Up at the crack of dawn, and to the bus station for our trip to bacalar. We’d had our party time in playa del carmen, now for a relaxing time by a asteroid created lagoon, with supposed mystical healing powers. That was the plan.
A private room with a bed each await us, in a hostel that backed onto the lagoon. The Yak. Pure vibes, good food, jokes staff, mojito making lessons. We took a boat around the lagoon with 2 legends, Jorge and armando. Jorge was our tour guide, very bright, great storyteller. Armando, el capitano, spoke no English, and was an expert sailor, tilting the boat fully 90 degrees as I trailed my locs through the lagoon. The best tacos of my life and a wine bar later, and we found ourselves at a local street party. Turns out, we had come to bacalar during a 15 day festival. There was a street party every night, where they all danced in traditional clothing carrying pigs heads in baskets on their heads. The winner won a cooked pigs head, and had to organise the party the next year. Got into a huge argument with 20 Mexicans because I thought they were charging me 50 pesos to use the toilet; they were charging me 5.
The next day we paddle boarded the lagoon with a couple from London we met at the hostel. We put in some miles, swimming in cenote negra, where an evil Bruja supposedly lives. David sent her a present. Over to the pirates bay, where a Mayan made channel cut through the lagoon, connecting to the sea. Then we got caught in a thunderstorm on the way back. The wind whistled off the lagoon, as if the spirit of it whispered to me. I must admit, my paddle boarding had been pretty average to this point, but in this storm I moved to my knees and paddled hard. I flew through it, in much the same manner as the Mayans who built the dam would have, thousands of years ago. “Fully Tongan”, as David remarked.
We’d been pretty popular at the last street party, so the locals had hooked us up with the address of the next one. Almost no tourists were there, and by this point, I was having basic (very basic) convos in Spanish, muchos vibes were had. Salsa was attempted (poorly) and we danced the night away with our new crew of friends from all over the world.