Mexico
Bacalar Lagoon
Light and depth paint shifting blues across a long limestone-fed lagoon.
The water will not settle on one colour. Over pale limestone shallows it glows almost white, then a channel drops away and the blue deepens by whole registers, so the lagoon reads like a painting still being mixed.
Bacalar stretches along a narrow freshwater lagoon fed through limestone, and the famous shifting blues follow depth, cloud and the angle of the sun. Some protected corners hold stromatolites, ancient living structures that must never be stood on or touched, so swimming and paddling keep to designated water. Sailing boats and kayaks move slowly here by culture as much as by rule, and the small Fort of San Felipe overlooks it all from the town shore.
Couple
Take a slow sailing trip across the colour changes, then watch the lagoon from a dockside hammock.
Solo
Paddle a kayak through the quiet morning water and let the blues do the thinking.
Friends
Share a low-impact boat day and an evening in town below the old fort.
- Bacalar's limestone-fed lagoon changes colour with depth, cloud and sunlight.
- Stromatolites occur in protected sections and must not be stood on, touched or treated as swimming platforms.
- Low-impact sailing, kayaking and designated-water access pair with the Fort of San Felipe in town.
Itzel's traditional palapa faces the lagoon, cooking regional plates at the water's edge.
The Belize border shows in the kitchen: rice and beans cooked in coconut oil, and tamales of xpelón beans.
Hunga Island
Tonga
One cliff-walled slot leads inside, where a king once sheltered his people from slave raiders.
Santa Maria
Portugal
The Azores' oldest island hides a red clay desert and golden beaches the others lack.
Musandam Peninsula
Oman
Bare limestone drops into drowned valleys where dolphins ride the dhow's bow wave.
South West Rocks
Australia
Grey nurse sharks circle through underwater caves beneath a convict-built granite gaol on the headland.
San Miguel de Allende
Mexico
Colonial light turns pink at dusk, every doorway hiding an artist's courtyard.
Tepoztlán
Mexico
Volcanic walls cradle a market town of chapels, food and mountain weather.
Tequila
Mexico
Blue agave fields stretch to the volcano's base, the spirit of Mexico distilled here for centuries.
Barranca de Metztitlán
Mexico
Giant cacti and a sixteenth-century convent occupy the same dramatic dry valley.