We left off our narrative of 3 men behaving badly in a boat in Belize, at the thriving city of San Pedro on Ambergris Cay where we made a hair-raising entrance through a narrow crossing in the Barrier Reef. Ambergris Cay, named after whale snot, a valuable commodity in the 1800’s is the most popular tourist destination in the country, but at this time of year is overrun by large numbers of Americans and Canadians escaping the winter chills of North Dakota, Minnesota and Ontario. It’s airport is the main street and rush hour in San Pedro consists mainly of golf carts ferrying children to school and shop workers to cafes and supermarkets.
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| Ambergris Cay |
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| Full moon over Ambergris Reef |
Unfortunately the “quality of totty” on Ambergris, as evaluated by the expert eyes of Able Seaman Al and Capt Dave wasn’t up to that of Cay Caulker, a small coral reef fringed island 20 miles to the south. So after a couple of days anchored somewhat uncomfortably in the lee of the reef but exposed to constant 20 knot winds Wow weighed anchor and we sail back inside the reef to a much more sheltered anchorage in the lee of Caye Caulker. Here we are welcomed by a 2pm to 8pm happy ‘hour’ at the Iguana Bar with $1.50 dark and stormies, after a few of which all were agreed the Caye Caulker totty was of a very superior standard indeed.
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| Cay Corker |
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| Waiting for the right winds |
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| Kite surfing at the Split, Cay Caulker |
Caye Caulker has a much more laid back feel compared with Ambergris with a main street running the length of the island lined with little cafes, palapa roofed bars and delicious food stalls. We spend a very pleasant few days here befriending the natives, swimming with the 2m long taupin fish and watching the sunset from the Iguana Bar whilst waiting for favourable winds, at least that was our excuse.
Then it’s time to move on towards Mexico and, to avoid another hairy reef crossing through the breaking surf we detour back south for a day to St George’s Cay before exiting the reef through a large break and sailing north. First stop after a long 10 hour sail is Caye Norte at Banco Chincorro, a large mainly submerged atoll 40 miles of the Mexican Coast. It’s an important marine sanctuary and we see several rays and loggerhead turtles in the crystal waters inside the fringing reef.
We spend a couple of nights here in complete isolation before sailing north along the Mexican coast to a large bay, Bahia del Espirito Santu, where we anchor behind a large island protected from both the swell and the winds. It’s a spectacularly beautiful and isolated position with only a remote Mayan village on the lake shore in the far distance. At sunset we go ashore to claim the island and light a barbecue fire in the best Robinson Crusoe tradition. With the fire blazing, the spare ribs crackling and the wine breathing nicely we are all set to tuck in until squadrons of sand flies crash the party. They clearly haven't been influenced by the dietary fads of veganism and kale and maintain such a staunchly carnivorous diet that we are forced to make a rapid retreat back to Wow scratching our ankles, clutching our ribs and our wine and baked potatoes.
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| BBQ in paradise |
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| sunset at Bahai deEspiritu Santo |
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| Cayo Norte, Banco Chinchirro, Mexico |
After a couple more days of swimming, snorkelling and lazing around we make an early start out of the bay at first light sailing up the coast towards Cozumel, detouring slightly to sail past the C12 ruins of a Mayan fortress occupying an elevated position above the beach at Tulum. Tulum represents the southern end of the Maya Rivieria, a 150km strip of hotels resorts and beaches which stretches up the Yucatán peninsula to Cancun. Largely developed over the past 30 years it has seen the region become one of the largest collections of wall to wall hotels on the planet, similar in many ways to Sanya or Dubai.
By evening we reach Cozumel after battling a 5 knot current which was supposed to flowing with us but which seemed to be going in completely the wrong direction. Cozumel is a large 40 km long island and a very popular cruise liner destination, 5 of which were in port when we arrive. Too late for the harbour master in the main town of San Miguel we anchor off yet another Hemingway Bar (the guy seems to have drunk whisky at so many places in the region it’s a miracle he ever had time to write a book or catch a fish) and sneak ashore as illegal boat people to sample the tacos and enchiladas. We decide that Mexican formalities will be best handled by an agent on the quieter port so before the city awakes we are off sailing towards the mainland and the El Cid Marina at Puerto Morelos and our first landing on the Mexican mainland.
Oh, Mexico, I’ve never really been so I don’t really know. Like James Taylor we are about to have our first introduction, more in the next edition of this blog
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