Because A really has a total lack of compassion, we took a 3 hour bus journey (poor sick F) to Bacalar. Since we did not have any hotel reserved, we took a cab with a fellow traveler from the bus stop to the camp site/youth hostel that she had booked. Apparently, we still had not learned that we are not in our twenties...
Anyway, we got a tent with clean sheets and a slightly leaky air mattress. It felt like heaven since there were no fleas, and the owner was wonderfully professional.
Across the road, there was a very nice Cocina Economica, where the daily lunch special cost 2 bucks. They even gave us extra aqua fresca, which was especially good for F because he really needed to rehydrate!
Bacalar turned out to be a wonderful little town on a beautiful lagoon, with a nice town square, as well as nice Christmas decorations.
We spent the next day swimming at a sinkhole, and getting a couple of bug bites that made A's feet swell to humongous proportions.
Still, we had a lot of fun swimming and looking at the tree roots and fishes in the beautiful clear water.
On our way back to town, we stopped at a beautiful restaurant on the lagoon for some drinks and snacks.
In addition to a beautiful setting (we're hoping to add one of these pyramid things to our backyard -- it looks like a great way to hang your mosquito net!), the restaurant really made the experience complete with this amazingly off-key rendition of "Under the Boardwalk".
As much fun as pretending you're not forty-ish had been, we realized it was time to act our age. (Or, more precisely, we realized that traveling by bus took so long that we would not be able to go anywhere interesting in the remaining 7 days if we kept roughing it).
So, the next morning we took a bus all the way back again to Cancun's airport, where we picked up a rental car. Lesson learnt for next time: don't forget to pick up rental car at the start of trip!
