After arriving in Mexico and spending two really nice days at the island of Holbox, seeing the algae light spectacle at night and checking it out with an Golf cart, my girlfriend Elena had become some stomach issues in the afternoon and all night long... classic ;)
So the next day I went to Willys Whaleshark Tours and cancelled our boat trip, that we had just booked the day before. He was really nice and understanding! - of course we got our money back.
I got some more electrolyte and medicine for her, some breakfast and we stayed almost all day inside with air condition and a bathroom close 😉
The next day Elena already felt a little bit better. It was our last day at the island, so we decided to do some morning yoga and then walk to the beach.
Walking through the village we quickly arrived at the pier.
Our host had told us that in the morning between 8am and 11am there is always a sandbar in the ocean - perfect to walk to Punta Mosquito with the Caribbean sea on both sides. - Really romantic!
So we made sure Elena was hydrated enough, we had sunscreen on and a caps with us.
Then we started to walk. From the stay first we walked along the beach, past the restaurants, bars, hammocks and hotels and then crossed the water to get to the sandbar.
For those of you who never heard of this - A sandbar is a sedimentation of sand or gravel at the bottom of oceans and rivers, formed by the tide and current. A “free beach wall” is created when a sand bank in front of it rises above sea level.
When sandbars grow, islands are created. Sandbanks that fall dry every day are also known as plates or sand plates.
Even the boats where stuck at the sand for that hours! It was just incredible. Every now and then we had to cross a little bit of water, saw little fish and shrimp in the water or gulls waiting for them to be in the shallow water.
From the beach it is an about one hour walk to Punta Mosquito, where the YUM BALAM Natural Reserve begins.
The Yum Balam Flora and Fauna Protection Area was established in 1994, the nature reserve was the first protected area in Mexico to be created at the request of local communities.
The reserve includes wetlands along the north shore of the Yucatán Peninsula and includes Isla Holbox. It has been designated as a protected Ramsar site since 2004.
The area provides a habitat for jaguars, Baird's tapirs, crocodiles, sea turtles, American manatees, Caribbean spiny lobsters and ocellated turkeys, as well as Everglades palms and mangroves.
Walking along that sandbank watching all kinds of birds on our right and the Caribbean cristal clear water to our left was just magical!
Yum Balam is meant to be managed in cooperation with local communities and permits limited hunting and fishing by locals. In practice, sadly controversy has arisen.
In 2018 a series of federal inspections led to the temporary closure of the natural reserve. That's why you can only walk until a sign and have to go back from there. So it is almost impossible to visit the whole reserve by yourself.
There are a few guided tours though you can book, which in the end is the better solution because the reserve is well protected and the people also. Most of them enter the area by boat or kayaks.
On our way back the water was already rising until our knees. It was really tough to walk all the way back in the water, but at the same time refreshing.
Elena was still feeling a bit week, so we when we got back to the beach we took a break in the shadow and decided to stay a bit at the Raices restaurant.
Raices is a really nice simple restaurant right at the beach. They have life music, sunbeds and hammocks to lie down.
We got some fries, lemonades and sunbeds to chill and just lied down watching people coming by.
I even jumped into the water and then enjoyed the sun for a bit.
After a while we decided to go back so Elena could rest a little bit before our long trip to Chichen Itza and Playa del Carmen the next day. - But more about that soon!
Only at night we went out to grab some food and witnessed this! - A group of locals doing zumba right at the city center! Awesome! I just had to share this with you guys haha
Cheers, Liz
Awe That SUCKS that your girlfriend got sick.. never fun to get sick away from the comforts of home. My wife and I were looking at Holbox once, but decided on Isla Mujeres instead. We love it there. A little less sargassum .. that stuff sucks @#$ if you know what i mean and I am sure you do. Especially when it starts to heat up in the hot summer sun. Oh well. Looks like you both had a real BLAST! Good to get away if the budget allows and time is right. We canceled our travel plans this summer.. we'll shoot for next year. Thanks for sharing and getting me excited about Mexico travel!! Maybe we'll consider Holbox again.
