A Day at the Beach
Casa Yamulkan
When you wake up on your first day at Yamulkan in one of these spacious and cheerful bedrooms, it’s still early.
You saunter the 30 feet to the beach and watch the sun rise slowly, appearing bit by bit over the fronds of the native palm trees on the low-lying promontory, giving birth to another glorious day…
The almost nonexistent waves lap lazily on the fine white sand and the few remaining crabs scurry to their holes in flight from the sun. Birdsong is in the air, and a couple of frigate birds float by above, scanning the water for a meal, hardly moving their wings.
You wander back to the house to join the others and prepare a delicious breakfast in the spacious, well equipped open kitchen. The sun will soon be streaming down through the skylight two stories up. The smell of fresh brewed coffee, toast and eggs is soon wafting through the air (or of fresh fruit, cereal and yogurt if you have decided to behave yourself). You consider having breakfast at the beautiful hardwood dining table with its view of the beach across the covered terrace and the large open terrace fringed by palms…
But you opt to go outside, where the view is even better….. gorgeous in fact.
The fronds of the coconut palms rattle gently in the soft breeze and you can see the thin white line about a mile out on the sparkling, totally transparent azure water where the waves are breaking against the n coral reef that stretches right across the mouth of the crescent-shaped bay, protecting the luminescent inner portion… the waves that reach the beach are no more than a few inches high.
You sigh, listen to the birds singing for a while... and think to yourself that this must be the most charming beach on the Riviera Maya, and you are right! And yet, there are practically no people on the beach, because there are no hotels on Soliman Bay… only private houses, with the exception of the tiny Sahara Hotel at the very north end of the beach, which is totally low profile, hidden away among the vegetation.
After your second cup of coffee, the beach draws you back like a giant magnet. The sun is really up now, making everything glow.
You and your family or friends slip excitedly into your swimsuits and head for the water, juggling towels, masks and snorkels. You settle your stuff on the comfortable lounge chairs under and around the shady palapa on the beach, and step into the water, marveling at the temperature… once more amazed by its total clarity. A small school of colorless fingerlings wiggles past your legs as you struggle into your fins.
You are floating face down in the water now, drifting past the white sand ridges on the bottom, gently moving your fins and wondering when you will see the first fish. You are careful not to set your feet down on the bottom, because you know you could harm any number of fauna and flora. Suddenly, you see a coral head some twenty meters away, teeming with colorful little fishes too timid to wander far from the safety of their hideaways in the coral.
Forgetting time, you hover over these stunningly beautiful creatures, round and round… blue ones, yellow ones, silver ones, orange and black ones …. too many to catalogue mentally… too gorgeous to pull yourself away. Green, pink, white, purple anemones sway slowly in the swell… some yards away, two small manta rays glide past… glistening.
You are entranced and will return to this spot and the other nearby coral heads day after day to gaze at the amazing sights… to float weightlessly, almost supernaturally, seeing something new every day… a school of silent, plate-shaped silvery fish just out of reach, a sea cucumber sitting on the sand, parrot fish with their glowing colors, orange starfish, lots of live conch …the list is endless and never ceases to amaze.
Eventually, after hours of floating in fascinated wonder, you head reluctantly back to the water’s edge to discuss your experiences with the rest of the group, who are gradually gravitating back towards the beach as well.
You are careful not to remove anything from the sea, no matter how tempting, out of respect for the environment... and you wait until you are in really, really shallow water before you get to your feet, to avoid stepping on anything live. You stand at the water’s edge, marveling again at the expanse of captivating water, with the sun now high overhead. Quite unique! Still almost no one in sight… a few figures are making their slow way along the water’s edge way to the south, and out on the water, several snorkels can be seen protruding slightly… The water is now even more aquamarine and transparent… mesmerizing.
...or in a lounge chair sunning yourself, reading, snoozing…. chatting lazily and sipping a refreshing drink. This is the life! Sigh…… time slips by …the breeze ruffles your hair… a beautiful white catamaran drifts slowly by outside the reef. The whole thing looks like a photo on a calendar. Those must be the most enormous, whitest, puffiest, brightest cumulus clouds in the entire world!!!... miles away out over the water.
…you never want to move again! But you do…
The swimming has made you hungry. Time for some local fish (bought by Jere at the local fish-market that morning and cooked as per his secret recipe), guacamole and a beer. It’s fun using the kitchen because you can carry on a conversation with everyone in the dining room and living room from the open kitchen flooded with light from the high skylight...
And it’s easy because it’s equipped with everything you need!
And it’s easy because it’s equipped with everything you need!
After lunch you take a long siesta in a lounge chair in the shade of the palm trees on the wide terrace, lulled by occasional birds chirping.
Following that relaxing siesta, you consider taking out one of the kayaks, but decide to go shell-hunting out on the point instead. The cumulus clouds are still lined up out near the horizon, larger and puffier than ever.
An iguana slithers across your path looking slightly put out.
Some time later, you are happy to see members of your party coming towards the point in the kayaks…. they can give you a ride home, or you can load your collection of shells and corals into one of them and drift gently home in the almost imperceptible current, relaxed in the knowledge that there are no dangerous predators inside the reef. A small manta ray glides by in slow motion … maybe one of the ones you saw that morning…
It takes about an hour to make it all the way back, and you obviously spent more time having a siesta and poking around on the point than you thought, because the sun is dipping down towards the western horizon, slightly inland, sending out huge streaks of orange and purple rays that reflect on the water, giving everything a surreal feeling.
By the time you reach the beach, palm fronds are outlined starkly against the huge orange ball sinking into the west, and the first stars are pricking holes in the velvety mauve sky overhead. What a sight!
You can now see the increasing number of stars while you rinse off in the outside shower to one side of the house, under the sea-grape tree, and you sit wrapped in your beach towel watching the last of the sunset slowly dissipate. When you stand, you are caught by surprise by the enormity of the orange moon just elevating itself over the promontory, exactly where the sun came up that morning... the perfect closing for a perfect day, and apparently a signal for the crickets to start their evening concert. Right on cue, someone comes out of the house with a tray of frosty margaritas, heading for the sand. From there, you can see the inviting soft glow of lamps turned on in the lower floor and on the upper veranda with its tropical wood floors and railings under the sloping palapa roof. The margarita tastes like heaven.
The group sips and converses in lazy murmurs, and as you begin to see the bottom of your glass, a divine aroma drifts across from the large stone grill on the terrace where Jere, the caretaker and an excellent trained cook (famous in those parts) expertly places something delicious on the charcoal. It’s not long before everyone is sitting around the large round table on the covered terrace, sampling his wares and raving about them… no one has bothered to change for dinner... there is something liberating about eating in a damp bathing suit sitting on a folded towel… the mood is happy... laughter rings out and glasses clink as more margaritas are poured. Through the trunks of the palm trees, you can see the little waves reflecting the moonlight and a couple of crabs climbing out from under a fallen coconut on the beach.
After the leisurely meal, some of the party move to the living room to chat or read.
Another group goes off to the TV room to see a movie or to check up on their emails...
...and you decide to look through the loot brought back from your afternoon foray on the point… you realize you won’t be able to take very much of it with you on the plane… but it can stay in the house and look decorative.
Click on photo for enlarged version
Then you wander back to the beach to lie back on a lounge chair and gaze up at the Milky Way, which is becoming fainter and fainter as the moon rises.
...This is really as good as it gets!