As most of you know, I’m not a winter person. The thought of spending all winter in Chicago, staying with my parents, with things on lockdown was not great! Shockingly it’s not very life affirming when you’re 35, staggering downstairs in the same pair of sweatpants everyday, and getting greeted with ‘Good Afternoon’. Then drinking about 4 coffees out of sheer boredom. I had to get out. And of course there are not many countries open to travel during covid, but there is one little country south of the border that doesn’t have any restrictions, soooo Viva la Mexico!
I flew down after Christmas, a straight shot down to Cancun. The first thing I did down there however was getting an abdominal ultrasound, as I swear something is funky with my stomach. In the US I checked the prices for the Edward Group in Naperville, $1200 if I use my insurance (silly bc I have an $7,500 deductible and it’s the end of the year) or $600 out of pocket, and of course nothing available right away (in fact a 2 month wait for the Naperville location).
At the local clinic in Cancun, the price was $37. Thirty Seven Dollars. It’s not a complicated procedure. The price difference is just ridiculous, medical prices in the US are just so out of synch with the rest of the world. Some of you are probably thinking $600 for an ultrasound, that’s not bad at all! But that’s only because it’s all we know; nobody else in the world pays $600 for a routine ultrasound. And for all of you reading that have nice insurance with your employers, maybe you think the US healthcare system is perfectly fine, but understand for those of us who have to buy their own insurance, we pay thousands a year to not get covered for anything unless it’s cancer or whatever. The system is just straight up garbage. GARBAGE. I can buy round trip tickets to Cancun, stay a week and still come out ahead. That’s how silly the whole thing is.
Ok, rant over, we’re in Cancun but not staying long as there is nothing much downtown Cancun, (the ultrasound was normal btw) so off to Isla Holbox for New Years! Now I didn’t plan this very far in advance so almost everything was booked up except for a campground with fixed tents + a common area for eating/cooking etc. That’s fine, I’m not that picky. It was a two hour bus ride to the port, plus another 30 minute ferry and we were there! One of the draws of Holbox is there’s no cars, just golf carts and scooters. However the roads are a potholed, puddled mess. I found the campsite just fine and ‘checked into’ my tent, ha. It had big sleeping pad, clean sheets, electricity (a reading light, mini fan, and outlet to plug in stuff) and built in wooden cupboard/shelves. Not bad for a tent!
Walking around my part of the island you can see that it’s a pretty basic place, quiet, just some corner shops, and you might have to walk on some wooden planks every now and then to get past some muddy sections of road. Eventually you get to tourist plaza, with the restaurants, ice cream places, clothing shops, tour companies, etc. Of course the real action is at the beach. Holbox has some sparkly white sand beaches, so that’s where everyone spends their time of course. And because it was NYE, there was no shortage of people. Normally Holbox is known for being a very chilled out, relaxing place, but not on New Years Eve! The music was already pumpin.
White sand beaches
Away from the touristy section
After a good stroll down the beach (there’s a lot of it) I was back in the campsite to shower and relax. I met some of the people in the campsite, although it was mostly a Spanish speaking party crowd, so yeah, not my cup of tea. Even though Mexico doesn’t enforce any quarantine, I wanted to be especially careful in the first 10 days, so attending the Covid parties, and possibly being a super-spreader was not what I was going for. I was more than happy to spend my evening eating from the taco stand and reading a book down on a quiet section of beach, just taking in the tropical breeze. Happy New Years!
Awww yeah, gonna take me a long time to get tired of this!
The camp cleared out in the morning and the beaches were mostly empty when I went for a run. In the mornings Holbox has this great long sand bar that stretches for a mile or two. You have to wade waist deep to get out to it, so I took off my shoes and socks and rolled up my shorts to get out there. I just held my shoes as I ran barefoot, it was a beautiful spot for a jog. Probably my most active New Years Day morning, well, ever!
Photo stolen off the internet to give you a good idea of how nice the sandbar is!
Eventually I would meet a couple people in the campsite and we rented some bikes and explored the island a bit. Well to be fair there isn’t that much to explore. One end kind of devolves into a mangrove forest and you can’t really go any further unless you have a boat, and the other end has beautiful houses that I’m sure make for expensive rentals, and that’s the end that you go for the sunset, which is really nice.
But on the whole, Holbox is one of those places that is a beach destination and basically only a beach destination. So for me, it got a little bit boring after a couple of days. I need other stuff to do, snorkeling, scuba diving, waterfalls, jungle, renting a scooter, anything! Four nights was definitely enough for me. I still had a few days before my Airbnb was starting in Playa del Carmen, so I took the bus back to Cancun, then onto PDC, and from there hopped on the ferry to Cozumel to get in a couple days of scuba diving!
Sunset near the main ferry pier
Dark clouds and Christmas trees on the boardwalk
From Cancun it was an easy bus ride to Playa del Carmen, and then just a two blocks down 5th Avenue with all the vendors trying to get you to buy their shit, and then you’re at the ferry terminal. They go about every two hours this year, 35 minutes and you’re in Cozumel. I had booked a guesthouse a little outside the touristy part, but walking through the main strip you could tell that Cozumel was quite a bit more dead than Playa, the vendors more desperate to get your attention. It was kind of depressing. I guess Cozumel relies on lots of cruise boat traffic, and with none of those this year, it was hurting especially hard.
I dropped off my stuff and popped in one of the scuba dive offices I saw on the way, and I was already all set for diving the next day, easy. Two Brits and two Americans. We had to take a taxi up to the port and then from there another 30 minute boat ride to part of the island with the best diving, the Palancar reef. It’s really nice diving, lots of big bulbous structures to swim through, nooks, alleyways, natural arches, all that sort of stuff. The visibility was good, not much current, basically just very relaxed diving. We saw a lot of the usual critters, a few turtles, sting rays, one or two big eagle rays, moray eels, some squid, barracuda, some huge lobsters, etc. Just really pleasant diving. I did three days of it.
I broke the diving up one day by renting a scooter and cruising around the island, which is a great way to spend an afternoon. The far side of the island is rocky and windswept, some very scenic beaches, although a lot of them have red flags for no-swimming. The roads are also nice with hardly any people on them, especially this year. Although they have a couple restaurants out there that are tourist trap central, $12 for a cheeseburger, $15 for a jumbo margarita? GTFO. I wasn’t having any of those type places. Coming back inland they also have a Mayan ruin, which isn’t much too look at, but if you’re there, why not? So anyway, that was a worthwhile thing to do. And I basically love anything on scooters of course.
Abandoned bar on the far side of the island
Looked pretty wicked
rich people taking their boats out
So that was Cozumel. Overall it was a bit more of a boring place than I anticipated, with the downtown being pretty dead and all. I mean I liked it because of the diving, and there were some nice sunsets, but if you’re not a diver, I probably wouldn’t bother. Next up: hunkering down in Playa.