Isla Holbox

To get to Isla Holbox we had to take a collectivo from Playa to the small town of where we could catch a ferry across to the island. A Collectivo is a mini van which sort of operates as a shared taxi that only leaves once its full. The driver will do plenty of errands along the way, collecting things in shops from Playa and then dropping them to people in small villages along the way. For that reason it's hard to predict how long a collectivo will take to reach your destination, but ours took two and a half hours which by all accounts wasn't so bad for the distance.

After a quick half hour ferry ride we were at Holbox. Holbox is a narrow and 26 miles long. There are no cars on the island only golf buggies which have had their tyres modified to drive in the sand roads. 75% of the island is natural habitat, consisting of mangroves and long white undeveloped beaches. The beaches are absolutely stunning, and possibly the most beautiful we've seen in all of Mexico. The waters are crystal clear and shallow. The islands main town is adorably quaint and authentic, the locals, the Holboxeños, have fought to keep developers and resorts off the island. It has just enough bars and restaurants to entertain tourists and keeps its natural charm.

There's not much to do on the island, other than relax. Theres no phone signal and the WiFi is almost non existant. The only thing you could maybe complain about is it's a bit on the expensive side, especially for accommodation which is probably down to its limited availability. Our hotel was about a 10 minute walk along unlit sand roads from the islands only town, but was right by the beach.

The island is a home to an incredible amount of birds. From small hummingbirds and colourful parrots to herons, pelicans and cormorants which you could happily watch all day diving for fish in the sea. While on the island we took a boat tour out to three other tiny islands, one which homes a mangrove and hotsprings, and two islands including Isla Pájaros which are solely habitats to birds. At the right time of year flamingos can be found, but we had just missed them, but maybe given my luck with flamingos it wasn't a bad thing! 

After nearly 5 weeks of a solid carnivorous diet, Jonny shocked me by suggesting we dine in the two vegan/vegetarian restaurants in town. Both were excellent but "Náay" in particular offeed amazing Mexican vegetarian flavours.

 I was amazed at how difficult it was to get seafood in the evenings on the island. The seafood restaurants would open during the day but close for nightfall. I could only guess it was due to Mexican eating habits. Most Mexicans typically have 5 meals a day. The earliest around 8am is usually fruit, bread or tacos. At 10.30/11 its a most substantial breakfast usually containing eggs, or chilaquiles (nacho chips/crisps covered in salsa verde or rojo, onions, cheese and cream, delish) or 'hot cakes' which are pancakes but for some reason are called hot cakes and not translated into Spanish. At about 2 they have their main meal of the day, which will usually be meat, rice and beans but varies depending on the region. Around 6pm is a snack which is cake or bread and 10pm another very important meal which is typically tacos or any of the number of variations of soft corn wrap with meat and spicy salsa. Mexicans also drink an incredible amount of Coca Cola, they claim its the national drink. It's such a problem here that it's the only country in the world that managed to convince coca cola to reduce the sugar content in the 'original' version for sale in Mexico. The fact that three quarters of Mexicans are overweight or obese probably has something to do with it. 

Our last day in Holbox was to be out 3rd last night in Mexico. Over the last couple of weeks we'd been reading about the worsing covid situation in Ireland. The Christmas celebration had brought with it an explosion of cases and the country returned into the strictest level 5 lockdown yet, after only three weeks of being open. We decided another few weeks in Mexico would be a good idea and so extended our returning flight!