We wake up at 6:30 after a messy night with annoying airco’s, humid air, and crying children. The children want to start the day with their snacks, small bags of chips and cornflakes with big labels that warn for “exceso calorias” and “exceso azucares”. They are so excited with every bag of candy as they never get some from us. We have breakfast with oatmeal instead. The peppa pig plates help to keep a positive mood.
We collect our items and are happy to leave this stuffy place behind. We buy lunch at the supermarket and visit the Museum of Maya Archaeology that was still on our list.
It’s located inside of a yellow fort. There are 10 rooms full with sculptures, bowls, jewels, shrouds and more jade masks. The rooms follow different themes, such as their beliefs, wars, and ordinary life. There is also more explanation about their counting system, hierarchy and after life. The artifacts are collected from many different Maya cities: Calakmul, Edzná, El Tigre, Calakmul and El Tabasqueño. It’s very enlightning and we don’t regret going here.
Then we start our five hour drive to Villahermosa. Most of the time we drive directly along the turquoise sea. There are many abonded houses and terraces, as it’s a fantastic surrounding, there just does not seem the be a public close by to enjoy it. Also our car passes the houses, beach and sea fast, trying to arrive at our new hotel as soon as possible.
Half way is the final swim possibility before we stop following the coast line. This is also the moment that Zeno wakes up from his nap, so we jump out of the car, into our swim suit, and dive into the Gulf of Mexico. We also find huge shells and a star fish on the beach.
Whenever we cross a bridge, we carefully scan the sea to spot dolphines. At our second bridge, we see at least a dozen dolphins jumping out of the water. There are also many pelicans diving into the sea.
Every now and then, we are stopped by the police. They usually ask where we’re from and where we’re going. This time he also asks about our clothes ‘ropa’, but we don’t understand the context. Luckily we can continue our drive.
Unfortunately, the state is reconstructing the road we take and we come across many road blocks in the second part of the journey. We have to wait for 20 minutes until the road is available, and slowely continue our trip in a long procession of various vehicles. This happens 3-4 times and we see our estimated arrival time running up from 16 to 17:30. We’re getting nervous as we booked the hotel because of the nice pool and we are committed to take a dive. Can we still make it?
We do see a parrot, cows, horses, goats, many white herons and thousands of cormorants. At 17.00 we arrive at the hotel, change into our swimming gear and take a plunge. It’s not that hot today and the sun is already behind the hotel facade, which makes it cold for the first time this trip. After 15 minutes of swimming the chattering teeth of Zeno makes us go back to our room. We eat at a Korean restaurant for a throw back to last year.
