When everything was packed and I was ready to go I went over to the bus station and asked for a "boleto a isla Holbox". There was a bus every hour but I would have to change at El Ideal. So I got a ticket for the bus at 10:30 and had to wait a while.
It's not too difficult to travel by bus in Mexico, even with very limited Spanish, the only problem I had was to find out what is the correct bus to take. The buses only show the destination, but the ticket does not show the final destination when you are getting off along the way. So everytime a bus arrived I asked the guy who lets people on the platforms if it was mine... I think he got a bit pissed off after a while. By now it was already 10:45 and my bus was still not in sight...
But finally it did arrive and he told me that was the one I should be taking. Soon we set off eastwards again... somewhere along the road a guy got on the bus with a lot of large bags and boxes and tried to sell food to the passengers. After a few stops he got off again and presumably got on the next bus back towards the stop where he initially got on. He probably does this all day until his bags and boxes are empty.
Soon we stopped at El Ideal, no announcement, the only reason I knew it was El Ideal was my GPS on the phone. It was not much more really, than a T-junction in the middle of the jungle with a taxi stand, a petrol station and maybe 5 or 6 houses. No Bus stop to be seen. Luckily I was not the only person who got off the bus. It turned out there was no bus going to Isla Holbox for another 4 hours of so (and if it came it may not even stop here).
So the two mexicans who also got off the bus and I shared a taxi to the next town (Kantunilkin) for 40 peso each. Here one of my fellow passengers went off and I was left waiting with the other one (who also wanted to go to Chiquila, which is the port from where the ferry to Isla Holbox leaves) for another Taxi.
It wasn't long until one arrived an the two of us were on the next 50 km Taxi ride.
All together it was 140 Peso (10€) for about 80 km of taxi through the jungle.
At the harbour town of Chiquila I got a return ticket for the red ferry (there is a choice between a red and a blue ferry company, both costing the same) to Isla Holbox.
To my surprise the water in the bay was not very clear and I thought to myself, this is not going to be as nice as Isla Mujeres. Over the last week or so, I have met a couple of people who told me that Isla Holbox was their favourite place in Mexico so far, and some of them had also been to Isla Mujeres.
Arriving at the peer on the island I was not much more impressed, the buildings were boxy, rundown, concrete structures and the taxis were golf carts.
Not very atmospheric so far. I refused to take one of these silly taxis on an Island that you can walk across in 15 minutes and followed the sandy road to the north shore. The further I went, the nicer the buildings became, the cleaner the roads turned and closer to the north shore beach (on the golf of Mexico) it was actually quite nice. The sandy streets were empty, except the occasional golf cart and lined with little artisan shops, cafes, restaurants and bars.
It was quite a touristy place but luckily it was not mass tourism. Soon I also found the Tribu hostel that I had been able to get a bed in. As I heard already, it was a cool setup, a bit artificial but all in all a nice looking place with a good vibe.
First thing to do was to check out the beach just behind the hostel and to my relief the beach was quite nice and the water was much clearer than on the south side of the island in the basin. So, I went for a walk along the beach to have a look at the place and get a feeling for this little town.
On the way back I was already really hungry and luckily found a little shed that sold fajitas and some fresh lemonade - Perfect combination in this weather.
Back at the hostel I relaxed for a while in one of the plentiful hammocks and contacted Basti and Lisa from Wuerzburg, who I met on my arrival in Valladolid the other day. They told me they were also going to be here and we agreed to meet up.
So we arranged to meet for sunset at the beach bar with the pirate flag.
It was nice to watch and we decided to try some more food in the market, where we tried to find out the difference between all the very similar mexican foods. We tried gringas, quesadillas, tacos, bourritos, burachos and many more different dishes and concluded they are all very much the same.
While we were sitting on little plastic chairs at one of these little plastic tables we met another German Lisa, got a sixpack of beer and went back to the beach where we talked for another 3 hours about travelling and lots of other stuff. It was a great time: No netflix required.
Back at the hostel, there was still a bit of a party going (the weekly rocknight) at the rooftop bar. I stayed for a few beers and then went to bed.
Unfortunately it wasn't an easy task to fall asleep as there was still Music going from somehwere down the beach - not our hostel - which kept waking me up. Even earplugs did not really help much.
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