Hiking along the Yucatan Peninsula

[grouseking]

For only the 2nd time in my life, I left USA soil to explore other parts of our beautiful Earth. Destination: Mexico! Everything I've heard about Mexico is true...from the hot and humid weather, beautiful beaches, exotic wildlife, beautiful ancient ruins, and unfortunately, the revenge of lord Montezuma. I realize that this is pretty much off topic from anything related to northeast hiking, but I've seen reports from the west, and other parts of the world, so I figured I'd post as well. I didn't do a lot of hiking, actually there really wasn't much hiking involved (mostly sleeping at the beach). But every walk seemed like a strenuous hike, because of the searing heat and suffocating humidity. Anyways, here are some pics. I'll try to be brief...gonna be tough, since I took over 500 photos.

Caribbean Sea

Local Plants

bawoosh!

Local Wildlife

Mexican Squirrels

Sunrises after roughing it in the wind, haha

Local Prehistoric Wildlife

Flamingos

Don't mess with this croc buddy

continued in a moment

 

[grouseking]

Few more...

More beautiful flowers

To make sure I wouldn't bushwhack thru the mangroves

On occasion, we had to duck back into the trees to dodge the occasional thunderstorm

When you get to the beach, you have no choice but to take the jet ski to your next destination.

Ancient Mayan Ruins, reached by walking down a long Mexican dirt road.

Rubbin my belly cause it is itchy

Spectacular view of the Caribbean Sea reached by a remote path...the nearby thunderstorm adds to the drama

The reward from making the long walk from the hotel room...errr....I mean the one person tent, along the thru the mangrove swamps, dodging snakes, and mexican squirrels.

the reward if you turn left instead of going straight

ANd finally, sunrise on my last day of the multi-day hike to the Yucatan. The lens fogged up and I couldn't clean it off, so I just took a pic to see how it turned out. Kind of cool actually.

That concludes my 10 day hiking trip to the Yucatan Peninsula. See, just like your normal run of the mill trip to the Whites, Greens, Berks, Longfellows, Taconics...etc. Now back to your regularly scheduled northeast hiking trail reports, complete with spring snow, running waterfalls, and spectacular views.

http://grouseking.smugmug.com/Mexico/2010/Mexico-2010/12063493_eF8UX#856662434_ty6uA

grouseking

 

[NeoAkela]

I love the Mexican Squirrel!

 

[1HappyHiker]

Aha! So that's what the flamingos in my front yard are supposed to look like!

It's nice sometimes to get away to some place completely different. Looks like you did that, and had a great time doing it!

Thanks Phil for posting such an entertaining & fun report.

 

[NorthShore]

Very nice photos Phil. It looks like a great trip. I enjoyed the bird sounds on the boardwalk video.