A few days before Christmas my married friends, Mal, Aj and I decided to have a weekend
of exploring some of the most beautiful beaches in southern Mexico.
We hammocked one night on an island, Boca de Cielo and
spent two nights in a grass hut at at the beaches of Puerto Arista.
Murphy's Law says "that anything that can go wrong will go wrong."
I'm grateful that this often proves to be true
because the best MEMORIES come from the unexpected,
sometimes dangerous adventures that are terrifying in the moment
but that you relish days later when you're safely back at home
laughing over the stories with a friend.
We left our home in San Cristobal on Friday and took a 4.5 hour bus ride to
Puerto Arista.
After shaking off a strange man who wanted to share a taxi with us we caught our own taxi to Boca De Cielo.
Our taxi driver dropped us off at the waters edge and from there we hired a man to take us by boat to the island.
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| Enjoying the scenery on the boat ride to the island. |
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| Mallarie on the boat ride to the island. |
We arrived at the island not knowing a lot about what waited for us but we had our hammocks and felt ready for anything.
We might have been a touch overconfident. On account of some unexpected expenses on the way to the beach we realized we were stranded on the island with little cash with the nearest ATM being 75 miles away on the mainland.
But that mistake resulted in the most spectacular evening. We couldn't afford to buy dinner anywhere (pretty pathetic) so we pooled our snacks together and walked down to the beach with a jar of peanut butter, three spoons, some chips and an apple for a picnic feast on the sandy surf by moonlight with the most dazzling blanket of stars overhead. It's a night I'll never forget. The night on a Mexican island where we were pulling loose pesos from the bottoms of our bags by flashlight. Trying to reassure ourselves that we could afford the outrageous taxi fee back to town the next day.
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| Where we spent the night in hammocks! |
The mosquitos were fierce but thanks to my bug net and Young Living Essential Oil bugspray
I didn't get a single bite :)
I feel asleep to the gentle sway of my hammock, listening to the waves crash on both sides of the skinny island.
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Even though this is the height of tourist season,
we had the island to ourselves!
Mal & Aj enjoying the sun at
Boca de Cielo |
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After we had counted and recounted to assure we had
enough for a taxi ride to the ATM
we bought breakfast on the island.
I enjoyed delicious freshly cut watermelon, papaya, apple and mango! |
By far my favorite part of the trip was when our taxi driver,
after getting us severely lost,
got us stuck in a sand dune and we had to push the taxi out!!
After Aj took this pic he wisely explained to Mal and I that we were in fact, pushing the car deeper into the sand dune, we needed to be pushing from the other end!
I couldn't stop laughing the whole time. LOVED IT :)
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Pushing the taxi out of the sand dune will be treasured as
one of my favorite memories of Mexico :)
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After asking several pedestrians for directions, calling the place and making 12 dozen left turns we arrived at Joe's Camping Cabanas in Puerto Arista.
This is Joe!!
A rough around the edges, but kind at heart Canadian
whose stories I could listen to for hours.
He backpacked all through South America in his twenties and moved to Mexico in his thirties. He also hitch hiked all the way from Mexico to Canada.
If you are ever in southern Mexico you must go visit Joe!!
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Mallarie, Aj and I stayed in this adorable grass hut for two nights.
The wide slats allowed us to people watcher on the unique group camping nearby
(They slack lined, juggled, hula hooped and occasionally roamed around in the nude.
They were a lively bunch!)
and inside the hut was throughly lined with mosquito netting.
But best of all to the left of our hut were the cleanest bathrooms I've seen so far in my travels.
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| Mal & Aj in front of our grass hut at Joe's Camping Cabanas! |
I'm all about some coconut and luckily for me there were dozens of dozens of coconut trees! I had fresh coconut water and meat every single day!
One night I even took some back to my hut for a midnight snack!
For dinner one night we had fresh caught fish! Scales, fins, eyes and all.
Best fish of my life!
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| Sunset at Puerto Arista |
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| With the sunny skies and days spent in the sand we would have forgotten it was Christmas without these decorations! |
Being away from family on Christmas was hard but it gave me the opportunity
to truly realize the beauty of what Emmanuel means.
God with us.
The Lord filled every minute of this season showing me what it means to find joy in Him and celebrate the beautiful gift of His creation.
Thrilled that I will spend the rest of my days and all of eternity worshipping the Creator
of this brilliantly wonderful earth.
I'll be blogging again soon about Christmas Eve in an indigenous church, sharing Bible stories in Spanish, horseback riding and exploring a local cave!
xoxo,
Becca
