Our journey to Mexico was longer than expected…much longer. The first seven-hour leg from Dublin to Toronto was very pleasant. The Air Canada flight was more than half empty, leaving plenty of space to spread out, the food was good, the drinks were complimentary and there was an endless supply of chocolate biscuits and pretzels. ‘Take as many as you want,’ said the steward and we took her at her word.

There was a long wait (about six hours) in Toronto for our connecting flight to Cancun in Mexico but this was scheduled, part of our cheap, last-minute flight deal and we had chocolate biscuits to nibble on. We entertained ourselves by reading our books, working on our laptops and watching an impressive fleet of snow ploughs spring into action to clear the runways that were turning white as the snow became heavier and the temperatures outside dipped to minus 4 degrees.

As we approached our departure gate, there was an announcement that the Air Canada flight to Cancun, Mexico was overbooked and they were looking for two volunteers to spend a night in an hotel near the airport with meals provided and a seat on the same plane the following day plus $1000 in travel vouchers with Air Canada. The inducements kept increasing until they were offering $2000 voucher to each of the volunteers. At that stage, Caoimhin and I looked at each other, both deciding that it was an offer we couldn’t refuse.

The flight left without us and shortly afterwards we had a heart-stopping moment when it seemed that we mightn’t get a seat on the flight the following day. The airline woman was very cranky, kept muttering under her breath about the guy who had made the deal with us. Eventually seats were found but we then had to argue with her to increase our allowance for meals while she sighed,  gave us fake smiles and acted as if our vouchers were coming out of her own pocket.

Standing outside the terminal, we inhaled ice-cold air and felt our fingers go numb while we waited for almost an hour for a shuttle bus to take us to our hotel. Although we were travelling with just carry-on luggage, we had some packable jackets and hats (in case we did some mountain hiking in Mexico).  These clothes were no match for the Canadian cold so we shivered and waited and wondered about the wisdom of our decision.

The Holiday Inn had a faded, tired look but the room was large, the bed was comfy, the shower was hot and it had a swimming pool. We didn’t do any sightseeing in Toronto, just walked in the snow around the Holiday Inn area  which was a pretty dreary strip of fast food joints, hotels and conference centres. We had some fun studying Air Canada flight destinations to see where we might go to on our next trip.

The flight from Toronto to Cancun was in complete contrast to the Dublin leg. It was crowded, there was a struggle to fit bags in the overhead lockers. The only thing complimentary was water and there wasn’t even a TV screen to watch a movie.  The good news was that the flight-time was only four hours.  It seems that everyone was escaping the Canadian cold. The woman next to us had flown in from Halifax and was on her way to a school reunion in a holiday complex in Cancun.

We were sweating even before we left the terminal building. It was 9.45pm and 27^oC (Toronto and Cancun are in the same time-zone but with totally different climates). Passport Control was very smooth, we were given an automatic visa for 120 days which was far more than we needed and made our way to the Alamo office to pick up the car that we had hired online. Caoimhin had done quite a bit of research and this company seemed to offer the best deals. He had opted for the ‘mystery car’ in the compact range. The mystery turned out to be a very roomy Nissan X Trail.

Our accommodation, Closetotheairport was certainly near the airport but as there was a one-way road system, we did an extra lap before we were travelling in the right direction. The traffic was light but the roads were atrocious – even the fast lane on the highway was pot-holed. But that was nothing compared to the craters when we turned off onto the side roads near our accommodation. I had messaged Closetotheairport about our delay in Toronto and they had kindly changed the booking without any additional charge.

Outside the accommodation which was a series of white, double storey buildings, we studied the photos that Booking.com, had sent us, trying to locate our room. A tired-looking woman leaned over an upstairs balcony and asked what we were doing. When I said my name, she put her hands to her face and groaned. She had forgotten completely about the changed booking and there wasn’t a room ready for us. It was almost midnight at this point and I’m sure we looked as exhausted as our host who set about making up a bed and cleaning a room.

