Have you ever seen a place on T.V. or the internet and thought "I want to go there!"
Well I have with a few places and have been lucky enough to actually check some of them off my bucket list!
One of these places for me was this fantastic beach I kept seeing pop up on Google and Pinterest. I didn't know much about it except that it was called Hidden Beach, it was in Mexico and that I wanted to go to this fantastic place.
3 years ago I sat on a bus in Ecuador looking at my buddy Jono's fantastic travel photos. He showed me a picture that blew my mind as it was a place I had only seen on the internet and dreamed of one day going there. I couldn't believe that someone I knew had actually been there. Yesterday, I made the journey myself and got to experience the most special beach in the world! What an incredible place.
I hopped on the bus at 7:30am and took it to the Marina - my first time taking the bus alone in Mexico so I was very proud - and checked in at the tours office. I was so excited... it was bucket list day and today I was hoping to check off a place I had been wanting to cross of my bucket list for 3 years.
It is not guaranteed that you will be able to access the beach due to water conditions and the amount of people per day is capped at 119 people (I think).
The tour started off great! We first saw a sea turtle... well two actually, they were doing the deed, they were actually spooning. We then saw dolphins which was awesome. It was nice that they actually slowed down the boat so we had the opportunity to look and take pictures. It took about an hour to get out to the Marietas Islands and as I saw the big rock Island begin to come into view in the distance my heart started to race.
When we arrived at the Marietas we had to check in - with the Army I believe - and they told us that we could go into the beach but there wasn't room for everyone on our boat... my heart sank... oh no. I knew this was a possibility but I wanted to go in so bad.
The first part of the tour we were going to snorkel. I was nervous to get into the sea but...no one in my tour group was a diver and many were nervous so it helped...plus we had two guides that went with us. They took us all around the rock island and would tell us when they saw many fish so we could go in the right direction.
It actually wasn't that deep which I liked. It was clear and we could see the bottom. It was nothing like the Great Barrier Reef but it was good and relaxing. I was so happy I bought my waterproof camera before I left. I had it underwater the whole time snapping pictures of some awesome fish... it's really funny when you are like "oh wow those are awesome!" through a snorkel lol. Was we were swimming around I saw something small and clear... I thought it was a piece of plastic and then jellyfish!!! "Shit!" I screamed through my snorkel. "Jellyfish!" and in my panic I grabbed the first person and tried to pull myself away from it but pulling her more towards it. She looked at me "jellyfish!" I said in a panic. She starts panicking and there we are grabbing onto each other trying to swim in the other direction... lol.
There is a current that made it a bit difficult to swim away from it... its actually kind of funny watching the fish just moving with the current. However there isn't a strong undertow so it's not overly difficult to swim around.
Two of the women on our tour got stung... one actually swam through a whole group of them. My plan was to stay as far away from them as possible however I wasn't so lucky...my chin got stung... of course!! I thought it was from having my chin on my life jacket while I was snorkeling but no...it was a jellyfish sting... this is when I found out why they keep vinegar on the boat... it burned like a bitch but it really works. Now I just have little scabs on my chin.
We learned about the birds that inhabit the Marieta's which is why it's a National Park... to preserve the wild life... not the beach. They are important for the nesting, refuge, migration and reproduction for the birds. There are about 92 species of birds ... some are native and some are migratory. The islands are not open every day ... I think only 4 days and of those 4 only 3 days can you access Hidden Beach. The beach didn't become very popular till about 5 years ago when it began to pop up on social media.
After snorkeling, we stopped off at a beach for pictures but I stayed on the boat as my burn is still healing so I wanted to stay on the covered boat... all I wanted to do was get to hidden beach. At this point we had heard that because there wasn't enough room for everyone they were going to go by who booked the tour first... I had booked Monday but didn't know if that meant anything.
When we got back over to the check-in boats we were told only 1 person could go. A couple of people on the boat piped up and said "we vote you to go" talking about me as I had said how long I had been waiting to go. However, it turns out the check-in guards have a humorous side and they were just joking...the whole group would be able to go.
