Dos Equis on the Beach

I’ve only posted two entries for my trip to Mexico. I wasn’t feeling well, the weather was bad, but mostly I was tired – the heat and my diabetes took its toll. As I pointed out in my previous entry I’m not a beach person, but the water was beautiful, a sparkling cyan. The meeting was good, and I took a trip the Chichen Itza in the center of the Yucatan. I walked on the beach; I relaxed under the shade of a cabaña and enjoyed a couple of Dos Equis while watching the surf on the beach. I was hoping for a cabaña girl, but ended up with a cabaña boy.

La Isla de Cancún is on the south eastern tip of the Yucatan peninsula; right where the Caribbean meets the Gulf of Mexico. It is a tourist resort, designed to separate Norte Americanos from their dolares. As a side note, US citizen are the only ones referred to as North Americans, even though Canada and Mexico are both part of North America. Americans is another word only associated with US citizens. Mexicans and Canadians want to avoid association with the United States as much as possible. Maybe it’s not the Mexicans or the Canadians maybe its American culture stamping ‘North American’ and ‘Americans’ with such a strong US identity that there is no room in the words for anyone other than US residents.

But back to the subject at hand, Cancún has only existed as a resort since 1970. And now it is 14 miles of large hotels on the beach. Despite the crass commercialism, Cancún has created jobs – fairly good, well paying jobs and has brought dollars into the Mexican economy.

Isla de Cancún is hotels on sand dunes bidding their time before the next hurricane rolls across the Caribbean and the Mayan Riviera returns to its original state, as Wilma almost did in 2005. Yet, it is a success, at least temporarily, It has created jobs – fairly good, well paying jobs and has brought dollars into the Mexican economy.

From an environmental point of views it’s a wasteland. Cancún is, after all, just a sand bar a few hundred yards off the coast. Now it is 21 miles of hotels on the sand bar a few hundred yards off the coast. Who knows how long it will last, but I wouldn’t bet on hotel conglomerates over Mother Nature. It seems inevitable that a ‘global warming’ driven hurricane will roll over Cancún one day as Katrina rolled over New Orleans in 2005.

Aside from altering the natural shifting of the sand bars and dunes of the coast I don’t think it is a environmental disaster, it’s not polluting, it’s not an oil rig, but who knows maybe I do not understand the importance of the sand bars and their role in the coastal ecology. What I am sure of is that it is a cultural disaster. Come to Cancún, it’s Las Vegas on the beach, or maybe more accurately Las Vegas is the goal. Yet people come, Associations book conferences, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund hold meetings in Cancún. What’s not to like. Came and sit in the sun, play in the surf, enjoy the swim-up bars. The food is great, just don’t drink the water. But in the end, or even the beginning for that matter it is all artificial, an artifice designed to satisfy your every needs – for a price. The perfect place to veg-out

Next time my trip to the Mayan city of Chichen Itza.