A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

"Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonalds? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria's mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head? I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once.” ― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

As I mentioned before, we are trying to find places here in Quintana Roo that are still relatively old timey and our guide has been a book from the early 1960s, The Lost World of Quintana Roo, by Michel Peissel. Peissel was a 21 year old Frenchman and studying finance at Harvard. But in 1957 he had a 3 month vacation and decided to go see two friends in Tepoztlan, Mexico. They partied and drank a lot and at some point, the three friends came up with the idea to explore the savage coast of Quintana Roo, which at that time only had three small villages and was mostly unexplored. The three friends would go by boat down the coast, looking for lost Mayan ruins and eventually making their way down to the coast of Columbia. They sent the hapless Michel on his way alone, promising to meet him at Isla Cozumel, at that time a place with very few people and even fewer tourists. 

Peissel then got a telegram that his friends couldn't get away and would hopefully meet him in Belize. Michel, almost ready to give up, decided to press on alone as he was sure he could hire locals to sail him down the coast. Little did he know that he would end up walking almost the entire 200 miles to Belize, through thick jungles, along pristine beaches and meeting friendly Mayans, hiding from bandits and finding 14 undiscovered Mayan ruins. Instead of the week he was planning on going down the coast he took 3 months. But he made it, wearing a blue blazer, grey flannel slacks and sandals and somehow avoiding malaria, diphtheria, poisonous snakes, crocodiles and several robbery attempts by gun toting "chicleros". Chicleros are people who get the sap from the chicle trees, which is made into chewing gum. Chicleros were almost all felons and really bad guys and Peissel was afraid for his life, right from the beginning of his journey.

After receiving word that his friends wouldn't join him, Peissel hired a boat to go from Cozumel to the coast. His fellow passengers were three chicleros, each carrying a gun. But he made it to the coast without incident and landed in a cocal, or a hamlet, called Puha, a place owned by one family and consisting of three huts. 

For most of his journey, Peissel was helped by local Mayan people and lived on tortillas and raw turtle eggs. Each time he reached a new place he asked if there were any ruins there. He found 16 Mayan cities, 14 of them never seen before by anyone outside the local community. The Ancient Mayan cities were thought to have been built by dwarves by the local Mayans, since all the doorways were so small. 

Of course most of the coast Peissel saw 55 years ago is long gone, with millions of people living here and the gigantic tourist industry taking over practically everything. But there are still a few places, although not exactly the same, that have the character of a Mexico of another age. 

Well, Puha, or Xpuha as it is really known, is still here, owned by the descendants of the people Peissel met. It's hard to find, only a small sign on the highway, and now has a few nice restaurants, a home or two, Mexican families who come here to enjoy the rarity of a public beach and the tourists here are mostly campers who stay for weeks or months at a time. Xpuha is a 2 km wide crescent bay, with the most gorgeous white sand you can imagine. The water is turquoise blue and crystal clear. It is truly a little piece of paradise sandwiched between two mega resorts, which thankfully you don't see or feel their presence. Somehow, the wonderful owners of Xpuha have held back from selling out to the resorts, who you know damn well would love to destroy this place. 

So that was Wednesday evening. Today, Friday, we went back to Xpuha to explore and have lunch. Well, I learned that looks can be a bit deceiving because there were many more folks at Xpuha. It seems that there is a big resort, Tulum Dreams, a couple of hundred yards south of the campers' spot. When we walked down there (on the nicest, powderiest, cleanest sand I've ever walked on, let me tell you), there were quite a few folks and every one of them seemed to be speaking Russian. I imagine that Tulum Dreams goes after the Russian market big time. Several of the Russian women also like to go bare breasted. As it turns out, it's not the young women who like this, but the women of a certain age who have apparently spent years on similar beaches around the world and for whom, unfortunately, gravity has long won out over tissue turgor. 

But even with the big hotel here, it's still a beautiful beach. Most of the people at the hotel stayed right at their hotel, not venturing 20 feet beyond the property, as they had no beach chairs on the rest of the beach. So north and south of the Russian paradise that is Tulum Dreams was a mostly empty beach with sandpipers, pelicans and the more adventurous tourist. 

Thanks to Amy's research, we went to another place that our intrepid explorer, Peissel, traveled to...Tankah. This gorgeous beach is a few miles north of the large town of Tulum. There are a couple of small resorts at the south end of the bay, but this place consists mostly of beautiful vacation homes which are mostly occupied only during the high season..the month of December. We are staying at the Tankah Inn, a small B&B of 5 rooms and we are the only guests. Our day consisted of relaxing in hammocks, walking about 5 miles along this beautiful beach and eating both lunch and dinner at Casa Cenote, a small place on the beach. We had amazingly fresh fish in a nice ceviche and fish tacos for lunch and a whole grilled boquenete for dinner. 

This morning we walked up to Manatee Cenote. This is owned by a local family who you pay 25 pesos to and then you snorkel about 200 meters up to the cenote. The water is cool and refreshing and is mostly fresh with a little bit of sea water. There were many fish, like turpins and what looked like a salmon. Te mangroves are right on the water and you swim right under the roots. It was very nice snorkeling here. 

Friday evening and we are back in Puerto Morelos. We had dinner in a Mexican/Lebanese restaurant and walked around this marvelous little town. There was a small hula show in the town square, to the music of Keali'i Reichel.