I got nervous... my heart started racing. This was the moment I had been waiting for and I had all these emotions going through me. Would it be what I expected? Would it be better? Would it be worth it? And the swim through the cave ... I wasn't looking forward to it... I was nervous about the swim as the water was a bit rough... would I panic in the water? They gave us helmets for protection in the cave... how often did people hit their heads?
I jumped off the boat. We started swimming...."Owe fuck!!!" I screamed. Another jellyfish, this time on my arm. Christie one of the women that had gotten stung and was very sea sick just looked at me and said "it will go away no lets just swim." We had been holding on to Luis' - our guide - floating device to help us swim but he was now helping someone else. We got to the entrance of the cave ... here we go.
It was hard to swim, sometimes you were literally just staying in one spot but when a wave came in the cave it carried you and it was actually quite fun. I decided to turn on the video on my camera and get the entrance to the beach - I pretended I was walking into Petra (lol no I haven't been but it's on my bucket list) and waiting for that awe of beauty. We made it to the small shore of the beach. I walked out of the water and did a full view of the beach with the camera.It wasn't what I was expecting... it was much smaller than I thought and I didn't realize from the photos I had seen that the cave took up so much area on the enclosed beach.
It was literally a small little beach wrapped up in a circular stone wall that was maybe 1 or 2 hundred feet high with green grass peeking out over the edges, heaps of sunlight pouring down and one way in and out... the cave..it was perfect!
I was like a kid in a candy store playing in the water and getting rolled around by the extremely strong waves that came in. I actually had to take a moment to myself and shed some tears. I was overwhelmed with excitement and the perfection of this beach. I thought of it as my beach... I felt a connection and knew that I would leave a little piece of me there forever like I did in Machu Picchu. Our group was the only one there for the first little bit so it was great. I looked around and thought how amazing it would be to spend a day there with some friends.... a cooler, some music ... perfection. I didn't want to leave but our time was up.
The waves coming through the cave were getting rough... I was a bit nervous as it did not look inviting. "We count," said Luis our guide. "When this set of waves is finished I will tell you to swim and you swim." Oh boy I thought. I looked back at the beach, goodbye my special beach...I'm glad we finally met.
"Swim!" So we swam as fast as we could hoping to get out before the set of big waves began again. They weren't the big waves that came through but they were definitely higher than the ones when we swam in. Every time one came through we would all duck and the group would go "woahhhh!" As we were all afraid we would hit our heads... it was a bit scary.
We got lunch on our way back which was nice... I was starving. I can't remember how it came up but I had mentioned I got video of us swimming in. "You got video!?!" Said Christie. "Ya, I have a travel blog." "You mean to tell me with everything we did to swim through the cave and make it to the beach you were able to record that?" I am awesome.
Back at the office the girl I almost threw into the jellyfish offered me a ride back to my hostel as I was on her and her girlfriends way to their hotel...score.
I napped for a bit of course and then woke up and went out for my last night in PVR. My buddy and I (he's from Toronto) ended up at this bar called AM Bar. It was empty but rustic looking and really great music. We danced. He pretended to be a water fountain and spit beer at me a few times... lol I was soaked.
I am now back in Guadalajara. It feels weird to be back. I miss PVR and my friends that I met there. I met some really awesome people. We even had Alejandra, the cleaning lady who lives at the hostel who is like every ones mom. She randomly cooks dinner for us and does our laundry. Such a sweet amazing woman. Every hostel needs a hostel mom. Infact... she wan'ts me to teach all of her grandchildren English online and we will be talking about that next week :)
It's cool here tonight. It rained pretty good and the electricity went out at my end of the house so I am sitting next to the kitchen wearing sweat pants and a sweater... how crazy is that... my first time since I have been here. At least I'm not producing sweat just sitting here.
Well it's time for bed. Pepe and I have another tour tomorrow that I am looking forward to so I need to get some rest.
Until next time.
Me at my special beach. A day I will never forget.
- My Beautiful Life -
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