Paraiso

I´m walking on the powdery soft white sand with seashells crunching under my feet and the soothing sound of the rolling waves of the turquoise blue waters. There are pelicans soaring above, occasionally plunging into the shallow waters to catch a fish in their giant beaks. Among them are various other species of birds sunbathing perched on the boats, rocks and docks along the shores. I walk with such a huge smile already on my face that when I pass one of the few other people I encounter on my stroll, I can only nod hello, as I´m already grinning ear to ear. This is Isla Holbox.
And it is a far cry from the Weary Traveller. In my last post, I made a promise to myself not to end up back at the bedbug palace that is the Weary. I will spare the details of how I ended up there anyways, however I must say that it wasn´t quite the filthy hole I remembered it to be. Regardless, I didn´t take any chances and I slept fully covered with sweatpants, socks, and a hoodie despite the heat. I had a blast there, and met loads of people with very little effort as the common area of the hostel is really conducive to mingling.
After swimming in cenotes and spending a couple days getting a good solid base tan going on the spectacular beaches of Tulum, I had some serious decision-making to do. Which island did I want to go to? Head straight to Isla, which is always a sure bet, or try something new? I´d heard a bit about Cozumel, but it was sounding like a tourist-trap, cruise ship stop. There happened to be two guys at the hostel headed for Isla Holbox, and I decided at the last minute to invite myself along.
After one transfer at the bus station in Cancun, 5 hours of sitting on a 2nd class bus, and half an hour on the ferry, we arrived. We were immediately met by a man offering us a taxi (on Holbox this equals golf cart ride). We declined as the walk to hotel we were going to look at was 700 metres away. A few minutes later, the same man drove his cart up behind us and gave us an offer: ¨Come check out an apartment I have for the same price as you´ll get at the other hotel, and if you don´t like it, I´ll give you a ride back wherever you like.¨ Fair enough.
So we are staying in this guy Padrino´s father´s apartment atop the hotel that they own. We are paying $10 a piece per night and the place is pimp. I wake up in the morning, climb down from my loft, and look out the window at the ocean. Three of the four walls of the flat have large windows, which makes for a nice cross-breeze when you open them all up. There´s a small kitchen with all the necessary appliances, including the blender we plan to use for the party we will have when we makes some friends. It all seemed too good to be true, so we figured we had to find something wrong with the suite. Well, the light switch is located in an inconvenient place- I know, life´s tough!
My roomates are really a lot of fun and I´m so glad to have met them back at the hostel, otherwise I would probably not have come here. One guy is Dwayne, an Australian lawyer in his early forties, divorced with an eight year old son. The other is Wessel, a Dutch guy, mid-thirties, same family situation. They are both hilarious and it´s kind of nice to have different travelling companions than the usual mid-twenties backpacker who quit their job and is just drifting around for months (me).
I´ve heard from a few people that Isla Holbox is essentially what Isla Mujures was 15-20 years ago. There are very few cars here and the roads are made of sand, not paved. There aren´t many tourists, but there is construction going on everywhere and I can imagine this won´t last very long. There is very little to do here, which is what I love the most. Writing this blog is the most strenous thing I´ve done in a few days. And a quick heads up: the blogs will probably be minimal now until I get to Colombia as I am in full beach mode and couldn´t be bothered to write too much when the sun is shining and the ocean calling.