Isla Holbox – Sharing More Secrets With You

Flamingos, Beaches and Tacos!

Another Day In Paradise

If you didn’t read Part 1 about getting to Isla Holbox and our accommodations, you can do that here.

The next day, back to Peggy’s hotel, Casa las Tortugas, for early morning coffee and pastries which is always the best little sister moment at the start of every day. It’s almost Dia de los Muertos, so we have to have the traditional bread, pan de muerto, which is fluffy and orange and melt in your mouth delicious and still warm from the bakery.

We see ofrendas set up in all the businesses, and having watched Coco numerous times, we are enthralled with them all.  In the town square, by the church there are explanations of the different days to help us non-locals understand their tradition, which I fully appreciated.  Every day more and more gets set out on the ofrendas. 

Booking a boat tour

Right by Capitan Capitan, on the corner, is a little ticket booth selling tours.  And we want to see flamingos, after having missed out on Las Coloradas (read that post). We get sold on the fact we can book a private 3 Island Tour that includes seeing the flamingos, which we are assured is a good time to see them on Isla de la Pasion, does a tour through the mangroves, stops at a cenote for a swim and to Isla de los Parajos for wildife watching.  But we are basically, um, birds – nope, mangroves – yawn, cenotes – done that, get us to the Flamingos.

This stand does all kinds of tours, including the whale sharks (summer only), and they were currently going under a rebranding, and were creating Poochies Place after their dogs (because they call dogs “poochies” in Mexico, they informed me, lol).  They were great guys and really working to make a buck. Cristoph is our new friend, and assures us we will have a great tour of all the fun flamingos, and none of the boring stuff. And we can bring beers, si senora, cerveza es ok.

Sister side note (ssn) – this is where Patti does so much better than I do. I would have researched and puzzled over picking the best tour and best value and not getting ripped off. To be fair, these guys are all out here trying to make a buck, so yeah, you might get a little ripped off, or misled. But who cares? In the big scheme of things, is it going to matter tomorrow when we’ve had an amazing time regardless if it cost $10 extra USD?

Will we finally see flamingos?

We waited at Capitan until they golf carted us to the pier.  Christoph was kind enough to run us by the central tour office, with a grocery store, so we could grab some waters and some beers. We loaded everything into their cooler and boarded the boat, clearly meant for groups of about 10, but it was just us. The boat had a little shade and a little sun so you could choose your comfort level.

Our guide, David, spoke some broken English, but Google Translate was in full force.

ssn – David was less “promising” than the guys at the tour booth. When we asked him about the flamingos, he was definitely not guaranteeing anything! Smart man…he clearly sensed we did not want to get our hopes up only to get let down.

Being out on the water just felt amazing; hot in the sun, the breeze to cool it down. It felt like one of those perfect days.  We go around the south side of the island, get a bit disoriented because we didn’t know the water ways. He starts driving us up into what looks a little like swamp land, kind of like the Everglades, only little wider. And the depth finder is indicating only a few feet of water so he is being noticeably cautious. We keep going up this inlet, and he says “everyone goes to La Pasion to see Flamingos, this is where you really want to go”.

ssn – we are suckers for being made to feel like we’re doing something secret (or even forbidden). If some stranger in a van offered us cocktails and a secret tour, we’d eagerly hop on in!

Yes!!! Flamingos!

We come around this corner and it’s like we are in a little cove full of these gorgeous pink birds.  It was nothing short of incredible.

I get a little teary-eyed writing this, thinking of how amazing it really was.  The engine was cut and we were basically just idling around their water space.

Ok, ok, cool thing about Flamingos is that when they take off for flight from the water, they basically run along the water like an airplane heading down the runway!  And their squacking!  It’s a very unique sound.  I was in love, it was even better than I imagined.  So, if you are on the fence about whether to do this tour, do it. You won’t regret a day on the water, and watching some really cool wildlife. 

The rest of the tour

After the little cove tour, David takes us back out onto the water, we passed the shrimpers casting their nets out (not like an Alabama shrimp boat, like old men standing in the water waist deep casting huge nets).

On to Isla Pajaros, Island of the birds. I was a big No Thanks for this.  But I have to say, it ended up being pretty cool little island, with a big dock, and a walk up to a look out point. 

Next stop is a tiny island where Pat and I jump out and actually walk around the island, it was a great break stop, refreshing water and nice to just walk around a deserted island and enjoy the scenery and serenity. 

Definitely Worth It

So, after all this, the tour was really only two hours out of the day, and definitely something on the not to be missed list for Isla Holbox. 

And, one of the best things to come out of this in addition to flamingos running on water, was our tour host, Cristoph (who did not actually go on the boat with us) who tells us in the course of conversation is that Taco Queto is actually not the best taco on the island. We need to go to Xolo, little spot nobody knows about, but you will not regret it.  And now, we gotta go, right???

Taco Quest

So, Xolo doesn’t come up on the map. But we get a taxi and ask, and we end up driving to basically the far end of town and getting dropped off on some random corner by a small hotel. We are completely confused but we walk up the walk way to the hotel, and it is Hotel Xola. They are completely closed.  And the Taxi is gone! UGH, it’s hot and I’m starving.

ssn – so there is this law on Holbox that golf cart taxis can only take 2 passengers. No matter how many actual seats they have. So each time we take a taxi, it’s 2 taxis! No big deal but just a little odd.

