I was in Merida on the Yucatan Peninsular of Mexico, renting an apartment with my girlfriend (who is from the city). I’d been there about 3 months and was starting to get itchy feet again, and not just from the mosquito bites. She was working hard, 6 days a week and was gone from 9 in the morning sometimes until 9 at night. Don’t get me wrong, I love Merida, it is a beautiful ex-colonial city, laid-back (for Mexico) with a tropical vibe and climate. It’s actually nearer Havana than Mexico City.

I’d arrived in early September 2013 in the middle of one of the infamous Caribbean tropical storms, the type where roads turn into rivers and lakes within hours. As someone who lives on the North-West coast of England, I’m pretty used to rain, but the ferocity of these storms is something to behold. When it rains you know about it.

So anyway, I found a very good Spanish language school and enrolled in an intensive course to keep me occupied. And it worked, for 3 months… I was meeting people, engaging in the local culture, learning the language and spending time with my girlfriend and her lovely family. I felt fantastic, probably the best I’d felt in my life. Something about being away from all the problems at home gave me a new perspective on my life – they just didn’t matter, or mattered less. We took a short ‘holiday’ (a holiday within a holiday?) to an island called Holbox (pronounced Ho-bosh) and it was pretty spectacular…

The landscape of the island was unlike anything I’d seen before. Miles of white sand on the edge of a huge forest. The sea was a strange turquiosey-green colour and was very shallow meaning you’d have to walk out for about 5 minutes before you could swim. And because it was low season it was virtually empty (which was a good and bad thing).

We’d taken the short boat ride across to Holbox from the mainland after a 6 hour night bus journey from Merida and it was still dark when we arrived at the port. We bought our tickets for the boat and waited on the dock. It was a strange feeling, a bit unreal and when we boarded the boat went and sat upstairs to be in the open. I’ll never forget that short journey for as long as I live. It had been pitch black when we embarked and the stars and moon were visible. The sea was perfectly calm like milk and there wasn’t a sound but for the gentle engine of the boat. I had a tremendous sense of tranquility and contentment, then as we reached the middle so we could no longer see the shore nor our destination the sun began to rise very quickly from the Caribbean Sea in the distance. It was one of the most magical experiences I’ve ever had.

We continued and after about 1 hour reached Holbox. Pulling in to the island had the feeling of the prison island in ‘Papillon’ because of it’s strange and tropical nature and when we reached the port it was desolate. We decided to walk because that was the only option available to us and as there was only one road the route was extremely straightforward. We walked for about 20 minutes in the balmy early morning heat until we came into the main square of Holbox, which was also deserted except for a homeless man sat on a bench drinking a can of beer. We were also met by a plague of tiny mosquitos, something which my girlfriend had been warned about (they are an ever present menace on Holbox). Luckily the one (and only) general store on the island had just open and we went in to buy protection from the flying beasts where we got talking to the owners who were very friendly and knew the city of my girlfriend. We continued on, looking for our hotel which we were reliably informed was “About the 5th or 6th hotel down the beach” and by this time (about 9am) it was scorching. Diane (my girlfriend) had found an offer online for the hotel and it was very cheap because it was low-season and the place had the air of a tribal village, with thatched huts and palm trees and other vegetation dotted around. There was also a swimming pool and a 30 second walk onto the beach.

The stay was a very relaxing and interesting one. We rented a golf-buggy as they were the only means of transport on the island and spent our days driving round the island exploring, sunbathing, swimming and eating lobster pizza. One particular day was quite stressful when we ventured over to the other side of the island and got the buggy stuck in a massive puddle not once but twice. Luckily there was someone on hand to push us out of trouble both times, but I’d broken the buggy and that night we didn’t talk – obviously it was my fault…

Our trip to Holbox was one of the most memorable trips of my life and ended with a night and 2 days in Cancun on the Caribbean Sea. This city is not my favourite place but does have the clearest water I’ve ever seen and if you can get past the drinking atmosphere and tourist culture it’s a good place to lie on the beach. Unfortunately our time on the beach was cut short by another tropical storm – but I did manage to get some superb photographs…

To be continued…