Checking out the surrounding Campgrounds

When we left Balneario Colcolitos this morning we headed to Chetumal, which is 40 minutes south of here, and on the border of Belize.   

There were tons of cars parked on both sides of the road, but practically no people anywhere to be seen. 

I think a lot of them got on the ferry to Belize.

This is the largest government building I have seen so far in all the towns I have visited in Mexico.   I haven't been to many big cities.    Perhaps the cars belonged to government workers? 

Driving along the oceanfront, we came across this extraordinary building.   There are no signs telling us what it is, no people in it, on it or near it, and it doesn't look as though it has finished being built.   Can anyone tell me what this is?    My guess is, it is about  6 stories high. 

While in Chetumal we realized we were very close to Yax-Ha RV resort.   We stopped in to check it out.   This is the entrance to the ocean from the campground.   It looks like boats can come in through here. 

They have a lovely swimming pool and nice bathrooms.   

There is a restaurant inside the campgrounds (as well as several more just down the road).

They charge 250 pesos a night, but by the week it is cheaper and works out to 200 pesos per night.    We haven't decided if we will turtle on down the road to spend a couple of nights here or not.   We are quite smitten with the Lagun de los siete colores.   

I have been missing the roadside fruit stands since being in the Mayan Riviera.   They can be found if you go off the main strip, but they are not near as convenient as we are used to. 

Heading back out of Chetumal we drove past a large shopping plaza, that even has an Applebee's.   It seems there would be no shortage of places to shop and eat when camping at Yax-Ha. 

These workers were amazing to watch.   They climbed up a ladder onto this building with pails full of cement on their heads.

  

 

On the way north again, we stopped in at Cenote Azul.  It is very deep and looks inviting.    There are a couple of restaurants surrounding it.   Divers can descend in here  

and ascend in the Laguna de Los Sieta Colores on the other side of those trees, very close to the campground in Bacalar that we are staying at.

We were enjoying our drive about so much we decided to head all the way over to Majahual to check out their campground as well.    That was another hour drive.   By the time we got there, we were sorry we took on so much in one day.      

They have Cabanas that they rent out for 300 pesos a night.   RVers are charged 100 pesos per person per night, plus 60 pesos per day if you use electricity.  The electricity is only 40 pesos per day if you don't use it during the day.   It is a tranquil spot, almost on the beach.   When the cruise ships come in, it gets crazy busy along the Costa Maya strip that runs between the campsites and the ocean. 

mmmmm.....fresh lobster.   This man just climbed out of a boat and headed for the restaurant.   We stopped to eat, before these lobsters were caught.   We had fresh Red Snapper and shrimp in our tacos.   After eating we were somewhat revitalized and headed back. 

We took a quick detour to have a look at the neighbourhood we considered buying a house in 6 years ago.   They were just being built and were 30,000 dollars back then, and are now 39,000 dollars.   

We only had one more campground to check out and it was on the way back.   Laguna Azul was about 3 kilometers down this road through the jungle. 

On the main road before turning onto this dirt road, there were several pineapple stands.   There were no other fruits or vegetables at any of them.   We realized why when we came across this stretch of  pineapple fields.   

Neither of us had ever seen a pineapple plant before and if we didn't actually stop and pick one, we would not have known what they were. 

Laguna Azul Campgrounds is on the Laguna de los Sieta Colores, but the colour looked more like a northern Ontario Lake.   At this end of the lagoon, the shoreline is much higher.   Apparently, the rains in August were heavy and the run-off poured so much mud into the lagoon that the blue colours are just recently starting to come back.   

There were no campers here, but it was lovely.   The owner is an elderly man named Heinz, who moved down here from Ontario 17 years ago.     They have no electricity or water hookups, but do have hot showers, nice bathrooms and a dumping station.    In keeping with the jungle atmosphere, there is a restaurant down this path.     Rvers can camp for 75 pesos a night. 

He has one bedroom cabins, with a table and a bathroom that he charges 500 pesos per night for.   There were no people in them either.   It felt a little bit like we were in a horror movie.... 

The very best part of the day was about 1 kilometer back down the dirt road.    I may be crippled up all night long from overdoing it today...but I don't care, the experience I was about to have was worth it.

