4-Legged Beach Bums in the Yucatan

 

When we moved from Merida to the beach near Telchac Puerto, we had no idea we would have so many visitors, especially these kind.

 

First challenge though, was finding the tiny sand road turnoff to our beach house. It was a bit of a challenge, even in daylight, because so many roads looked exactly the same, and even though it looks big in the photo, the sign was tiny from the highway.

 

Our beach house was lovely, right on an empty beach with houses scattered far apart along the beach. Inside, the rooms were large, and there was one bedroom, two bathrooms on the main floor, two bedrooms and two baths upstairs.

 

A gorgeous view of the ocean from the main floor bedroom and balcony…

There was no one else in most of the houses, so it was extremely quiet and peaceful. It was the perfect place to sit back, relax and enjoy the beach. Curling up in the hammock with a good book, glancing up often to enjoy the view – what could be better?

 

We were only there one day when the word got out that we had arrived!

 

At times 4 or 5 dogs would arrive at once, very slowly walking up towards the deck of the house, but not coming up on the deck. They were extremely meek and polite.

 

At first we thought they might have been abused animals, or abandoned. With a little encouragement, they came closer for a pet, started wagging their tails viciously, and then they would politely lay down nearby. If you moved, they jumped up, ready to leave. They were definitely nervous and unsure.

 

Then we figured they might be hungry, especially when we noticed two of them were skin and bones, and obviously nursing puppies.

 

We set out food and water dishes, and all was fine for a while, but then the more aggressive males pushed away the docile mothers, and ate all the food.

 

It was a battle daily to try to feed the Mothers before or in between the arrival of the other dogs. Poor things – we felt so sorry for them. Any sudden movements by either us or the other dogs, and the Mothers ran off.

 

We later heard that all the locals, when they are at the beach, feed the Beach Bum Dogs, but most locals don’t come to the beach in winter – they only come in summer. At this time of year, we were usually the only people at the beach. The dogs were fearful and unassuming because some people had yelled at them or chased them away or hit them.

 

As the dogs became accustomed to us and began to trust us, they came right up on the deck for a pet, hoping for food as well. More dogs came, and soon we had up to 7-8 dogs rotating visits through the day. We quite enjoyed them, and looked for them if they didn`t come early in the day. Often we would see them all running down the beach together, jumping and playing. True little beach bums. What a life.

 

The beach was beautiful in the mornings when the tide was out and sand dunes spread far out into the ocean creating lagoons of creamy baby blue.

 

One morning there were actually other people out on the sand dunes. We enjoyed watching the kids play.

 

Evenings were often wildly windy. Still there was not a sailboat, or windsurfer to be seen. 

 

After a week or more went by, two of the dogs became protective and territorial. If the black dog was sitting with us, he would stand up assertively and growl at the other dogs that came around. Likewise, if the blonde dog was sitting with us, he would growl at the the other dogs that came near. It was quite amusing, but we did not like it. Share and share alike we scolded them.

 

Then of course, that lead to food fights between those two males, and we wondered if we should stop feeding them altogether. This was also costing a small fortune. We lost count of how many bags of dog food we bought after we ran out of scraps! They would gobble up any food though – crackers, bananas, bread, cheese – anything, but having enough scraps for 5-6 dogs was impossible.

 

We loved those sweet polite dogs, and we had the most relaxing vacation at the beach house. There really wasn`t much else to do. The cleaning staff came twice a week and also cleaned the pool 2-3 times a week. Our days involved a long coffee, perhaps watching the sunrise…

 

A walk down the beach…

 

A big brunch, a rest in the hammock or chair on the deck reading a book…

 

A swim in the pool in the hot afternoon…

 

Or a drive into the village of Telchac for a few groceries…

 

Or to the little Telchac market on Saturdays…

 

Or making dinner at home, or perhaps a drive into the village to have seafood at a restaurant on the beach, then watch a little TV if we could find a movie in English, and that was our day, every day. Once a week, we had to drive to Progreso for gas because there was no gas station in Telchac.

 

We found Progreso to be a bit of a rough town, but it had a nice beach, and lots of fun touristy bars and shops on the beach on the weekends. It was a pleasant contrast to the quiet beach we were on.

 

Our unexpected guests, the Beach Bum Dogs, were the liveliest entertainment we had for days at our beach house in Telchac, but it suited us just fine.

 

[mapsmarker marker=”42″]