The room was fine but the intense smell of damp and mould that permeated the whole building was awful. We slept after turning off the aircon and opening the windows as wide as we could despite the warm temperature. Looking out the bedroom window in the morning, we could almost see the trees and plants growing, vines tendrils climbed telephone poles and weeds grew everywhere. I would not have been surprised if the car had disappeared overnight under a cloak of greenery. We left home with bare trees and little growth so the rampant green-ness and ‘jungle feel’ was almost a shock. After a surprisingly good shower in the huge bathroom, we googled accommodation, booked a spot  for two nights and  headed off in our rented car, travelling south.

 Driving in Mexico required some adjustment. We were on the ‘wrong side’ of the road, surrounded by some erratic drivers  and then there were the speed bumps, a huge number of them. These had no distinguishing road marks to alert drivers although there were some faded signs right at the speed bump (when it could be too late to brake). We soon found ourselves airborne over an invisible bump.  Thankfully no damage was done.

We made  a minor detour to Puerta Morelos to eat breakfast and to see the Caribbean, which was a gorgeous, shimmering turquoise. The intensity of colour in Mexico is mesmerising, not only in nature with the sea-blues,  the greens of the jungle, the multi-coloured flowering shrubs but the houses are also painted in vibrant shades. We even visited a cemetery which each crypt was painted in different colours, making it as colourful as a West Cork village.

We turned inland to stay in a little wooden cabin in the jungle(Madre Tierre Eco) near the little town of Leona Vicario.The air was full of birdsong and the cabins were almost hidden by the tall trees. There was a yoga studio, an outdoor kitchen and very few guests. Birds flitted around the small pools , dipping to eat the insects floating on the surface. The only downside was that there was no fridge.

This area of Mexico is full of cenotes. We had never heard of the word until we came here but they are natural pools, formed when the limestone bedrock was dissolved by acidified rainwater and seawater. The rock sometimes collapsed in on itself, creating a system of caves and sinkholes. These provided a vital source of water but cenotes were more than a water supply to the ancient Maya who regarded them as sacred portals to the underworld.

There was certainly something otherworldly about Cenote 7 Bocas (The Seven Mouths) which was  near our cabin and our first experience of a cenote. We drove down a rutted road, passing small thatched houses hidden in the tree thicket with black pigs snoozing outside. A large iguana blended seamlessly with a tree trunk until he blinked.  The cenote was a series of underground pools with seven different access points which allowed the light to enter. We swam in cool water from cave to cave as the first five caves were connected by tunnels. The  water was the most mesmerising shades of jade and turquoise, especially when the sunshine poured in from above, creating rippling shadows on the surface of the water, the roofs of the caves and the many stalagmites and stalactites. Magical.

In our cabin in the woods, we met up with a friendly guy from Liverpool, the only other resident during our two-night stay. Clark had lived in Mexico for a few years and gave us some suggestions on places to visit.  He loved  Bacalar, a town by a lake of the same name about four and a half hours further south near the border with Belize. It sounded as good a place as any to visit, even if  we had never heard of it before.

Ruta 307 was long and straight_ very straight. At one point, Google maps was showing a  straight line with the caption ‘ Turn right after 110 kms.’ Although the Caribbean was just to our left for a lot of the journey, we never caught even a glimpse of it. The road had high dense foliage on both sides with huge billboards for holiday complexes, popular for package holidays and of course, lots of speed bumps. This part of Mexico is almost completely flat so there’s no panoramic vistas on the crest of hills because there are no hills.

Our little apartment in Bacalar was on the far (but cheaper) side of town, away from the lake. Wandering downtown, we were a little underwhelmed by our first experience of Bacalar, the lake was hidden behind buildings, there was a dead rat on the cracked pavement opposite where we ate tacos and tortas (which were admittedly delicious) and we were (almost) attacked on the walk home by a series of growling dogs.

But this morning, we visited Los Rapidos Bacalar, a natural lazy river and floated effortlessly in crystal clear water along a narrow section of the lagoon lined with white, gleaming stromatolites and mangroves. (Stromatolites are layered sedimentary formations created mainly by photosynthetic microorganisms). We also visited Laguna Bonanza, which was a beautiful, quiet place to hang-out near a stunning section of the lake.

 So now, we have had a change of mind and have booked an additional two nights in Beautiful Bacalar.

Thanks for reading

Hasta Luego ,😘