holbox: day three (fishing and snorkeling trip).

Before I tell you about our third day on the island, I’ll explain our food situation. For budget and health purposes, we made the decision to eat out two meals a day and eat one in the casa (this was one reason we wanted something with a kitchen).

Yes, it is possibly to eat cheaply on Holbox … the tacos you saw from yesterday were $10 for the two of us; you can find a $1 cup of coffee, and the tortillas we bought were incredibly inexpensive. But the $1 coffee does not taste good, and if you want to veer from those couple of things to more unique dishes — or any of restaurants with a fun atmosphere, the prices were equivalent to American prices. For example, a cocktail was around $10 and a nice latte about $5. We never ate at the bars on the beach after discovering how pricey they were that first night.

Many restaurants took credit cards but we still made sure to carry Mexican pesos everywhere, especially since we had to pay for our two boat tours in cash.

For our daily meal at home, we kept things very simple: eggs, hard boiled or scrambled with veggies, bread or tortillas, and a wedge of cheese. We bought some fruit and veggies and yogurt as well, and had read ahead of time to bring American snacks. We were thankful for our Trader Joe’s stash of CLIF bars, dried fruit, turkey jerky, and mixed nut/seed packs (and recommend those for US road trips too).

Try as we might we could never again find that magical bakery window from our first bleary day on Holbox, but we did begin frequenting a French cafe just two blocks from our casa, where I ate the best chocolate croissant of my life. The owner, an older French gentleman, informed us that he’s on the board of the animal shelter across the corner from where we stayed. We got to meet one of the pups he adopted from there: Chewbacca, who reminded me of my childhood dog in Barbados.

 

After eating a pastry and drinking an espresso, we’d buy a fresh hot baguette for a later meal of the day. Yum.

 

 

At 9:30 that morning, we packed our beach bag with sunscreen, towels, water, and plenty of snacks this time, and walked down to our little beach where our captain, Carmelo, picked us up right at the shore in his fishing boat. We felt like royalty.

Carmelo is one of the most entertaining people we’ve ever met — hardly speaks a word of English, but brought along his 21-year-old great-nephew as a translator, Luis (this was a private tour!). He not only brought a translator, but also his beloved dog, a Pomeranian named “Locochona,” which we understood to mean something like “crazy person/life of the party.” That turned out to be a very fitting name for both Carmelo and his dog.

You may think of Pomeranians as being a bit prim, but not this one. Not one bit. She was made for a life on the sea, and enjoyed circling the boat by way of the seats (nudging anyone who was sitting to scoot forward so she could squeeze behind us).

 

The most unique thing about this pup is her obsession with dolphins. She runs around the boat when she thinks she spots one, and then when we came upon a group of about six she began barking frantically, running from rail to rail, tail wagging with joy. I wish I could reproduce for you the scene of this dog barking her head off while Carmelo yelled his head off at her, also full of the joy of dolphins.

 

Carmelo was full of the joy of many things. A fisherman for 70 of his 80 years, he still acted like a young boy who’d never been out on the sea before. We got used to his cries of “Tortuga! Tortuga! See!!!!” when he spotted a sea turtle for us (magical), or all his showing us birds and fish. Later on, when we stopped to snorkel, Carmelo stripped down to his skivvies, grabbed a snorkel set and jumped into the water with us. We thought it was to show us different marine life, but nope; he just wanted to swim off and see it for himself.

It was a day of endless entertainment, both inside and outside our little boat.

Actually, David and I agreed that it was our favorite part of the whole trip.

Let me show you the map again so you can see where we traveled . . . all the way to the far right of the island to Cabo Catoche. We stopped a couple of times to do line fishing along the way.

 

 

We stopped and walked on shore along the way to spot what Luis called “footprints of sea turtles.” Also magical. At the nest below, the sign indicates the number of eggs that have been laid there.

 

 

 

After that stop we went to a spot near Cabo Catoche to snorkel. We saw manta rays, dozens and dozens of varieties of fish, and David saw a shark at the end when Carmelo poured the rest of his bait into the sea.

 

There’s a lighthouse and beach bar all the way out at Cabo Catoche, but we didn’t feel the need to stop on shore there; instead we turned into a “river,” which you can see on the map cuts across the island in places. David and I walked the shallow water and spotted wildlife, including an enormous hermit crab, while Carmelo prepared ceviche with the fish we caught.

 

 

 

We ate some pretty amazing food on Holbox but both agreed that this lunch was the very best. We’ve tried ceviche before at a fancy restaurant in Charleston, but Carmelo’s beat it hands down. We loved his addition of mango to the typical ingredients of onions, cilantro, avocado, tomato, bell peppers, habanero peppers, and lots and lots of lime juice.

We devoured two bowls each and drank all the broth which Carmelo communicated through Luis is “Very good for health.” I laughed because I can never get David to drink the broth of his soup at home, but Carmelo wouldn’t take no for an answer, and stood over both him and Luis until every last drop was finished.

 

 

After everyone was happily full, Locochona curled up on my lap and we began the hour-long ride back. It was a perfect, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

 

 

 

That night was dinner at Barba Negra, which we learned from both Marco and the internet had the best tacos on the island and apparently some of the best in Mexico. They were incredible.

 

 

And then it was down to the beach for sunset. David preferred to be in the water at sunset, watching from one of the rocks. I enjoyed stretching out on the beach on a towel with a drink. It was a perfect end to a perfect day.