Holbox ("black hole" in Yucatecan Maya) is an island in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, located on the north coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. It is approximately 12 kilometres long and 1.5 kilometres wide, and separated from the mainland by a shallow lagoon that is home to flamingos, pelicans and other birdlife. Its land area is 55.948 km² (21.602 sq mi). The island's local population was 1,198 as of the 2005 census. It is part of the Municipality of Lázaro Cárdenas.
Not yet heavily touristed, the island's main industry is fishing. However, the island is developing a growing tourist industry in the form of whale shark viewing.
The island is accessed by ferry from the mainland town of Chiquila, and has virtually no cars, with transport by most residents and tourists by golf cart or moped. A small airline, Aerosaab, flies tours to Holbox from Cancún and has built a small airstrip to accommodate its five-seater Cessna aircraft.
“Whale shark Daddy”
We set out on Monday, July 21 from St. Louis for Holbox island to see the whale sharks. Our travel arrangements including transfers from the Cancun airport to Holbox, hotel, whale shark trips, and transfers to Riviera Maya were made through Whale shark Daddy (Rodrigo) online. We were supposed to arrive in Cancun at 10 a.m. on Monday but our flight was delayed 17 hours because of tropical storm Dolly. Fortunately Whale shark Daddy has a US phone line and we spoke to him several times throughout the day. He arranged to have a van pick us up at the airport at 3 a.m. on Tuesday. Sure enough the van arrived on time at the otherwise deserted airport and we made the first ferry of the day from Chiquila to the island. Whale shark Daddy was waiting for us at our hotel (Dreams) when we arrived at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning to tell us that the whale shark trips that day were cancelled by the maritime authority in Cancun. Later that day he re-arranged our departure from Holbox on Thursday to later in the day so we could take our second whale shark trip Thursday. Every aspect of our interaction with Daddy and all transfers and excursions worked perfectly. We really appreciated all the help he provided.
By the way the whale sharks were magnificent.
