8 February 2013 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
Up early again. We put our dinghy at Marina Paraiso and walked into town to catch the ferry to Cancun. “Ulana” were on the same ferry, having decided to go and get an Importada as well. The document is issued by Banjercitio which, as far as I can make out, is a government controlled bank. They have a small office in the same building as the Cancun Port Captain, conveniently only 400 metres from the Puerto Juarez ferry dock.
I tried my luck first and nearly had enough documentation. Yesterday, I’d spent an hour scanning and printing out copies of various documents – passports, ships register, zarpe issued by Port Captain, crew lists stamped by all of the officials in Isla Mujeres, etc, etc. The lady carefully checked all my copies against the original documents and all seemed well until she spotted that I didn't have a copy of the Heath and Sanitation document. So we had to walk ½ mile to an internet café to get a copy.
Meanwhile “Ulana” didn't have any of the original documents stamped by the officials in Isla Mujeres because the officials had apparently taken them away. By the time we arrived back, Philippe and Sandra had managed to sweet-talk the lady into accepting their photocopies and she was issuing the very official looking document. I was gutted that they didn't need to give her a copy of the Heath and Sanitation document that we’d had to go to get copied. The rest of our process was straight forward and, bizarrely, we've now temporarily imported Alba into Mexico.
We all hopped onto a local bus and went into down-town Cancun. The buses are small, run-down mini buses very similar to the ones in the West Indies, but lacking the loud reggae music.
Our first stop was the bus station to check out the timetables and prices to go to some of the Mayan ruins and the city of Merida, which we would like to visit while we’re here. After that we walked aimlessly about and discovered a park where we were able to buy some empanadillas and tostillas for our second breakfast – well, it was half past ten.
Suitably refreshed by our intake of fat, we walked to the strangely named Market 28, which is full of shops selling tourist rubbish –want a t-shirt or a Mayan mask or a Mexican carpet? I don’t think so. We carried on wandering the streets - now we were looking for a Mariner outboard dealer to buy some spares for our recalcitrant outboard, but after an hour walking in the beating sun, we gave up and retreated to a small café where we had a Quesadilla and a Huarache.
Some of the street food is unfamiliar to me, so I’m gradually trying out different ones. Huarache is an unusual one consisting of an oblong, fried maize flour base, with a variety of toppings. The base is about a quarter of an inch thick, almost like heavy, uncooked bread. I found out later that the name "Huarache" is derived from the shape of the base, similar to the popular sandals of the same name. I could have guessed that from the taste - not my favourite so far.
It took us a couple of hours to get back to the boat, by which time we were wilting from the heat, so jumped in for a swim for the first time in ages. We think that we've done all of the running around that we need to, so we’re going to have a quiet day tomorrow.
9 February 2013 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
We had a chill out day. I messed around for most of the morning trying to work out how to play Folsom Prison Blues on my guitar. I discovered a lesson video on YouTube that said that the original recordings are in the key of F#, but the usual key to play it in is E. Unfortunately, I've been trying to learn it in G, so I was close to the original, but I've got to start again and learn it in E - bummer.
Glenys did some more investigation about places to stop in Mexico. We’re confused about where we’re going to be able to check out of Mexico and get the correct documentation to enter Belize. There’s a place call Xcalak near the border with Belize that used to be a port of entry, but we talked to some friends who have just been there and they say that we won’t be able to check out in Xcalak because there’s only a port captain there. Perhaps we’ll just check out here and travel quickly down to Belize with just a few overnight stops along the way.
It was the first day of carnival in Isla Mujeres, so we stepped out to watch the first parade. It was only a very small parade with six or so floats and slowly went along the sea front. The quality of the costumes is not quite up to the standard of Rio or Trinidad, but the people were enthusiastic and it was good fun.
10 February 2013 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
We had another chill out day. I started to get to grips with Guitar Pro which is a program to arrange music scores for guitar. Most of my day was spent trying to write out the music score for “Folsom City Blues” – I just need to learn how to play it now.
Glenys did a few little jobs and then did more research on places to go in Mexico and Belize. In the afternoon, we went ashore to visit Daragh and Cathryn on “Chantey V”. They've just come up from Belize and are on their way to Cuba, so we spend a couple of hours chatting to them, swapping notes on the various places that we've visited. They cleared into Mexico here in Isla Mujeres, so weren't much help about ports of entry in Mexico, but we gleaned more information about Belize - the southern cays sound idyllic.
