Life’s a Beach

I’ve been suffering from a major case of the blags lately–blog lag, that is. Blame it on the holidays, blame it on a certain level of travel-weariness, whatever. Anyhow, we’ve been relaxing a lot on the beach lately, which doesn’t make for particularly stimulating updates.

Here’s a general idea of the grueling past few weeks:

But don’t worry, we also had time to relax:

I’ve got to say that the state of Quintana Roo has some fabulous beaches, but it’s probably the least interesting state we’ve visited so far in terms of cultural offerings. Okay, yes, there are a lot of ruins—-but as for contemporary culture, it’s beach after beach after beach.

Camping has been pretty easy in the Yucatan peninsula, although we were kicked off one particularly touristy beach in Tulum–the first time that’s happened in Mexico. We had to find our way down the beach in the dark and were forced to park just off the main road. This was one of our worst campsites so far, and it doesn’t look so bad, does it?

More than the beaches, though, what makes camping in this heat bearable are the hundreds of cenotes, which are sacred sinkholes filled with freshwater–perfect for two car-campers in need of a bath!

The cenotes come in all shapes and sizes, from caves to deep wells. My favorite was Cenote Zaci, just two blocks from the main square in Valladolid. Incidentally, this was the sacred cenote that we had to move away from in the middle of the night on December 20–also the first time we’ve ever had to move camp in the middle of the night.

Valladolid has probably been our favorite little town in the Yucatan peninsula, where we camped two nights off a secondary square in front of a little church.

This week, after some backtracking with my folks, we finally escaped the clutches of the stretch of 307 between Cancun and Tulum and found this luxurious campground in Calderitas, just outside of Chetumal.

I think every overlander in the world has stayed here at the Yax-Ha Resort, because 100 pesos per person gets you turquoise waters, hot showers, a pool, INTERNET (hello!), electricity, and a big, grassy lawn to roll around in. They even have toilet paper in the bathrooms! Luxury. We were also happy to run into some travelers we keep bumping into on the road, and it sure is nice to see familiar faces.

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