PS - That was one heck of a sand bar in that video! Way Cool!! 😎😃
Yes I know exactly what you mean haha, but it gets really bad from March on, we were there in February, so still not that much sargassum 😉 And on the other hand we got to see the ligh effects of it at night which was truely awesome! Where do you guys live? if its not that far its definitely worth it to explore more at the Riviera! I will write about other cool places soon so stay tuned hehe!
Isla Mujeres used to be really reaaally beautiful back in the time! Now it is way too touristy for my taste - sadly. Except if you do the whaleshark tour and then chill right in front of it for the after chill 😉
Wow Liza amazing place. That sandbank is equally amazing. Great pictures.
Thanks @hope777! It was a really great place to chill 😉👍
Yap really
👍❤️
Holbox is a dream island. I will always remember our time there. 😎
It changed a lot though! You can be glad that you saw it less touristy 😉 - But then again, who knows .. maybe now its even better!
Congratulations, your post has been upvoted by @dsc-r2cornell, which is the curating account for @R2cornell's Discord Community.
Awesome! Thank you very much for your support @dsc-r2cornell and @R2cornell! Every support is very much appreciated 🙏❤️
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know every user has their own profile map?
And so does every post as well!
Want to have your post on the map too?
👍👍
First of all, these are all stunning shots by all means I mean the lightening in the beach is stunning and I'm just knowing about sandbars for the first time maybe it's because I haven't really gone to a lot of beaches. Well it was definitely eventful. You know I was watching the video you uploaded about 4 minutes and it almost like covered every angle of the water, the area and the sky. It's stunning and these shots are more than great.
Wow show how did you girlfriend eventually felt after the trip considering the fact that she wasn't feeling too good?
Awesome, just totally Awesome, I'll have to take that phone camera off you someday hahaha.
Well congratulations on hitting rep 70.
Aww thank you @josediccus! I am sure one day you will enjoy a walk on the sandbank yourself 😉 - She was a bit KO after that walk, but did relax in the shadow arter. Lol it is not a phone Camera! Everything filmed on my post was taken with the Go Pro 🙂👍
And thanks! I just realized I finally hit the 70!! ❤️🙏
Wow KO? that must have been stressful. Finally the Go Pro comes alive, wow those are really amazing shots with the Go Pro. Cheers Liz
Yes, finally 😉
Woww ... This place is very beautiful. Full of amazing views. I really want to go there. I want to see and set foot directly on the sand dune. Thank you for sharing a very beautiful experience.
Yes, it is one of my favorite places on this planet!! I just love that island ❤️❤️ Let me know when you do and I give you some recommendations 😉
Ready, if I want to travel I'll contact you. You must be a good friend of mine and definitely recommend a very interesting place.🥰
Will do 😉
Two birds on an empty beach....well I am actually referring about to two birds 😉 (it was there in one pic)😉 this looks to be quite cool and I would say you just started another year with a bang...🎉
Hahah yes, a lot of birds on the beach 😉 We did go just in time before it was not possible to travel anymore! Sometimes you just get lucky I guess 🙏❤️ Thanks for stopping by @steemflow! 🙂
Love those white birds..😉 lucky you.👍...it's been a while that I went to beach but now looking birds awesomeness I feel of making a one sooner or after the pandemic🤟
Yes, I also miss the beach a lot!! Its weird to plan vacation now though.. everything is so uncertain.. 😅
Been there. It's sure pretty but after a few days, I just couldn't stand the sandfly :/
Haha yes! It is paradise but a few days are enough! There are so many other really cool places at the Riviera! When did you go? what did you visit? This is my last post about the island, after that I ll write about some insiders along the coast 😉 - Thanks for stopping by @waybeyondpadthai! It is a great honor to see you here 😉 - Hope you are alright.👍
Phantastisch schöne Bilder!
Danke dir @actifit-peter! Schön dass dir der Post gefällt! Bald gibt es mehr vom Urlaub 😉
Dieses Auflisten von offenen Kommentaren zum Beantworten gab es früher für STEEM, hab es gern benutzt. Danke für den Hinweis, dass es dieses Tool jetzt auch für HIVE gibt.
Hab es gleich installiert! 👍❤️
Bitteschön, gerne 😉
Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #876.
Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of our travel community:
Thank you very much @livinguktaiwan ❤️🙏
Congratulations @lizanomadsoul! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your board And compare to others on the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP