18.05.27-30 Bacalar

I arrived in Bacalar by bus from Valladolid  and was picked up by Lupita and Claudia who had arrived a couple hours earlier by car from Cancun. We met up with Claudia’s hermano, Sergio and her hermana, Isa at Isa’s house in Bacalar.  Sergio had a car, too. He drove up from Chetumal, a town about 30 minutes south that I have not yet visited. Sergio goes to university there but is on summer break. Isa and her esposo, Abe, own and operate a business in Bacalar, but for the next two nights Isa checked herself out of work for some R and R with her family and directed us all to her favorite place in the very small town of BuenaVista with lakeside lodging on Laguna Bacalar about 20 minutes north of the town of Bacalar.

We arrived at our lodging after dark, and simply got organized in our bunks and then met for conversation (and food/drink, compliments of Lupita who came well supplied) at the end of the dock where the giant mosquitos could not reach us. This is what we saw in the daylight next day....

Looking toward shore above, and toward Laguna Bacalar below.

The boat was not part of our AirBNB rental, but the dock with its three hammocks, two lounge chairs, and two water hammocks kept us entertained and relaxed for a day and a half.

 

Here is Claudia swimming in the beautiful warm water... 

and here are we four beauties on day two right before we left to return to Bacalar for a night. 

Clau and Isa stayed in the smaller house on the left ( next to the property owner’s house

and Lupita stayed in the RV with Sergio. 
While I stayed in a different AirBNB a short five minute walk away in this comfy room with a great view of  Laguna Bacalar, (but recent property ownership changes has eliminated direct lake access from this property.)
I had one interesting conversation with Caroline, the live-in caretaker of this AirBNB place. She is a single woman a few years younger than me from Colorado.  She came to visit the Yucatán peninsula a couple years ago and has been successful at keeping her expenses low and is working on how to make enough of a living so she doesnt have to return to US for the job she left behind. Interesting........!

Except for that one conversation, I didn’t spend much time at her/my place except to sleep. The mosquito - free dock was the place to be. That one conversation got me thinking, though, and since Isa is local and has a local’s knowledge of property values, the conversation was slanted towards the options and possibilities related to land ownership. For all four of us. 

We were grateful to have the option of  lunch service - fresh and delicious Samoas and cold rice noodle salad ( which we stretched into dinner, too) cooked for us by the AirBNB family. 

The only time we left the lakeshore was  in the late afternoon the only full day we were there. Isa took us to see the palapa Abe is building on one of the lots they own in BuenaVista. 

He is going to use this lot and palapa as a workshop for his sculpting.  It has natural air conditioning with walls made partially out of tree rounds 

and a breezy loft where they will sleep when they want to. 

The electricity was being fed to this street while we were there, so next day when we went back to see Abe at work, he was happy to have power. 

All done in BuenaVista, we returned to Bacalar and after checking in to a new hotel for one night we went to El Manati, Isa’s and Abe’s restaurant, tienda, and art gallery.  

There is a big indoor space to display locally made art and eco-friendly merchandise - here is an indoor wall mural and one of the local artists with her up-cycled wallets ready to be sold in the store

There is a cool outdoor garden area with more art. Here I am sitting in one of Abe’s sculpture pieces in front of a beautiful wall mural. 

Here is the big garden palapa shaped like a teepee
(I love the way Claudia is always touching her belly in photos-welcoming “Peque” into the family already.  Here she is again, comparing baby bumps with Isa’s right hand gal in the restaurant.)

Inside the palapa is a cool cozy place to enjoy a meal or a beverage. 

And here is one from two years ago before there was a palapa or a wall mural. Mike liked kitties!
Later in the afternoon, Claudia, Lupita and I each enjoyed a massage in three consecutive hours at Laguna Spa

from Victoria, a local gal who has been serving them for 8(ish) years when Isa moved to Bacalar and met her at the large resort where they both worked.  

We had dinner at a good Italian food restaurant and then went to the main event of the night - at a live music venue and bar in town - Galleon Pirata.  We went to see Sergio 

who is base player in his Beatles tribute band, 

and as luck would have it, they had a gig scheduled for tonight!  It was cool to hear some familiar music, and who doesn’t like the Beatles?  They sounded great, and I also enjoyed the Beatles slide show in the background. 

It became Sergio’s birthday at midnight, so there was cake and pizza for the band after the 90 minute show. 
Also significant about June 30: it was the beginning of Mexico’s Election Day weekend that was decreed by the government to be a no alcohol sales weekend. So the band had to stop and the bar had to close at midnight. We lingered for cake and pizza but eventually were asked to leave because the local police were parked outside waiting to hassle the bar if they did not comply with the no sales order. 

The next day we returned to El Manati, and enjoyed watching a World Cup game
which they projected on a big white wall for an appreciative crowd. 

Isa and Abe have a good thing going here at El Manati!