Bacalar, the sunrise and the carnival party

On the 12th, Sunday morning, I got up before 7 am and walked to the lagoon, the streets were deserted but the sun was already coming up. By the fort I bumped into Marcela, whom I asked which was the best deck to watch the sunrise from the lagoon, and she replied that she was also going to watch the sunrise and to come with her, and off we went to the deck at the Balneario Municipal El Aserradero.

We had plenty of time there, just the 2 of us, talking about life, dreams, travels, and we swapped some places to visit in Mexico and Portugal. Marcela is Mexican and lives 1 hour from Bacalar and had come to spend the weekend swimming in the lagoon, watching the sunrise and getting a temporary tattoo on her back with the names of her parents and grandparents, a kind of protection, she told me.

The morning and the conversation were already well under way when other people started arriving at the deck, among them the tattoo artist, who spent almost an hour chatting with us and drawing the tattoo on Marcela's back. In the end the 3 of us went to have lunch at El Manari, a very pretty place where I ate very well. After lunch, we said goodbye, grateful for the morning we'd spent together.

It's these moments that I have with the people I cross paths with, and for which I'm very grateful, that make my trip so special.

Here is something Marcela said to me and that I agree with:

Remember that we are a mirror and that we attract people who are on a similar vibration.
That's why the bad ones don't come near, because we are light.
Maybe we'll see each other again in the waking dream or in the dream while asleep.

And she recommended I read 2 books, the “4 acuerdos” and “Maestría del Amor”, by Miguel Ángel Ruiz.

In the afternoon, I got a message from Isabel (a Frenchwoman I met in Playa del Carmen) saying she was in Bacalar, at the Plajita bar, by the lagoon. I found it strange, since the day before she was in Playa del Carmen and had asked me what Tulum was like as she was thinking of going there.

So I went to meet Isabel, who was with Marco and Tatiana, a Mexican woman they'd met that night at the party, and they told me about the crazy thing they'd done, getting into Tatiana's car after the night of partying and driving for 3 hours to reach Bacalar in the morning, in the clothes they stood up in, to enjoy the lagoon and the carnival. We spent the afternoon there at the lagoon bar and then went to get something to eat at the party.

The party was already under way and on stage there were carnival dances, music groups, Mexican-style stand-up comedy with the comedian Chino. Until a moment came when they started a dance contest and called volunteer couples up on stage to take part. When a few couples were already on stage and the host was asking for one more couple, I, who was at the back facing the stage, raised my hand and signalled I was coming and grabbed Tatiana and we went up on stage.

First the Carnival King and Queen danced and then the other 8 couples. We danced 2 couples at a time to a song and at the end of each song the audience picked the winner, which was whoever got the loudest round of applause. My partner and I managed to make it into the final 2 couples and came in an honourable second place, but the fun we had with this moment was first-rate.

The rest of the night was spent there at the carnival party and at the bar La Catrina, where we met 2 American women and had another dance and, after the bar closed, we went back to the square for the closing ball of the carnival.