11 February 2013 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
Glenys went out in the morning to look around town by herself without me huffing and puffing every time that she stops to look at a shop. She managed to book a trip to see the Mayan ruins of Coba and Tulum. The cost of an all-inclusive coach trip including transportation, lunch, entrance fees and a guide was only $59 each, which was much cheaper than trying to do it ourselves on public transport.
I indulged myself in downloading some more guitar song lessons and working out how to play “Nobody Loves You When You’re Down and Out”. There are loads of guitar tabs (a kind of music score specifically for guitar) available on the internet, but a lot of them are incorrect and of the others most of them are either too complicated or too simple for my purposes. So I spent ages researching on the internet and trying to create a music score in Guitar Pro in a style that I want to play. I'm not very good at this music stuff – the right side of my brain is obviously under-developed.
In the evening, we stepped out and went to a couple of bars, but it was very quiet, so we came back to the boat for dinner.
12 February 2013 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
I spent the morning reading up on places to visit in Mexico and Belize. We’re a bit disheartened about cruising down the remaining coast of Mexico because there doesn't seem to be any way to clear out down south near the Belize border. So our plan is to clear out here in Isla Mujeres and spend a week going down to Belize stopping at a few places overnight. It’s a shame, but after looking at the anchorages in the southern part of the Yucatan peninsula, we might be better off spending more time down in Belize.
The northern part of Belize looks to be very shallow with mangroves, but the southern part looks spectacular especially when one goes to the cays near the outlying reefs – crystal clear water, beautiful reefs, fabulous snorkelling and diving – bring it on…
In the afternoon, we went to the nearby supermarket and did a big shop. We bought all the things that we’d used up while in Cuba and stocked up on food and drinks preparing to go to Belize where food is expensive – five cases of beer, orange juice, milk, breakfast cereal, etc. We picked up a taxi back to the marina where we’d left our dinghy - it was a marathon outing and took most of the afternoon.
13 February 2013 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
The alarm went off at half past five and we caught a ferry an hour later to go on a coach trip to visit the Mayan ruins of Tulum and Coba. A minibus picked up from Puerto Juarez and took us to another bus station in the hotel strip where we had to pay the balance for our trip, before being herded onto a coach.
It took three hours on the coach and then a one kilometre walk to get to the Tulum ruins. We joined the hundreds of other tourists walking around the paths and manicured lawns. Tulum is different to other Mayan cities in that it’s perched on a cliff at the edge of the sea and was a heavily fortified place with a thick wall surrounding it. It was a major port for the Maya on the Yucatan peninsula. With the blue sparkling sea as a background the place is very picturesque.
After only an hour or so at Tulum, we were whisked off to a restaurant where we were treated to a very good buffet lunch consisting of traditional Mayan food. We especially liked the Pollo Pibil, which is chicken with achiote sauce cooked in banana leaves – traditionally it is cooked in a hole in the ground. I’m going to have to get Glenys to recreate that one.
We were taken on to Coba. We were told that it used to be the capital city on the Yucatan peninsula and has sacbeobs (roads) that go straight between other Mayan cities, such as Chichen Itza - the longest is 100Km. This is a massive city covering 72 square kilometres and is reputed to have over 4500 buildings of which only a few have been excavated. Coba isn't as manicured as the other Mayan sites and, as the guide book says, you feel like you've been transported into an Indiana Jones movie.
The place is so big that we hired bicycles to get between the various areas – and it's a good job that we did, because we got lost and nearly ran out of time. The highlight is climbing “Nohoch Mul” - the second highest Mayan building on the peninsula and at 42 metres high, it’s good fun. The steps are very steep and slippery in some places, so they've installed a long thick rope that goes up the middle of the steps.
The journey back to Isla Mujeres was tedious, with the coach dropping people off at the various hotels. Fortunately, they put us onto a mini bus which went directly into downtown Cancun and got us to our ferry by eight o'clock – some friends went on another trip and didn't get back to the ferry until half past nine. We however, were back on Alba by nine o'clock downing a couple of nice cold beers before falling into bed – it’s exhausting being a tourist.