Mexico Part 3: Punta Mosquitos and Holbox Beach (Fotos + Videos)

After arriving in Mexico and spending two really nice days at the island of Holbox, seeing the algae light spectacle at night and checking it out with an Golf cart, my girlfriend Elena had become some stomach issues in the afternoon and all night long... classic ;)

So the next day I went to Willys Whaleshark Tours and cancelled our boat trip, that we had just booked the day before. He was really nice and understanding! - of course we got our money back.

I got some more electrolyte and medicine for her, some breakfast and we stayed almost all day inside with air condition and a bathroom close 😉

The next day Elena already felt a little bit better. It was our last day at the island, so we decided to do some morning yoga and then walk to the beach.

Walking through the village we quickly arrived at the pier.

Our host had told us that in the morning between 8am and 11am there is always a sandbar in the ocean - perfect to walk to Punta Mosquito with the Caribbean sea on both sides. - Really romantic!

So we made sure Elena was hydrated enough, we had sunscreen on and a caps with us.

Then we started to walk. From the stay first we walked along the beach, past the restaurants, bars, hammocks and hotels and then crossed the water to get to the sandbar.

For those of you who never heard of this - A sandbar is a sedimentation of sand or gravel at the bottom of oceans and rivers, formed by the tide and current. A “free beach wall” is created when a sand bank in front of it rises above sea level.

When sandbars grow, islands are created. Sandbanks that fall dry every day are also known as plates or sand plates.

Even the boats where stuck at the sand for that hours! It was just incredible. Every now and then we had to cross a little bit of water, saw little fish and shrimp in the water or gulls waiting for them to be in the shallow water.

From the beach it is an about one hour walk to Punta Mosquito, where the YUM BALAM Natural Reserve begins.

The Yum Balam Flora and Fauna Protection Area was established in 1994, the nature reserve was the first protected area in Mexico to be created at the request of local communities.

The reserve includes wetlands along the north shore of the Yucatán Peninsula and includes Isla Holbox. It has been designated as a protected Ramsar site since 2004.

The area provides a habitat for jaguars, Baird's tapirs, crocodiles, sea turtles, American manatees, Caribbean spiny lobsters and ocellated turkeys, as well as Everglades palms and mangroves.

Walking along that sandbank watching all kinds of birds on our right and the Caribbean cristal clear water to our left was just magical!

Yum Balam is meant to be managed in cooperation with local communities and permits limited hunting and fishing by locals. In practice, sadly controversy has arisen.

In 2018 a series of federal inspections led to the temporary closure of the natural reserve. That's why you can only walk until a sign and have to go back from there. So it is almost impossible to visit the whole reserve by yourself.

There are a few guided tours though you can book, which in the end is the better solution because the reserve is well protected and the people also. Most of them enter the area by boat or kayaks.

On our way back the water was already rising until our knees. It was really tough to walk all the way back in the water, but at the same time refreshing.

Elena was still feeling a bit week, so we when we got back to the beach we took a break in the shadow and decided to stay a bit at the Raices restaurant.

Raices is a really nice simple restaurant right at the beach. They have life music, sunbeds and hammocks to lie down.

We got some fries, lemonades and sunbeds to chill and just lied down watching people coming by.

I even jumped into the water and then enjoyed the sun for a bit.

After a while we decided to go back so Elena could rest a little bit before our long trip to Chichen Itza and Playa del Carmen the next day. - But more about that soon!

Only at night we went out to grab some food and witnessed this! - A group of locals doing zumba right at the city center! Awesome! I just had to share this with you guys haha

Cheers, Liz