A few weeks ago, Charles and I went on a much-needed vacation. We were looking for a place at the beach where we could relax, eat, read and rest. We were going on a real vacation to a vacation destination where no one knows us.

We tried to go to Honduras, but there were travelers’ warnings. We tried to go to Bonaire, but we had to fly through Miami and the war was uncertain, so we decided to go to Celestun on the west coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, hoping the wind was less than it was here on the east coast.

The morning after we arrived in Celestun, we went for a walk on the beach to see what we could see and to do a little shelling. The first thing we encountered was filleted triggerfish littering the beach and as we walked, we went in and out of black smoke that smelled of burning plastic.

The town was littered with garbage and the air was uncomfortable to breathe. Cough, cough, hack, hack. We left as soon as we could. From Celestun we traveled to Chetumal where the town smelled of burning plastic, although the streets were relatively clean.

From Chetumal, we went by bus to Belize City and immediately we went to the airport and flew to Placencia. At Placencia, we rented a very nice cabana overlooking the bay. The bay was lovely, but a quick snorkel proved there was nothing to see.

We signed up for a snorkel trip to a caye 30 minutes offshore. We went to a tiny island with many boats moored nearby and tons of tourists snorkeling in all directions. The corals offshore were dead and algae covered, a real disappointment. From the caye we traveled to the edge of the barrier reef. It was dead as well and the boatman/snorkel guide had no idea he wasn’t looking at live coral. Another real disappointment.

Every restaurant we visited served exactly the same food, fried fish, French fries, fried chicken, fried jack, hamburgers and johnny cakes. While the food was good, there was no choice of cuisine and after awhile it was boring…another disappointment.

We stayed our time and returned to Akumal. The night after we returned we went to dinner at the Turtle Bay Bakery. As we were enjoying our dinner, having a glass of wine and discussing our ‘busman’s’ holiday, we both decided that Akumal was the vacation destination we had been looking for, but didn’t find. We agreed that we are very fortunate to be living in a community with residents who take an active interest in protecting the environment and who work hard to keep our community clean and safe. We also agreed that it is hard to be living in the place we would love to go to for vacation.

Next year, who knows where we will travel? Perhaps you will find us on the beach in front of Lol Ha disguised as tourists from Minnesota.

Kate Robinhawk
April, 2003