro, pero se nos ocurrio preguntarle a un loco que vimos frente de una casa un poco afuera del pueblo, y nos dijo que la mama es duena de unos terrenos en la playa y que nos podiamos quedar alli y pagar mucho menos. Esa noche los nenes se enloqucieron y abajo de las estrellas, alumbraron caracoles, cangrejos, pepinos de mar, erizos, corales y cucarachas de mar entre las rocas con una linterna. Al otro dia, nos levantamos con el sol para mirar el caribe. Gracias a William y la familia, terminamos en una playa hermosa, con arena blanca y en frente hay un pequenio arrecife para hacer snorkel! Pasamos todo el primer dia en el agua, y vimos corales preciosos, un monton de peces, una raya enorme (que susto!) y hasta una anguila. Esta todo medio roto y lleno de basura todavia por un huracan que paso hace un anio, pero lo estan reconstruyendo. Estamos al lado de donde vive el hermano de William, que es buzo, y aca tienen dos perros, dos gallos que nos cantan de maniana, un lorito verde (el Chavo) y un gato negro que viene a chuparnos los platos sucios cuando estamos durmiendo. Es bueno que estamos medio alejado del pueblo, porque llegan muchos cruceros y cuando estan alli se llena con turistas que bajan a alquilar motos de agua, 4x4, motitos, taxis, etc. y andan como locos por todos lados. Despues se van y queda re-tranquilo el pueblo de nuevo. Lo mas loco es que en el barco les dicen que esto es una isla, y se lo creen! Al otro dia fuimos al pueblo para ver como era porque habian dos cruceros, y nos quedamos impactados con la cantidad de gente haciendose masajes en la playa, trencitas, comprando souvenirs….era surrealista. Mateo se llevo a sus instrumentos y toco algo para los turistas (le sacaban fotos y le preguntaban como llego a esta “isla”!) De mas esta decir que hizo unos cuantos dolares! Comimos en un lugar chiquito que hacen comida bien casera, con tortillas de maiz hechas a mano. De tarde volvimos a la playa y los nenes hicieron un castillo de arena. En un momento dado, aparecieron una familia entera de delfines, muy cerca de la orilla. Parecia que nos estaban llamando entonces nos pusimos los equipos de snorkel bien rapido y saltamos al agua. Ya se habian ido los delfines, entonces salimos del agua. Apenas nos sacamos las mascaras aparecieron de nuevo, y se quedaron mas de una hora alli en frente nuestro, entre la playa y el arecife, jugando y saltando (hasta los bebes!). Fue increible! La mama de William lo estaba mirando todo y despues nos dijo que es muy raro que vengan delfines por aca, y que pareciera que lo estaban haciendo por gusto, justo para nosotros! Fue muy especial. Pero todo se termino cuando una lancha llevando turistas a bucear paso bien rapido y cuando les senialamos que bajaran de velocidad, pensaban que estabamos saludando y nos saludaban con sonrisas idiotas. Lo unico malo aca (aparte de los turistas) es que, como estamos rodeados de manglares, hay muchos mosquitos – especialmente en las horas que se pone y sale el sol, entonces hay que esconderse todos apretados en la combi. Vamos a aprovechar el dia medio frio y nublado para viajar hacia Tulum para ver un par de cenotes y unas playas alla.
As you can tell from the photos, we finally got a couple of days of sun on the beach! But if it makes any of you shivering, snowbound readers any less jealous, there is a cold front on its way (apparently coming from Canada, no less). We made it to Mahahual just as the sun was setting and it was getting dark on Monday evening. After trying at a camping place on the beach where they wanted to charge us around $20 for a small parking spot squished in beside other campers, we drove a little bit out of town along the coast and asked a guy that was about to get into his jeep where a cheaper place to say would be, and he said we could just park on his mom’s property for 50 pesos a night (less than $5) and that he would take us there in the morning! That night it was already dark so we just stayed there in front of his place and popped the top of the westy. Before bed, the kids were amazed when they explored a bit with a flashlight in the tide pools among the rocks in front of us and saw: sea snails, small tropical fish, sea urchins, sea cockroaches, lots of dead corals, crabs, brittle stars and sea cucumbers. The stars were incredible! We couldn’t wait to get up the next morning and see the water, so we were up at sunrise to start our first day at the Caribbean. William came by to show us their place a bit farther from town and on a white sand beach where we could park – paradise, and all for us! We are staying beside the little house where his brother (a scuba instructor) lives and they have been building a cute little tree house here for William’s niece, Dafny. Mateo is again accompanied by lots of animal friends: there are two dogs, Ninio and Pinto, a parrot called Chavo, and two roosters. Oh, and a black cat that only come out at night to rummage in our dirty dishes! There also just so happens to be a coral reef right off the shore, so we spent the entire first day snorkeling and saw all kinds of stuff. Ariel went out to the reef and back at least 5 times that day! We saw: parrot fish, stingrays, angel fish, damsel fish, some little unidentified fluorescent blue and yellow fish, wobbegong, bigger sea urchins, flounder-type fish, eel, and many others. And of course, some beautiful colorful coral, which is unfortunately in rough shape because of the hurricane that destroyed the whole town last year. The beach is really quite messed up too, and the mangroves all around us have been burned up by the sea water and sun. They have done a pretty good job reconstructing in the main boardwalk area, because they get lots of cruise ships. Mahahual is a strange place, because when the ships are docked, masses of tourists come down off the boats and roam around, renting jetskis, off-road vehicles, jeeps, golf carts, getting massages, hair braids and buying overpriced souvenirs for a few hours, and then they are gone and the town becomes silent again. The funny part is that apparently the captain tells them that they are on an island, and they believe it! Today there were two ships in at once, and we went into the town to check it out. Mateo took his instruments and busked for some of his fellow Canadians (who asked him how he got on “this island”!). Thanks to Mateo’s proceeds, we ate lunch at a local place that was really good with handmade tortillas. Later we were hanging out at “our” beach trying to decide whether and where to snorkel (it was cloudy) when a whole pod of bottlenose dolphins (including baby ones!) swam by really close to shore and beckoned us in. We threw our snorkel stuff on (literally) and jumped in the water, but they disappeared once we got in. As soon as we got out of the water, the pod reappeared and spent over an hour playing and swimming right there between us and the reef. It was incredible! William’s mom was watching the whole thing and later told us that the dolphins rarely come and that it seemed like they were showing off just for us! The party was over when a tour boat filled with cruise people (ignoring our signals for them to slow down) came ripping by, waving at us and smiling like idiots. The only bad thing about this place (besides the hordes of floral shirted tourists) are the mosquitoes who come out of the mangroves; for an hour around dawn and dusk you have to hide indoors or else you will be eaten alive. It is a bit cramped in the bus, but we just end up going to bed and waking up with the sun. We have a bit of a fresh water scarcity too here, so we need to find a place to rinse the salt off of ourselves! It is a bit cold and cloudy today, so I think we will take advantage and move on to some cenotes and a beach that we heard about close to Tulum where we can probably hang out for a while.