Posted by Andre on January 06, 2003 at 16:36:16:
Xcalak & Back – October 2002 Oct. 25/2002 Got up early to watch the sunrise over the water at Zamas. Jen couldn’t sleep and was up about an hour later and joined me for an early breakfast at Que Fresco. Really great food there, but that’s another story. Everyone else up and fed, we decide to get going. Drive into Tulum Pueblo and cash some traveller’s cheques, fuel the car and we’re off to Xcalak. After about an hour’s drive on 307, we approach Filipe Carillo Puerto. Fuel up at the Pemex on the north side of town and then look for the grocery store. Drive all the way through town without finding it, debating whether or not to stop for a pollo asado al carbon. Decide that everyone is OK for food, so we’ll get a late lunch, but we still need to find the grocery store. Ask the soldiers at the checkpoint on the south side of town “Donde es el supermercado?” He laughs, points back towards town and says “Retorno aqui.” “Mucho gracias” and we turn around. Heading back into town we spot the store on the left hand side and pull in to a parking lot with potholes the size of the car. Into the store for a few essentials for the stay at SandWood. We figure between the four of us we can look after breakfasts, some drinks and a few cocktail snacks. We pick up some tortillas, chiles, tomatoes, onion, bread, PB, jam, chips, peanuts, avocado, nachos, 36 beers, 1 bottle of rum (still have tequila and “Controy” left from Tulum) and 2 dozen eggs. Eric asked me the word for “eggs” en espanol. You should have seen the look on her face when he asked “Hay huevos?” Which roughly translated would be the equivalent of asking the woman at your local “Got balls?” After we left I explained the subtle difference between “huevos” and “blanquillos”. Adequately provisioned we continued on to Xcalak. Eric got it into his head that we should check out Laguna Ocom. As I’m always up for a little exploring, (hey it’s a rental car) I was an enthusiastic seconder for that motion. We drove for about 10 mins and spotted the turn off for Ocom. Actually, we passed it and had to back up. We started down a sand road after consulting a sign that indicated the Laguna was a scant 8 km down the road. Dina & Jen didn’t think too much of the side trip at all, and even less when 8 km had come and gone and no Laguna. I must say I thought the drive was very pleasant, the sun was shining, we were in the middle of nowhere and were surrounded by beautiful green jungle. We passed through a couple of VERY small villages (only 1 or 2 houses) where it seemed that our passage through was the highlight of the day, either because they couldn’t believe that 4 loco gringos were stupid enough to try driving down the road, or that 4 loco gringos were stupid enough to get lost out here. I voiced the opinion that the 8 km on the sign may be like many other things in Mexico, really only an approximation - “mas o menos”. I suggested that we go another 2 kms, just in case the distance was measured in Mexican. We ran out of road after about 600m. Turn around. Back to the little village. Spot a guy walking along the road and ask “Perdonme, donde es la Laguna”. He looks at us like he can’t believe this is what we’re asking, and points and says “Es en el izquidiero”. We head back down the road for about 5 minutes and find a left turn off and head down a dirt track even smaller than the one we turned off and after a couple of minutes spot the lake. We drive past a couple of Mayan huts with a few people resting in hammocks with two pigs and 5 chickens running around outside. Park in a nice shady grove of trees at the lakeside. There is a small palapa, roof, no walls with a guy lounging in a hammock reading a paper. . He give us a wave and says “Ola” and goes back to reading his paper. Eric and I get out to check out the lake. It looks really inviting for a swim until we get up close. The water is clear enough, and a great temperature, but the foamy residue on the shoreline gives us pause. Dina and Jen both suggest we might be crazy to risk a swim , and in the end we agree. Instead we decide to have a beer by the lakeside to cool off. Got a great picture of Eric sitting by the Don Canalone and a nice composite of the lake. So by now we’ve decided we’ve had enough of looking at the lake and decide to get back on track. On the way back out to the road we encounter a nice herd?, flock? of butterflies. What do you call a group of butterflies. Dina thinks they’re following us, because a little further up the road we see some more. Dina’s pretty sure she recognizes them from before, but the rest of us are a little skeptical. Next cool thing was the parade across the road. We spot a bunch of leaves crossing the road like sailboat regatta. We get out to take a look and find a column of leaf-cutter ants marching across the track. Really cool. A young Mayan girl and a baby on a 10 speed bike ride past us and smile. Back on 307. It takes us about an hour to make it to the turn towards the coast, and then another hour to the Majahual-Xcalak branch off. The road was under construction, we just couldn’t figure out whether the crews were installing or repairing the potholes. Breezed through the checkpoint, actually didn’t even have to stop as the soldiers were having a good laugh about something and just waved us through. You want to take it REAL easy traveling along here. What’s the hurry anyways? From the split it was about a 45 min trip into the Xcalak pueblo. Driving into town, it reminded me a lot of Mulege in Baja. Don’t know what the town is like now, but about 12 years ago, it had the same sleepy, laid back feeling. From Xcalak pueblo, we headed north of town to Sandwood Villas. Past the naval checkpoint. Not really sure what the navy is doing here, since I didn’t even see a boat at the base. They’ve got a really