A Visit to Sisal
We didn’t have any plans for Sunday, so we thought how fun to head to the beach. We started by watching our church service from home on-line and then headed out for the afternoon. Sisal (pronounced See-Sal) is a very small community with a beautiful beach about an hours drive north of Merida. It has shallow warm water, great for swimming, and is also a migratory path for the flamingos as they head to Los Colorados. We thought this would be fun to see and a good place to spend the afternoon.
We forgot a very important piece of information - don’t go to the beach on Sundays, it’s family day.
When we arrived, the water was dead calm, there was no wind, and it was blistering hot. The place was packed - all the palapas were full to overflowing and we couldn’t find any place to get out of the sun. What were we thinking?
We finally found an outdoor restaurant that still had some tables open so we decided to start with lunch. We thought maybe people would realize how hot it was and leave - who were we kidding. They just kept coming and they brought their own umbrellas, chairs, coolers, and food. Within about 30 minutes, the wind picked up and blew 25-30 knots the rest of the day. While it was nice to have a breeze, it churned up the water creating large waves, and the sand was flying, stinging your legs and arms. It also blew the umbrellas all over the beach, but it didn’t deter anyone.
The flamingos were flying but not very well as they were bucking a severe head wind.
We finally found a single palapa behind all the other palapas where we could sit and somewhat see the ocean. I was fatigued from the heat and decided a nap on the towel was necessary. Note to self: the sand isn’t very comfortable, but when you’re tired, anything will do. As I was resting, a visitor arrived to share our shade. Poor guy, he was as hot and tired as we were.
We chalked this day up to an adventure, but not a very fun one!
Oh, almost forget the funny part - coming home we hit a road block… the local police were stopping all vehicles and the driver had to blow into a breathalyzer. Good thing we didn’t have any alcohol that day, but there were a lot of drivers behind us that may not be so lucky. So much for family day.
