Hol-Box is a small island that is located in the Mexican Caribbean, in the state of Quintana Roo, its name means "black hole" has an extension of 40 km long and 2 km wide. No more than 2 thousand inhabitants live on this island, it is part of the biosphere reserve and area of protection of flora and fauna Yum Balam and is a perfect destination to enjoy an ecological vacation.
I could say that it is one of the most beautiful beaches I have visited, its landscape is really paradisiacal, to be able to reach the island, it is necessary to take a boat that takes about 30 min from the town of Chiquila, which costs 40 pesos (about 3.5 dollars) when you arrive on the island, you arrive from the port side, where there is not much to see, so you have to go to the other side, where the beaches face the open sea, you can take a taxi or walk, all transports on this island are golf carts, motorcycles or bicycles.
The economy of this small island depends 100% on tourism, so wherever you want you will find where to stay, there are one or two hotels (small) but most of them are hostels that in high season cost about 500 pesos per room (about 40 dollars) that could be used by 1 to 4 people. What I did was take my tent, install it on the beach and the lodging was totally free (hehehe) also camping at night the view of the stars is indescribable. The security is good because every so often there are motorcycles of policemen guarding the area.
In Hol-Box the lobster is very famous, there are restaurants-bars on the beach that when asking for your lobster, they go into the sea to fish it at that time and right there they cook it, another great attraction for tourism, is that you can swim with the whale shark, it is a boat ride that costs 800 pesos per person (about 65 dollars) where you can see the immense shark and if you are aventurer@ you can swim with it, the whale shark is totally harmless to humans. Just make sure you go in the right season, which goes from the month of May to the beginning of September, in other months of the year the whale shark moves far away from the coasts and it is impossible to see it.
There is also the tour of the 3 islands, it is a boat tour where you visit a water eye called Yalahau, the island of passion and the island of birds, a small sanctuary where birds make their nests. Of the price I am not very sure because I do not take this tour, but it will be around 300 pesos per person (about 25 dollars).
The town is very small and all the streets are white sand, but at night illuminated is very nice and you can go to dinner good restaurants of typical Mexican food. During the day it is very hot and because of practically virgin beaches there is not much shade, so do not forget to hydrate well, use some sunscreen, and very important a repellent for mosquitoes, especially if you camp on the beach otherwise it would be impossible to sleep.
Authors: Santiago