big dock though, so I guess they could wave at you. We arrived at Sandwood and were met by Ruth Sanders. Mama Ruth showed us our great accommodations, told us to take out the kayaks if we were so inclined and that drinks and dinner would be in about 1-2 hours if we cared to join them. Got our gear unpacked and hit the water for a swim. Eric went for a snorkel and found morays, lobsters, sting-rays and a huge bull fish about 20 feet from the shore in front of Sandwood. Got out of the water and met Joe & Sue. They were down from Maryland looking at property. Said our hello’s and said we’d see them at dinner. Down to Mama Ruth’s for some muy fuerte margaritas and the best conch ceviche. Dinner was steak fajitas, equally delish. Spent the night getting to know our hosts and our new friends and emptying Andy’s fridge of all the cold Dos X. Next morning got up and had a breakfast in the apartment of eggs, toast, coffe and banana smoothies. Went for a walk on the beach and could not believe the 1000’s of conch shells everywhere. Made me feel a bit guilty about the ceviche from the night before. Decided to head into town to see about a dive with XTC and the possibility of a Chinchorro trip. Spoke with Polly at XTC, and arranged to go with Tito and Alejandro to dive Ciudad Unidad. Apparently we were at present the only divers in Xcalak, so we’d have to play the Chinchorro trip by ear. The dive wasn’t the greatest. Interesting topography, but virtually no fish or other life except for 1 medium grouper. Back to Sandwood for some beers and snacks for the cocktail hour, lasts about 180 minutes by my watch. Ruth and Andy asked if we wanted to go into town for drinks and dinner at Alan’s. Thought that was a great idea, but also thought we might need a little snack before we go. All agreed and so we had a nice appy of steamed clams with garlic butter to tide us over. While we were having our drinks Pedro showed up to see if he could buy a few cold ones from Andy. Being the obliging guy that he is, Andy was able to accommodate his request. On the way out to the cars, Pedro fired up the kick-ass stereo and popped the hatch on his car for a little impromptu mariachi music. Had a bit of a dance on the road in front of Sandwood before piling off to town. Got to Alan’s and made our way upstairs. The place was pretty much deserted, so it was a good thing we had a traveler with us. After about 10 minutes, Alan showed up and sadly told us that we couldn’t have dinner there since he had been fishing all day with his buddy Glen and didn’t catch anything…..except a pretty good beer buzz. So with Alan pretty out of it and out of food, we headed over to Silvia’s. Great dinner there. The four of us ordered a bunch of different seafood and shared around. On the way out of town we stopped at a local wedding to say hello and then were off back up the road to Sandwood. Eric spotted a crab on the road that he just HAD to catch, so that was good for a few minutes of entertainment. On our arrival back at Sandwood, we were met with some really unfortunate news. Francisco, Andy & Ruth’s caretaker had received news that his father, brothers and uncle had been in a car accident and all had been killed. The story got worse. Apparently the bodies were left on the road and no one knew what had happened. Andy, Joe & Sue, decided to make the trip with Francisco and family to sort it all out. Prior to their departure, another phone call from Francisco’s family reports that no one is dead, but all are severely injured and have not been transported to hospital. Fortunately Andy et al return at about 8:00 am and report that only one person sustained a relatively minor injury and that Joe and Andy made arrangements for him to get medical attention. Definitely not the type of experience one expects on holiday. Next morning Eric and I have arranged to dive La Posa. Tito picks us up in the dive boat in front of Sandwood. This is awesome, valet dive boat service. We head south back to La Poza. This dive is one of the most amazing I have encountered in my 17 + years of diving. I have dove Baja, Australia, and multiple Caribbean sites, but this was a spectacular dive. The density and diversity of life rivaled Baja. We must have seen 50+ spotted eagle rays. They seemed to come in waves, in groups of 3-7, gliding above, below and beside us. 100’s of tarpon cruised around the walls. Schools of snapper, and large grouper and 2 medium sized turtles rounded off the players. Finished off our bottom time ascending La Copa del Mundo, a huge coral head that is truly great shape. No mud guppies kicking the shit out of the coral here. Kudos to XTC for acting as truly great conservators. After a memorable dive like that, Eric and I decided we should probably have a cold one, and we needed some more beer for the fridge at the apartment. We picked up a few sixes at the local store, and sat down at the plastic table to enjoy one before heading back. A couple of cholos were at the table next to us. They strike up a conversation over smokes and the beer and we learn they’ve just brought a couple of gringo divers up from San Pedro. Things might be looking up for Chinchorro! Eric and I end up spending about 3-4 hours with these guys, just shooting the breeze and the 4 of us taking turns buying rounds. We figure we’re in shit with the girls, so we decide that we should buy some groceries before going back. The grocery truck pulls up and Eric decides he’ll do the shopping. Apparently the semi-loaded but agreeable gringo trying to buy groceries in his bathing suit is good entertainment value, because Eric gathers quite a crowd. He keeps yelling over “How do you say….in spanish” When he asks for the word for avocado, one of the cholos says “you could just pull down your pants”. That’s the second time Eric got burned on a ball joke buying groceries.