 

I have to admit, I did not take this picture.  I downloaded it from the internet.   We did however see a beautiful black jaguar walk across the road about 20 yards in front of us on our way out of Laguna Azul Campground.   I was so shocked, I didn't even think to stick my head out of the car window and try to take a picture!   

The conversation went something like this:

Gerry: "what the heck....what is that?  It can't be a cat"

Brenda: "holy crap that's a jaguar!"

Gerry:  "holy crap it IS A JAGUAR!"

Brenda:  "wow!, just wow! That was a friggin jaguar!  I want to sit here and watch to see if  it comes back out again!"

We drove up to the spot the jaguar walked into the jungle and tried to peer in.  The jungle was so thick...we couldn't see anything.    It was so fleeting a moment, we could hardly believe we really saw it.   

Me:  "Now all I want to do for the rest of the week is hang around on the back roads in the jungle watching for jaguars!" 

Gerry:  "most people who live in Mexico can't even say they have seen a jaguar, so we can count ourselves lucky."

I wish I had thought fast enough to try to get a picture.   

Laguna de los Siete Colores

We have 6 days to explore this coast off the Mayan Riviera, before we have more family coming to visit, so we headed down to Bacalar today.   It was an easy 3 hour drive along the 307.   Every 10 kilometers or so there is even a rest area at the side of the highway.   Much of the drive was jungle to the right of us, jungle the left, and the rest was through a few Mexican towns.     

This is the only picture I took on the way here, although I saw several places I plan to take pictures of on the way back.   The rest areas were easily long enough to 10 motor homes to park end to end.      

We arrived at Balneario Cocalitos on Laguna de los Sieta Colores and were immediately entranced with the beauty of the Lagoon.    

The Lagoon is mostly shallow, all except this one area they call the Blue Hole. This blue hole is a deep Cenote.

I have never seen such blue colours in freshwater before.   

They call it Laguna de los Sieta Colores (the lagoon of 7 colours), because the refraction and reflections of the light on the shallow, sandy bottomed lagoon causes the lagoon to be several shades of blue and to change colour as the sun hits the water from different angles.   I took several pictures of basically the same spot a half an hour apart this afternoon so I could see for myself just how much it changes. 

 

Gerry has been suffering from a migraine all day, and I have been under the weather since last night, so we didn't do any exploring today.   We parked so our door opens onto the lagoon so we could just relax and enjoy the beauty right outside Myrtle all day.   

   

Beautiful moon in Xpu Ha

Barb left today on a 3:00 p.m. flight.   After dropping her off at the airport and a teary good bye, I headed back to Xpu Ha, where Gerry had taken Myrtle.   We are spending one night here, then heading south tomorrow.   We aren't sure if we will stop at Laguna Azul, or find a spot on the beach in Majahual.    We only have 6 days before we have to make our way back to the Mayan Riviera to pick up our granddaughter Maddy from the airport.   We will have her for 10 days.   If you followed our blog last year, then you are already acquainted with our eldest grandchild.   

It is difficult to blog when we spend a lot of time in one place, because it feels as though there isn't much new to talk about.   Starting first thing in the morning, we are back on our journey.        

The moon was beautiful tonight.   It is hard to believe the full moon was last night and it is still this amazing.

On our way back to Myrtle from the beach we stopped in to see John and Peggy.    I believe this is their new pet, because he made himself completely at home on their front yard.    I think they call him Hermy.   :)

It was very nice to see all our friends here at Xpu Ha after being away for 10 days.   Happy hour was more like a happy couple of hours.

Tulum

My sister Barbara has been on vacation here for the last 8 days.   She has been sick for the last 3 days, but because she is going home the day after tomorrow, she decided to get out to see Tulum this afternoon regardless.    It closes at 5:00 p.m., we arrived at 4:00 p.m.   

I have been told you have to get there by 8:00 a.m. to miss the crowds, but by the end of the day the crowds have slimmed down.   There were still quite a few people there, but not so many that we couldn't get some decent pictures without random folks in them.   1 hour is not enough time, but I think 2 hours would do.

Once you get past all the vendors, you come to this passageway through a stone wall. 

When I came out the other side, I was awestruck.   I felt as though I had been transported to a different world.   It was beautiful. 

It was threatening to rain the whole time we were there. 

With only 1 hour to tour the ruins, even the guides told us there was not enough time left to bother to hire them.   I will get another chance, and I will hire a guide next time.