It’s the first proper day of our group tour, and we’re going to be getting used to some very early starts from now on. The luxuries of hotel breakfasts are also now behind us, so we find ourselves on the back streets of Playa Del Carmen, with bats screeching overhead, just after 6am buying fruit from a little stall and coffee from a supermarket to sustain us for the morning ahead. 

Our group of sixteen travellers and Aquilino, our Guatemalan guide, all start gathering in the hotel lobby and by 7.15am we’re all together and loading our bags into the small minibus which is waiting for us outside. Although we’re only going to be with this particular group for the next seventeen days before we fly down to Costa Rica, many of them are also on the road for almost two months in total travelling across various parts of Central America, so everyone has similar amounts of luggage needing to be stowed.

We’re an interesting bunch who, at the time of writing, have gelled nicely and are all still getting along well. As the tour continues we all get to know each other’s quirks, irritations, delights and eccentricities and have become supportive travellers and friends. We are a mix of nationalities: British, Canadian, Australian, Pakistani, American, German, Danish and, of course in Coman’s case, Irish. About half of the group are solo travellers and the rest of us are couples, and range in age from late twenties to early seventies. 

Our Intrepid Travel tour is entitled ‘Mayan Encounters’ and brings us down through the southern part of the Yucatán peninsula to Belize and Guatemala where the ancient Maya had some of their greatest cities and where the Maya peoples still live today. Coman and I have seen a lot of Maya history already with our travels in Mexico, and as we head south we pass close to Tulum and Coba which both have spectacular ruins we’ve previously visited, but this trip is a chance to really get to know the people and areas we’ve not yet had a chance to explore.  

We are stopping for the night at the small coastal city of Chetumal on the Mexican side of the border with Belize, but before we reach there Aquilino has arranged an unexpected detour for us to Bacalar, which boasts a gorgeous lagoon, famed for having seven colours of water. It’s a spectacular nature reserve which had been on my wish list to visit, but I didn’t think we’d have the time. 

So after three and a half hours on the road we pull in to the little town of Bacalar itself and stop next to the fort of San Felipe, which was built in 1773 to protect against pirate attacks. We wander down to the water’s edge to a cute restaurant called La Playita, which also runs boat trips around the lagoon, and while the rest of the group settle down for an early lunch, Coman and I waste no time getting into the water from the little jetty and going for a swim. The waters aren’t quite as picturesque as I’d imagined and the sky is a little overcast so after about fifteen minutes we dry off and rejoin the group. 

La Playita is a lovely spot with lots of dark wood furniture, hammocks and palm trees, and also serves excellent food. So while we tuck into a delicious basmati and vegetable bowl and a spicy Thai soup we start getting to know our travelling companions, in particular Elizabeth and Ahmed, who like us are well travelled but doing Intrepid for the first time. 

Ahmed is from Pakistan, very charismatic, mischievous and charming, and has led a wildly interesting life running an advertising business in the Middle East. His wife Elizabeth ran a successful business psychology company, and now retired they live between Oxford, Cornwall and Turkey. Over food and drinks we chat with them and a couple of others, but with a bit of free time before we have to continue our journey we leave them all to have another glass of wine while we head off to explore a little more and see if we can find out the reason Bacalar ranks so highly on the ‘must see’ lists for Mexico. 

About a fifteen minute walk from the restaurant, past a lakeside water park, little yoga retreats and rickety hostels, we discover why. Extending out into the lagoon, through mangroves and above shallow aquamarine waters, is a scene many people have likened to paradise, with buildings on stilts and simply stunning views of the water in all directions. It’s jaw-droppingly beautiful and we both strip straight off and jump in, swimming amongst the warm tropical waters. 

Sadly however the clock is now ticking and all too soon we have to hurry back and join the group so we can reach Chetumal and check into our hotel near the border for the night. As we continue south, Aquilino gives us all a potted history of the geological formation of the Yucatán peninsula, its creation by the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago and the flat limestone nature of the land.

He also talks about the recent history of the Maya, and how they eventually got emancipation through the Guerra de las Castas in 1902, supported with munitions from the British, which is how Belize became a British colony named British Honduras under the terms of the peace treaty with Mexico. 

The Maya inhabited the whole of the Yucatán peninsula, from southern Mexico through Belize and Guatemala, from 1500BC with the last independent settlement of the Maya lasting well past the conquistadors until 1697. And many great Maya sites such as Tikal, overgrown by the jungle but known to their descendants, remained hidden from the Spanish until after independence for the New World was won in 1821. This ensured that the Catholic invaders wouldn’t destroy the structures to build churches in their place. 

Of course, the British weren’t as obsessed with evangelisation, preferring to make money rather than converts so their Caribbean interests were focussed on controlling trade via taxation and the fortune they could make from mahogany in British Honduras. And with Bacalar having already given a glimpse of tropical white sands and crystalline water, the first few days of this trip will have more of a Caribbean than Mayan flavour. 

Our hotel in Chetumal is called Los Cocos and is reasonably smart with a little pool, but rather than have another swim, we just drop our bags and join Aquilino for a walk down to the seafront. Chetumal is very much a locals-place, with tourists only passing through on route to Belize, and the seafront functions more as a promenade for a few government buildings, being the capital of the state of Quintana Roo, and a couple of monuments to regional Mexican figures, as well as the odd Mayan statue.

There’s even a political rally underway by the cenotaph which we watch from the nearby bandstand as they all fervently sing the Mexican national anthem. 

We stroll along the waterfront as the sun begins to set, taking a few photos and getting to know a few more of the group as we go, before we all head back for a bite to eat in the hotel and an early night. Tomorrow is another early start to cross the border and head into Belize where three nights on a tropical island awaits us.