Luckily on Holbox you are never more than 4 blocks from water.  We end up walking down to the beach, and decide to just walk toward the hotel, grab a drink along the way and figure out our next move because Xolo is clearly a bust. 

Meanwhile, Another Beach Bar

We pop into Raices beach club.  Order a few beers to cool down and reorient ourselves.  We order nachos because we were starving.  Steak and Shrimp nachos FOR THE WIN.  They were fantastico!!!  So, now that I’m typing this, I may have chosen poorly in our best of 2020 post. Raices is really on the eastern outskirts of town, but has beach activities, food, and live music, it ended up being a great little find.  A little too far away from the heart of Holbox for us.

ssn – I would say that Raices is definitely the most crowded of any place we went. And lots of families!

One last evening at Holbox beach

And off we went up the beach, we ended up meeting up with a few of Peggy’s new hotel friends at the place right between Casa las Tortugas and Capitan Capitan, Beach Bar Cariocas.  A big, circular wood bar with swings instead of stools, this place screams Mexican beach bar.

And had the most amazing shrimp cocktail.  Here’s a picture of my husband having a beer in a swing to prove it exists, and that it actually made cranky boy smile. 

And my husband, who is not necessarily a laid back, chill kinda guy, smiles, drinks a beer, or two. He keeps wandering out into the water, just waist deep. Like, on his own, no prompting. The man is just wading out into the water, in a level of chill I have not seen before or after this day. So, yes, I get that to the untrained eye he was just standing there drinking in the warm Caribbean water, but in Pat terms, this means he was practically frolicking. Not something my husband does, step out of his comfort zone and just chill.

This was the magic of Isla Holbox, the world just melts away and you an just Be.

ssn – we needed one last beach walk, one last look around, and one last sunset at our beloved new future-home.

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But where are the tacos?

We ran into our friend Cristoph from the tour company and were like “WTF” about his bad recommendation of Xolo.  And he says NO NO NO, it’s not over there (big arm gesture), it is right up this street (exaggerated pointing) about 3 blocks.  So, you can’t find it on Yelp, TripAdvisor, or on Google, but it is there.  Trust me!  About two blocks just off the main square is Xolo Tacos a la Lena (they have a Facebook page and an Instagram).

Xolo Tacos a la Lena

It ended up being a really cute little restaurant tucked in with a bar on one end and four tables, and the one server having a beer with some buddies.  We order from a list of tacos with about 10 different meat and meat styles.  I have the pork belly, the al pastor, and the pollo, so we can at least compare to Taco Queto.  And, for the love of all that is holy, the pork belly was the most amazing taco on the face of the planet.

We can see in the kitchen. The owner/cook, is cooking over an open flame, with this cool raise and lower grill, like old school cooking over an open flame.  And the place permeates with this crazy blend of spices and char grilling, without being smoky at all.  And these bottle of different sauce options, including a carrot crema that was fantastic (side note to self to start to break down and make this at home).

Then we have to go for round two, right?  Our minds are blown.  And Peggy finds the win of the entire trip, the Arrachera.  So, this is a carne asada-style beef taco. Recall we tried this at Queto the previous day?. It melts in your mouth, and just I’m beyond words trying to describe this.  But it is truly one of the best foods I have had. 

When we launch our travel show of best food on the planet, this will be episode number one. Then the show will end, STORY OVER.  Spend every dime in your savings account, go to Isla Holbox, get this Arrachera taco, no regrets, never leaving.  DO THIS.

All good things must come to an end

This was the most perfect ending to our Isla Holbox trip.

It ended up raining all night.  We get up the next morning to leave, and the streets are rivers.  Golf carts are still traveling up and down the river, flowing up to their baseboards. But such is island life.  Our boat tour company actually booked us a package home that included the taxi to the ferry, the ferry, and then a taxi in Chiquila to get us back to Cancun for our flight.  It was torrential downpours the entire way to Cancun, so we were ever so grateful again to not have to drive.

The slight (and I mean slight) downside to this trip, is that we were actually back in Cancun for Dia de los Muertos celebration, and it was canceled due to the rain.

Dia de los Muertos is a family celebration for the people of Mexico, the Cancun and Playa celebrations are really just for tourists benefits.  But I’m sad to have missed it.

I would not recommend ever planning a trip to Mexico to experience this national holiday, because it really is a sacred, connect with your ancestors kind of celebration and not for the exploitation of tourists.  Be respectful of their culture, ask questions, but do not assume it is a big party, that is not the purpose of Dia de los Muertos. 

Back to Cancun

Cancun was less than noteworthy for us, and we are not all-inclusive people.  I am baffled as to why people do all-inclusive and limit themselves, but I guess that takes all the planning and stress out of the trip for them. And I know that this might be paradise for other people.  If you are one of those people, Cancun is the place to do it.

The water was an amazing turquoise and the sunrise was incredible, and our hotel had those cute little beach side recliner and umbrellas. Cancun is perfect for lazing beach side, with never-ending cocktails in hand!!

And we are off to home, and work and the grind, but can’t wait to return to Quintana Roo.  So much more to explore and experience, but what started out as a consolation vacation (pre-covid we were planning my 50th in Peru) turned into just an amazing trip to remember and cherish.