On The Beach

We have been here for more than a week and have yet to visit any of the Mayan ruins and ancient colonial cities that lie just a few miles inland. But we have plenty of time for adventure and, for now, we are simply living life on the beach.
The gently fizzing water is pleasantly warm as we take our early morning dips under a cloudless blue sky, and we are beginning to wonder if we will ever get our Polar Bear swim. But it’s not all plain sailing: clouds bubble up in the heat of the noonday sun and the pleasant sea breeze freshens to a stiff gale that whips up the waves and snatches at the fronds of the coconut palms fringing the endless miles of deserted beach…

And then, as night falls, the wind gradually abates and we are lulled to sleep by the sound of the surf whooshing onto the beach. By dawn the wind has died, the clouds have retreated to the distant horizon, and we are greeted by a clear sky and a fresh new day. Here’s the view from our balcony…

Pelicans and all manner of seabirds endlessly dive-bomb these shallow waters in front of our apartment, and re-appear from the emerald depths with a bounty of fish. We, on the other hand, visit the fish market in Progreso where, on a good day, we can buy numerous varieties of fresh local seafood for about $2 a pound…

If this all sounds a little too idyllic, perhaps we should mention that some of the beach access roads are dumping grounds for garbage and old furniture, that the beaches have a smattering of discarded plastic and broken bottles, and that, in places, there are ugly sandbag groynes as owners desperately try to stop the unrelenting sea from washing their beach, and their house, back into the ocean. It’s not always pretty, but as we walk the soft golden sand we concentrate on nature’s beauty, like the birds, the ever-changing seascape and these incredible shells…

And this relic of prehistoric times – the carapace of a helmet crab…

We're heading inland over the next few days but we've just discovered a bit of a hitch. According to the Mayan calendar the world is going to end in just over a week when a massive meteorite will strike the earth just about where we are standing. Stay tuned for an eyewitness account.