Places that speak to the heart and draw on the soul

Boca Paila Moonlit Beach - Mexico, Yucatan Peninsular, Quintana Roo Region

Firstly I must apologise in advance if any of this blog post makes no sense, as I’m writing it rather late at night in a particularly spaced out mood!

Okay on to the topic du jour – I was fortunate enough to have two wonderful trips to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico in Christmas/New Year 2007/8 and again in February 2008. Why so close I hear you ask – well having taken my Dad as a 60th b.day and Christmas treat, I returned home enamoured of the places I had visited, feeling that I had not had enough time there and suffering greatly from being back in a cold and dreary England with months of winter still to get through.

Chatting with a friend who wanted to go on holiday around her b.day in February, I promptly offered that she should accompany me back to the Yucatan Peninsula for another trip and luckily she agreed!

In total I spent 5 weeks there and I plan to return again as it is a place that really stole my heart. There aren’t many places where I feel that my soul belongs, but Tulum in the Quintana Roo region of the Yucatan Peninsula is definitely one of them and I will always be drawn back to the place.

However, this picture is not of Tulum , but Boca Paila a nature reserve, part of the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve, which is a World Heritage site and just a short drive down the road from Tulum. I visited Boca Paila on my second trip out and was not disappointed. Boca Paila and Tulum are part of an area known as the Riviera Maya, which spans the Caribbean coastline of the Quintana Roo region down highway 307. There are many beautiful places to visit down the Riviera Maya and I would highly recommend taking at least a month to explore the area.

Back to Boca Paila – I spent a lovely afternoon on the beach here, which is just metres away from a beautiful and vast lagoon, with an abundance of beautiful and exotic flora and fauna to explore. I didn’t have time to go out on the lagoon and it is definitely on the cards for my next trip out there. I stayed on the beach with two friends, one I had flown out with and one I had only met two days previously! We watched the sunset on a beautiful full moon and I was able to get this picture of the moonlight glistening on the surface of the Caribbean. It ranks as one of my best pictures for two reasons:

It represents one of those perfect memories of a fantastic day that you know you will hold with you until the end of your days and beyond.
I was blown away by the sheer beauty of the image I had captured, one of those fluke shots that you just can’t plan

If you ever get to visit this slice of heaven take a moment to truly breathe the place in, let it seep into your soul, capture your heart and invade your dreams like it did me and you will always have a warm and comforting memory to turn to in moments of need. Truly perfect days are very rare in life, this is why they are so precious and it is my pleasure to share just a little bit of that perfection with you.

Sleep sweet my friends.

Wealie x