After seven weeks in Belize, our extended travels in Central America were coming to an end. Joy and I crossed into Mexico at Chetumal, leaving Belize behind on October 21, 2012. We would fly back to the Minneapolis on the 26th. But first, we enjoyed a few days on Isla Mujeres, just off the coast of Cancun.
We caught a bus from Chetumal to Cancun, and then hopped a ferry to Isla Mujeres. From the island, we could see Cancun beach resorts on the horizon to our west.
We rented an apartment on the island and stayed there for the duration of our visit. The island was small enough to walk anywhere. One of the first places we scoped out was the beautiful southern point. Views of the Caribbean Sea over rocky cliffs were fantastic. I was actively scoping out areas to return with fishing gear. As we walked north from the southernmost point of Isla Mujeres, there were some beaches that were more accessible than the sea cliffs.
I tried one spot on my own using bait (snails and sand worms) I could find, and had a few bites but failed to hook one. Then a thunderstorm rolled in, and I ran through a downpour back to the rental apartment.
We enjoyed a meal of eggs and Oaxacan cheese, with fried plantain, and sat on the open rooftop of our rental apartment watching the sky and listening to the sounds of the streets and homes around us. I was reading Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring at the time, and read a few chapters that evening.
The next morning we walked up to the north side of Isla Mujeres and swam and relaxed on the beach, and tried some more fishing in a sheltered area near a big resort.
We both caught lots of small fish. Almost all of them were repeats of the species we caught in Belize, such as Mangrove Snapper (pictured below), French Grunt, White Grunt, and Bluestriped Grunt. I did land one new species there, though! The Sailor’s Choice, which was another species of grunt and the final lifer of our 2012 adventures in Central America.
The Sailor’s Choice:
At sunset we walked back to the rental apartment and snapped a few photos along our way:
I tried fishing some other spots along the surging rocky shores but I had run out of legitimate fishing sinkers and had to resort to free-lining or using rocks or fragments of broken, washed up coral as weights. It wasn’t as efficient and fishing was a struggle. I caught a few fish, but all repeats of fishes I had caught before.
Joy and I lounged around the apartment reading, ate out at various restaurants, and strolled the island streets with ice cream and walked the waterfronts as we wound down our vacation time. The two photos below are from our final evening on Isla Mujeres. The next morning we flew home to the Midwest.
