Isla Blanca, Leona Vicario, Coba (14-16 January)

At the moment we are in Chicxulub, small village near Porto Progreso in the North of Yucatan peninsula. We put a tent in a terrasa of one nice family – Jorge and Patricia. 6 years ago Jorge used to

Sorry for such a few letters in English. With this letter we will try quickly write about our first three days in Mexico.

Saturday, 14 January

We looked at the map and decided to escape Cancun for a small village in the North – Porvenir. It is about 40 km away, where there road ends. It was very hard to find the road that direction: we spent 2-3 hours following different directions told us by different people met on the street. When we thought it is all hopeless, we finally got to the right person – the truck drives who was delivering daily goods to the shops. He explained which road we have to search and how to find it.

In the afternoon we finally reached the end of Cancun. In few minutes a car stoped, and explained that in the direction of Porvenir there is nothing but the place where people bring trash. This man recommended to visit Isla Blanca – small peninula near Cancun – instead, which is reachable by the road not known to most of the people. Moreover, he even offered us a lift there (about 30 km), as he was single, he liked adventures, and he had nothing much to do after his job as a painter.

Isla Blanca had few visitors, but in general it was end of the map as well, with a lot of sand and small restaurant for those who knew the secret road to that place… We camped there and were almost alone surrunded by the sea.

Sunday, 15 January

In the morning we coocked the porridge of oats. It was our first time to use the the multi-fuel stove Whisperlite International sponsored for us by the American company MSR.

There was only 1 car in Isla Blanca in the morning – the taxi driver with two small girls and a dog. Not so long after we got on the road, the taxi car was going back to Cancun and picked us up. If we would say that the car was driven by a man, we would have lied. There was one of those small girls sitting on the knees of the father and controling everything: the steering wheel, gears and even pedals.

We got out in the suburbs of Cancun and stoped another car, which brought us to the other end of the city, direction West. Yes, we have decided to leave this commercial and touristic area.

That evening we ended up camping in a lagoon on the motorway between Cancun and Merida. Here, in Mexico, they call lagoon the place with a mini lake and few houses next to it. It was near Leona Vicario village, and the house used to be a fish restaurant before the strongest huricane in the last 30 years hit the region. In lagoon we got to know the family taking care about the place. They even offered us to take a shower using the water from the well and the basin. Later we spent evening talking to the family about their life and our journey.

Monday, 16 January

Our aim today was to visit the archeological site – Mayan ruins in Coba village. It took us about 4 hours to travel 50 km, simply because the direct road to Coba had almost no traffic. We were not in hurry. We were relaxing, reading the books and enjoying sun from the shadows.
 
We got to Coba quite late, just before 6pm, so we desperately needed the place to put our tent. We tried to ask for a help in one of the hotels, where we were suggested to go to the police station. The police officer was thinking for a while, and suddenly showed to the empty space next to the police building. It was a dirty, dark red earth surface with a bit of trash, as it was a place of a house, which, we assume, was destroyed during the last huricane.