We flew into Cancun but didn’t stay to look round, immediately heading south past the all inclusive resort hotels to make our first stop at Puerto Morelos, a fishing village with a few small hotels and apartment blocks attracting visitors who like the quiet life. We are staying at the Amar Inn, family run by Luis and Miguel with rooms and cabanas set in a small but beautifully kept garden. Our room is up a flight of rickety looking spiral stairs and is large and airy with a sea view.
We are just a few steps from the beach so we went to look at the Caribbean and to walk off the flight. The first thing we noticed were all the magnificent frigatebirds, frigata magnificens in fact, keeping watch from above, soaring high on the air currents. They have the largest wingspan to body weight ratio of any bird and virtually live in the air, staying aloft for over a week, snatching prey from the sea in their hooked beaks and landing only to roost or breed.
The sand is like icing sugar and air and water are warm. We watched a group of sanderlings, like us here for the winter, although they come from the arctic. They rushed madly backwards and forwards in the surf, moving almost as a wave themselves, plunging their beaks into the sand looking for tasty morsels.
For our first meal in Mexico, we were drawn to El Sabor de Mexico, a colourful restaurant with lights in sombreros hanging above the outside tables where you can watch the people pass by. I had a Margarita and chicken enchiladas with green chile while Chris had a Mojito and stuffed pueblo peppers with roasted vegetables, all delicious.
There was even entertainment on the way home …
Every meal has been great here. We’ve had wonderful breakfasts including a different local dish each day. The first morning we saw people with what looked like stuffed pancakes in chocolate sauce, so were surprised to find they were tacos filled with chicken or cheese with the famous Mexican mole sauce containing bitter chocolate – delicious and completely savoury. Other days we had a crispy tortilla topped with bean paste, ham and spicy fried potatoes, squash and corn in tomato sauce with black beans and tortilla crisps with green chile.
One lunchtime we came across a vegan cafe called Siempre Sano – Always Healthy – where Coco and her helpers were cooking up a fixed price lunch of soup, 3 vegan veggie stews with beans, rice and tortillas, dessert and juice all for 60 pesos each … about £3 and amazing … five a day all in one meal! The mushroom and chilli was our favourite.
There is a good breeze here all the time, and in the morning there are kitesurfers sweeping backwards and forwards along the water, sometimes doing somersaults on the turns.
We continued along the beach to town, passing boats offering snorkelling trips and the old lighthouse which still stands, despite being tilted by Hurricane Beulah in 1967.
We watched pelicans grooming their feathers and showing off, stopped for a coffee and watched the people, then looked round the shops with their beachwear and souvenirs.
We came across an amazing exhibition space called Casa del Viento, or House of Wind where a Gaudi-esque organic styled building was decorated with a mixture of Indian and Mexican wood carving and squeezed between two regular apartment blocks. To continue the fusion, you could sign up for anything from yoga and meditation to art or a guitar classes. We looked at the art and sculpture on display, while a blues duet played guitar.
The coast here faces the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, some 700km long. The stretch at Puerto Morelos has been a national park since 2000, and restrictions help preserve the reef from overfishing and tourism, although nothing can prevent the damage from hurricanes. We took a boat out to the reef and snorkelled with a guide. We saw lots of fish, some quite big and many brightly coloured, mainly blues and yellows, swimming among the coral.
We’ve also spent time soaking up the rays on the beach, had a massage at Violetas and a walk round Yaax Che botanic garden, where we came across some wild spider monkeys as well as our first Mayan ruin, a small altar … I’m looking forward to bigger and better!
Just as we left, a black spiny-backed iguana crossed our path … in fact we’ve also had several encounters with iguanas in the garden at Amar Inn, but they don’t stop long for a photo and move pretty fast!
Having got used to the heat and the time difference, we now off inland to Valladolid.
Off Travelling Together 