Beautiful Bacalar

So far in our trip the one thing which has surprised us the most in Mexico, is how expensive it has been. I’d looked into it before leaving obviously, but everything seems to have crept up in price in the last few years, notably food and activities. It’s interesting that on Google maps you can look at the menu of a restaurant and often see several copies; 6 years ago, 2 years ago, 2 weeks ago etc. And it’s absolutely mad how uniformly all prices have increased, and not by just a little!

So in an attempt to claw back some of our overspending, we decided to take the 2nd class bus from Campeche to our next destination, Lake Bacalar…

The bus left at 8am and was due to take 8 hours, basically non-stop to our destination. It was about half the price of the ADO first class bus ($473 pesos, opposed to $990), but that bus is pretty much direct, with only stops in the major cities. By comparison, our little bus stopped at every bus stop at the side of the road (if there was someone there with their hand out waiting, or if someone shouted stop on the bus!). And it also took us through many smaller towns and villages and ended up being a really interesting journey actually. Much better than the main featureless highway. So we’d definitely recommend this route instead!

Although, you could tell it was 2nd class when the driver (and his mate) decided to stop for breakfast burritos at a little place and just left the bus on the side of the road for 30 minutes…. We weren’t the only passengers pissed off haha

We eventually made it to Chetumal and from there we got a short bus to Bacalar, and had time for a cheeky Little Caesar’s pizza takeaway just next to the ADO station!

Bacalar is beautiful, it’s known as the lake of seven colours, and is a freshwater lake with a limestone and sandy bottom, which helps give the lake some of its colour. It’s also full of a kind of cyanobacteria which has formed these huge structures called stromatolites, some of which are literally billions of years old and can be considered one of the oldest life forms on Earth!! We were pretty excited to see those.

So on our first day, we booked to do a half day boat trip on the lagoon which was a very highly rated activity on the lake and supposedly took you to some of the best parts of the lake where only a boat could go…

We went to 3 of the cenotes which are actually within the lake, firstly Cenote Negro, which is black because of the depth change between the shallow lagoon and the deep Cenote, this one is 180m deep and almost a perfect circle.

The we went to Cenote Esmeralda, where we were able to get out and swim for a little, but the water was only about 1m deep here. Within the cenote it was over 40m deep and we asked if we could swim out to it, we could, but only with a life jacket on…

We then drove over to the last Cenote, Cocalitos, which has some of the Stromatolites here, these ones not as old, but still likely over a billion years…(!)

Then the final stop was the Pirate Canal, after a drive by of bird island, which was full of wood storks.

We were allowed to swim again in the Pirate Canal, but it was still only about 1m deep and not very exciting. We’d hoped to see more stromatolites and we both brought our snorkelling gear on the trip too, hoping to see some fresh water fish or the stromatolite features under the water, but the water was way too cloudy and the only places we were allowed to swim were the shallow sandy parts 😞 all in all it was a fairly disappointing trip. However, the colour of the lagoon was incredible, and we still enjoyed the trip in a different way, just not how we expected.

In the afternoon after the trip returned, we headed to the main square in the town centre or Bacalar where the BACALAR sign is and then had some absolutely AMAZING vegan tacos!! Omg I’m still thinking about them now haha!

Then we headed down to the public swimming area, which was a wooden jetty and access to the lake for free. We chilled here, diving into the water and went swimming until sunset.

The next day we headed down to the famous Los Rapidos. We knew it was going to be quite popular and touristy, but wow, it was SOOO beautiful you can easily see why.

There were TONNES of stromatolites here too, and loads of freshwater fish too, so we much preferred this spot.

Basically there is a restaurant here with seating, food and drinks, but once you pay your entrance in, you have access to the “rapids” of Bacalar. A narrow channel which runs into the lagoon. This means it flows relatively quickly, barely rapids, but at least some current compared to the lake.

There’s a wooden walkway to take you to the start and you float down the rapids back to the restaurant. We loved it so much, the water was so clean and clear, the stromatolites were amazing and the colours were unreal!

We had an amazing time at the rapids and must have done it about 5-6 times in total, it was well worth coming here!

After heading back and showering, we went out into the town and had a really good burrito made with hibiscus, so different. Then we enjoyed the evening in the centre.

The square here is nice and in the evening street vendors set up little stalls, which actually seemed to be mostly genuine hand-made unique crafts and jewellery, as opposed to the usual generic tourist souvenirs you get. We really liked the market and I got another addition to my jewellery box thanks to Dave (a little handmade anklet). 😊

We liked Bacalar, it was pretty unique really, with it being a fresh water lagoon and such a vivid turquoise colour. I don’t think I’ve ever really been to anywhere like it, and although our boat tour was a bit of a flop, the rapids were amazing and we really enjoyed seeing the 3.5 billion year old stromatolites!

But now our time in Mexico is up, we had an amazing 2 weeks here eating tasty food, exploring Maya ruins and snorkelling at Cozumel, plus soaking up all the colour and culture of the brightly painted mexican towns, but honestly we’re both excited for the change of countries and new cultures. For me also, I start on an uncharted path, as, apart from Ecuador, every country up next is new for me too! Very exciting!!

Thanks for reading and catch you in Belize!