While driving past luxury resorts, adventure parks and crowded beaches along the Caribbean coast of Yucatán, you may ask yourself if you are still in Mexico. The tourist industry has clearly taken over this, without a doubt, once picturesque stretch of coastline. Read here why some unpredictable events still made this part of the trip unforgettable…

Whale Shark Tour Holbox Island, Mexico

Our first stop back in Mexico is the Laguna de Bacalar with its clear water shining in officially seven different shades of blue (also known as the “Laguna de los siete colores”). We take a refreshing bath in the lagoon and sleep on the quiet town plaza of Bacalar, where we have some Quesadillas in a restaurant.

Jetties in the Laguna de Bacalar

In the next morning we make our way to Tulum, were the Maya have build a city on top of the cliffs along the coast, serving as a port for the close by city of Cobá. While the ruins, overran by tourists, can’t impress too much after having seen so many others, another incident in Tulum is much more interesting to us…

While walking along Playa de Maya near Tulum, Killa and me are approached by photographer Domenico Castaldo and his assistant Dylan. They ask us if we would be interested to pose for an underwater wedding shooting in a nearby Cenote. Officially in Mexico to shoot a wedding in Playa del Carmen, Domenico and his team are hoping to get some good shots for their wedding portfolio.

Whereas Killa likes the idea from the start, I am not exactly sure about switching my spot from behind the camera towards the front of the flashlights. But we accept the offer and it turns out to be a nice and fun experience. Domenico and his wife Cecily pick us up in the next afternoon to buy a white dress for Killa and a shirt for myself. Afterwards we have some drinks in town before joining the whole team in their hotel for an amusing evening around the pool where someone might have tried Mezcal with a worm inside… :)

Slightly hangover we head to Cenote Cristalino in the morning, where befriended photographer Fabrizio Proietto helps us with the shooting. Apart from being new to the modeling part of photography it is really strange to pose underwater for me. I feel very clumsy and without seeing the surroundings in the Cenote through a diving mask for myself, it’s hard to imagine the pictures turning out nice. All the more I’m positively surprised when seeing the finished pictures online. Thanks for the fun times we had with you guys! See more of their work on the official website!

In Playa del Carmen we try to enjoy the beach, but being full of hotels we decide to sneak into one of those instead and enjoy the great offerings of pools, jacuzzis and sanitation facilities instead. While having some wine on the beach later in the evening we decide to get away from this overcrowded coast and spent the remaining time together on Holbox Island in the far north of Yucatán.

In Playa del Carmen it’s once more time to get some work done on the exhaust…

One day later we sit on the ferry and leave the camper on the mainland once more. We find a nice and inexpensive place run by an Argentinian family. With the island being famous for the good chances to spot whale sharks, we head out to find a tour for the next day. We are told that the whale sharks have just arrived to the area and that they had been spotted everyday in the last few days. We accept that as pretty good chances and put our names on the list for next day’s tour. We use the rest of the day to discover the small island by foot.

Early in the morning we depart from the beach and begin an hours-long search for the biggest fish in the world. The weather is perfect, the people are in a good mood and everything is great. Just the whale shark is not taking part in our little gathering…For whichever reason there are no whale sharks being spotted the whole day and so I will have to try and swim with those amazing animals another time. The boat trip still turns out to be very nice and we see some turtles, stingrays and even a shark while snorkeling. After that we catch some fish and prepare fresh delicious Cevice on the boat.

On the boat

Killa with “her catch”

Flamingos along the coast

Back on the mainland it is already time to say goodbye again and Killa departs from Cancún International Airport back to Germany. I spent the whole day in McDonalds getting my new blog entry and pictures online. In the next evening I drive to the airport once more to pick up Santiago, who will travel with me through the bigger part of Mexico back to his hometown of Mazatlán.

Together we start our trip by visiting Cancún. We are both very disappointed because apart from the little uninteresting town center, the whole city just consists of one hotel next to each other in the creatively called district of “Zona Hotelera”. We spent one day at the beach before driving back to Playa del Carmen. The next few days we reverse my previous trip with Killa so Santiago can see Playa del Carmen, Tulum, the Cenotes and the Laguna Bacalar. From there we head back into the real Mexico and leave the Carribean Coast behind us.

Route Map 30.05.2015