Images of Yucatán 1: Islas Mujeres Revisited Post Hurricane Gilberto

Images of Yucatán 2: The Shanty Hole Boxes of Holbox

Images of Yucatán 3: Beachcombing for the Origins

Images of Yucatán 4: Swimming with Whale Sharks

Images of Yucatán 5: Onward to Mérida (a.k.a. Ti'ho)

Images of Yucatán 6: Moldy Architextures of the Off-White City 

Besides the whale sharks, one of the more interesting things to do on Holbox is comb the beaches. The water is pretty shallow and stagnant without much wave action going on. And the second you leave the beach for the bush, you get attacked by mosquitoes or other bugs. Discomfort dominates the senses. On the fringe, where water meets land meets air, is where it all happens. The conditions of the origins of life. There also lay the discarded remnants.

the spark

distant pelicans roosting on the sand bar

seamossy gelatinous goo

The beach on the gulf side seemingly runs forever to the east. The golf cart traffic along the beach wanes once you get to the hip-deep river (at low tide anyway--even at high tide it's probably swimmable). Supposedly there were pink flamingos and other exotic birds somewhere out there, but we didn't see any. But we didn't go as far as mosquito point as we were cooking in the sun.

the tracks they left behind

a horse shoe crab shuffling through the muck 

bones, shells, sand 

sine rope

worm, snail and/or crab wanderings

termite wanderings in wood

janky conch

seaweed froth ball

fish net stalking

bicycle built for goo

ONWARD TO SWIMMING WITH WHALE SHARKS

 

(c) 2006 Derek White and Jessica Fanzo. Photos cannot be reproduced or published elsewhere without permission. Just ask.