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For my 40th birthday I had the most wonderful gift, something you can't find in a gift shop. Gary and I flew from Playa del Carmen down the coast to Tulum, Punta Allen, Mahahual, Xcalak, around the immense coral atoll of Banco Chinchorro and back to Playa (4 hours round-trip). Since I didn't go on the earlier flights for the first part of our aerial tour, and in fact had never been on a sight-seeing flight over the coast, I was totally ready to savour every moment of this plane ride on my 40th.
I have seen the photos of the coast from Puerto Morelos to Tulum many times but after this the raw beauty of the coast from Sian Kaan south will forever be etched in my memory. |
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| Click photos or bright turquoise text to enter the tour. Then navigate to ANY location on the tour. |
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Banco Chinchorro- is a graveyard of ships that ran aground on this treacherous coral atoll. Old maps show over a dozen cannon sighted on the bottom, said to be of colonial ships. Skeletons of modern day vessels lie in plain sight, their rusting coral-ized hulls provide sanctuary for the reef fish. Our day was perfect for flying and diving, so much so that I would have loved to stay and dive if it were possible. About 5 boats where on the atoll Cayo Central with houses on stilts over the sea, a couple shacks in a coconut grove and three larger wooden clapboard buildings. Looking down it was as if a group of sea nomads put down stakes to be caretakers of this cemetary for ships. |
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Punta Allen-Pristine beaches fringe the coast to Punta Allen, the small fishing village at the end of the Tulum-Sian Kaan barrier strip where we visited last month. South of Punta Allen, flying over the mouth of Bahia Ascension, if we saw one turtle we saw 20. Sea turtles basking in the sun on the surface of the sea, the water so clear we could see turtles dive down and swim underwater. A pair of wild dolphins swam out to sea. There was a black spot in the sea that looked like an oil spill or something, and it exploded, then came together again. It was a school of fish! Wow— |
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Mahahual- The long forgotten Chac Mool ruins at Santa Rosa are sun scorched and remote, just a few hundered feet from the shoreline. And then further down was Mahahual. As you look down you see the blues and purples of the sea, and following the cruise ship pier of Mahahual in to the beach, the color shifts to turquoise, reds, orange and yellows. It looked like a rainbow. Farther down was the sea side town of Mahahual. |
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Xcalak- is a small fishing village and rustic naturalists' area on a tapering strip of land ending at the mouth of the mangrove estuary, Bacalar Chico, and the border with Belize. Xcalak is Quintana Roo's most southern town. The Belizean side continues to Ambergris Caye. Xcalak has a few resorts and homes and is known for world class saltwater flats fly fishing for Permit, Bone and Tarpon, to name only a few. Xcalak Scuba diving, snorkeling and kayaking are also superb. If you plan a trip there, we just heard Xcalak now has pole power electricity. |
| I am hopeful at this monumental birthday that the opportunity for exploration is still there, if not where no man has been, at least where this woman has not been. If you want to take a tour few will ever see, this is an investment in discovering a wild area development has not yet tamed. You can fly the coast yourself through AeroSaab located at the muncipal airport in Playa del Carmen. I would recommend checking with them at least a day in advance. Then hope for good weather. |
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Just for fun—sailing down the QR coast
sailboat Whitecap's cruising log: Isla Mujeres Mexico to Belize City C.A.