holbox: day one. – gentino family

David and I call our first day on Holbox the “trial and error day.” Mostly error, it seemed, since it just takes time to figure everything out. As we’d discovered the evening before, far fewer people spoke English than we expected, so that also made things . . . interesting.

We set out around 8:00 to find some breakfast, and were pretty much the only people on the island to do so. We’ve learned that nothing much gets going until 11:00 am there, although breakfast cafes and coffee shops do open at 8:30.

Before we embarked on our trip we’d divided the research; David looked up options of activities for us to do, and I looked up restaurants/cafes. I found a recommendation for a little cafe called Tierra Mia that supposedly had great pastries, smoothies bowls, and iced coffee.

So we found it on Google maps and set out to see the town.

This photo is from the street corner right outside our compound, where we saw an iguana! Soon they would become so common we’d stop taking pictures, but we never got over the joy of encountering one on the street or a whole bunch of them sunning on the rocks at the beach. Amie begged us to bring her home one, of course.

Isla Holbox is 26 miles long by 1 mile wide. There’s the ferry side, from which you can see the mainland of Mexico, and then the Gulf side, where all the hotels and restaurants are. Since Marco’s is a block from the beach, this explains how we were less than a mile from his place when we arrived at the dock.

There’s a central street through town with lots of side streets crossing it.

It’s funny, I got to know our immediate neighborhood very well, but it wasn’t until that last day, when we returned to the ferry, that everything suddenly clicked for me. I didn’t realize how close we’d been to it all throughout the week. Because nothing is in English and the streets are unpaved it all kind of felt like a maze (to me. David has a much better sense of direction).

There’s a small town/residential area on the island, and most of the rest of it is actually protected land for wildlife, which we love. There’s still so much wild beauty there. We heard that at low tide it’s possible to bike several miles of the length of the island, but never attempted it since we were able to see it by boat (much less hot!).

Due to the rain right before we arrived, many of the streets were flooded. This was the main reason we never ended up renting bikes. Plus, we enjoyed walking to explore. It was our daily exercise.

We walked and walked that first morning and finally arrived at Tierra Mia, which was clearly a hotel. So we ate our breakfast in the beautiful lobby. It was tasty: fresh coffee, omelets, and chilaquiles.

However, a couple days later when we were out and about we saw another Tierra Mia . . . a cute little coffee shop much closer to our casa. We’d gotten the wrong spot! No wonder it was so random and far away. No wonder our server looked confused when we said we weren’t actually staying there; we just showed up for the breakfast.

Ha! These are the mistakes you make when landing in a brand new place. But they are fun mistakes. Look at those lovely hanging ferns and pothos. And the food really was good.

I couldn’t get enough of all the colors and plants of Holbox. Even the trash piles and pot-holed streets and dust coating my toes all reminded me of Sri Lanka and Tioman Island, Malaysia and Barbados, places where I’ve traveled and been so happy.

On our way back to the casa we stumbled upon a hole-in-the-wall bakery with the most delicious looking bread. Actually it was a window in the wall, from which we ordered our lunch: a loaf of ciabatta with rosemary and sea salt. We planned to go back every day, but though we searched and searched, we sadly never found it again.

We dropped off our bread and spent the rest of the morning walking on the beach. The water is still and shallow; perfect for walking in the heat. Then it was back to the casa for lunch and naps and the beach.

All I wanted was to sit for hours and read by that point, so David tried to set me up in the shade while he went for a swim, but there were fire ants and multiple twenty-somethings posted up very close to me, smoking and talking about their wild exploits which was not want I wanted to hear while reading Anna Karenina. So I packed up and headed to the casa while David finished his swim.

Here’s one more mistake we made: we set out at 5:00 for a drink at one of the fun bars we’d read about online.

Well, no one in their right mind was out at 5:00 in that blazing heat. We found the bar and were seated. We looked at the menu and at one another, both just pouring sweat, apologized profusely to our server, and left!

Evening activities really don’t get started until 7:00, when the sun is about to set and take the edge of the heat. Ah well.

We trudged back to the casa, sweating some more and hit Marco’s plunge pool, which we became profoundly grateful for.

Here’s what else we learned on our first day: just go ahead and wear a swimsuit all the time. And get straight into the pool whenever you return to the casa. It truly made a huge difference, resetting our body temp before we ventured into our (also hot) rooms. We’d drink an afternoon iced coffee in the pool, or bring down a drink at 5:00. That’s the way to do Happy Hour on the island!

Here’s our big win the first day: we ate probably our favorite meal of the trip at Santos Fuegos, a restaurant recommended by Marco (after that we decided to follow all his recommendations and did not regret it). We set out for the short walk at 7:00 (see! we were learning!), in that lovely golden-orange glow of the Holbox sunset we came to love so much. Here I am at the door of the casa. Isn’t it dreamy?

Look at the breeze stirring my hair! Ah, blessed relief.

The sunset is a Big Event on Holbox. It seems that everyone turns out on the beach to watch, all the young people with their cold beers and phones lining the dock to take selfies, and families with kids still splashing in the water, couples walking their dogs, and Europeans doing yoga facing the setting sun. After that first night we made sure to never miss it.

Santos Fuegos is an open-fire grill restaurant, and everything we tasted was magical, from the margaritas, to the brisket flatbread, to the charred broccoli, to the mango-and-bitter-chocolate ganache.