What felt like a journey to the end of the world?

Finding Mexcaltitan!

What causes it?

Being a non-touristy destination, therefor lack of info in any travel literature + big ambition to do it in one day trip + hardly any road signs after passing Santiago Ixcuintla + beginner level of speaking Spanish + locals who sent us on a wild goose chase because they don't know where it is either.

"Off we go... to find Mexcaltitan!"

There it is... Mexcaltitan. Home of the Aztec people.

Even after 6 hours of driving, the journey it's not over yet. Finally reached a point where we could no longer go further with a car, we arrived at the boat dock in Santiago Ixcuintla. Rent a rowboat with an outboard motor, the last leg of the journey was to cross the brown water to the island of Mexcaltitan.

'Welcome to the island of Mexcaltitan', the sign says. In front of us, an alley leading to the town square. The street’s not paved, it’s dirt, and about 3 feet below the sidewalk. When the swamp's flooded, it created the 'Venetian' feeling to it, and the locals do use their boats to go around.

Most of the population is fisherman, the view above is pretty common: drying fish/shrimp in the sun on the side of the road; so watch your step. 

The town square is surrounded by businesses with no names (everybody knows who owns what), a museum, a church, and a gazebo in the middle.

They say, most of the people who live here, approx 1000++ of them, never leave the island. There's no car in sight here either.

The people are friendly and the children are very curious about us strangers.

If you're intrigued about this place, you should be. Do some online research for details, since the printed ones are hard to find. Or read about our story here.

And don't forget to try on some locally made dried shrimps. It's out of this world!

Pics by Diny.

Mexcaltitan, MX.

Nov 2007