Chris Bracken

Chelem, Yucatán, México

Grabbed a bus north to Progreso to go to the beach. While it was beautiful weather and the ocean looked great, there were no palm trees on the beach, so it was impossible to find any shade. We’d heard that in the next town over, Yucalpetén, there were some great beaches, so we asked around and finally found a colectivo headed out in that direction. The one we found stopped by a bathing centre and the town of Chelem. Now right now I’m going to come straight out and say it: if someone ever tells you a story about the amazing beaches at Yucalpetén, just back away slowly and do not make any sudden moves—the person you are talking to has probably escaped from an asylum.

We wandered around for a few hours, but we never did find a beach in decent condition. In the end we sat on a grass embankment close to the ocean, observing what appeared to be the remains of a house that had been bulldozed across the beach and into the ocean; there still were big chunks of concrete wall strewn all over the place. It was sort of post-apocalyptic looking. On the bright side, there was a nice cool breeze.