Although Covid stopped worldwide travel for many months, it didn’t stop my desire to get on an airplane and go somewhere. What it did do though is to change how I wanted to explore, and that meant getting away from lots of people when international travel became possible again. I’m now a fan of AirBnb stays rather than hotels, and look for places away from the normal tourist locations, unless there’s something I particularly want to see like Chichén-Itzá. The tiny fishing town of Sisal seemed like a good place to spend a few days and it was our first insight into what it’s like to live there. It only has around 3,000 inhabitants, supermarkets seem to be non-existent, and we struggled to find restaurants that were open. I’m not sure whether that was because January is out of season, or it was the impact of Covid. Tiny little independent grocery shops and a great fruit & vegetable place though meant that we didn’t starve and we enjoyed our stay there.
Each town we stayed in seems to have its name in huge bright letters situated somewhere prominently. The AirBnb provided bikes and it was a great way to explore the back streets and tracks.
The shop selling these hats was about as ‘touristy’ as it got.
Our AirBnb house was right on the beach and with very little light pollution I was able to photograph the stars at night. I swept a torch over the palm trees in the bottom photograph and a longer exposure captured some movement in the fronds.
The sea was a bit rough for swimming, but the wind seemed to create perfect conditions for this kite surfer.
A very short distance away was a little fishing port and we had a wander around with our cameras.
There were many stray dogs in Sisal but they all seemed friendly enough. The two below were resting in the shade.
The quickest way of crossing from one side of the harbour to the other.
Balancing on the edge of a rusty structure doesn’t seem like the most comfortable place to rest but these two seemed quite happy.
Pelicans seem to gather on boats and I especially love the look of the dorky one second from right 🙂
Each evening flamingoes fly inland to the mangrove swamps for the night – it was great to sit and watch their journey and to see how different they look when flying with their elongated necks and legs all stretched out.
A slower shutter speed created a different look to the photo below.
3 nights in Sisal was the perfect amount of time to explore it well before moving on again, and if you’re wondering, yes, sisal is also the natural fibre native to southern Mexico that can be made into mats or carpets amongst other things. I was of course pronouncing it incorrectly. It’s not ‘sy-sal’, but ‘see-sal’. You live and learn…………..
