Beautiful Beaches

Beautiful Beaches

There are many things that we love about Isla Mujeres—reasons why we’ve returned six times. What keeps bringing us back is the beautiful water and beaches. There is also something romantic about the idea of an island, and this one is only 7 miles long and less than a mile wide. Palm trees with bright yellow coconuts stand as sentinels around the island.

The north and west end of the island have powdery white beaches festooned with tourists. The east and south end have jagged coral cliffs festooned with iguanas and shells. The island has an interesting mix of beautiful beach-front homes, and tar-paper shacks.

Although the island is somewhat isolated, it is just a 20 minute ferry ride from Cancun a city of 500,000 where there is an international airport with flights to Houston taking just over an hour. On the mainland there are numerous American stores like Home Depot, Walmart, and Costco as well as all the usual fat-food franchises.


These days all the basics are available on the island--grocery stores, hardware stores, dive shops, banks, ATMs, pharmacy, clinic, restaurants, eco tours, and the ubiquitous curio shops selling trinkets to tourists.


When I first came here 22 years ago things were quieter, and there were far fewer taxis and foreign travelers. My hotel room was $7. Increasingly tourists are buying up the land and homes. Property values have risen steeply, and in time the workers will have to commute from Cancun.

This tiny island has grown from a sleepy fishing village of three thousand, to a city of 13,000. Even though the fish and shrimp were over-harvested, and those work boats are now rusting hulks, the emphasis shifted to tourism and the island has continued to flourish. Most of the locals are crowded in the middle of the island in cinder block homes with virtually no yard. Hotels and fancy houses fringe the coast.



Isla is increasingly a destination for cruisers because there is a well-protected anchorage here. Ten years ago there were only three marinas on the island, now there are six or seven. In the winter time there are sometimes 40 boats anchored out in addition to the ones tied up in the marinas. But there is nothing quieter than a tourist town in the off-season during a rainy day.

One afternoon recently, William, Henry and I circumnavigated the island via bicycle—about 15 miles, but we kept stopping to take pictures and explore interesting beaches, so it took us about five hours.

We found a neat little cove and so a few days later we all returned via taxi, and spent a pleasant afternoon playing on the beach, climbing rocks, collecting shells, finding sea-glass, and swimming. We admired the intricate brain coral. At one point William and Henry were playing baseball with a piece of driftwood and a shabby coconut. Warren found a lobster shell and antennae that he took home to the boat.


The cove has some formations that look like stalactites that would grow in a bat cave.

Rich and Poor


Land of the Rich and Poor
Mexico is certainly a land of contrasts. First of all there is the population itself--an interesting mix of Amerindians and Europeans (primarily Spanish). While about 60-65 percent of the population is mixed (Meztizo), about 25-30% is considered purely indigenous, and about 10-15% is mostly Spanish.

At our marina we meet several workers that actually spoke the Yucatec Mayan language. It is also estimated that 1.5 million Mexicans speak Nahuatl--the Aztec language, but there are dozens of indigenous groups and languages here.


As of August 2007 Fortune magazine and the Wall Street Journal indicate that Mexican Carlos Slim is now the richest man in the world with holdings of about 60 billion dollars putting him ahead of the likes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.


Although Carlos owns about 100 companies, one of his more lucrative is Telmex—which controls some 90% of the phones in Mexico (a virtual monopoly). All told, Carlos Slim pulls in about $27 million per day—no slim pickings for him.

The irony is that until recently approximately 42% of Mexicans lived in extreme poverty (24% in urban areas). Average annual income barely reaches $10,000 and yet Lora and I find that most things are more expensive here than in the U.S. even at the Walmart in Cancun. At the local grocery stores staples cost as much as in the U.S. though a few locally grown produce items cost less, mangos, oranges (bright green), avocados, and chayotes. Medicine is also cheaper.


Mexicans pay nearly as much for gasoline as we do. Pemex, the only supplier of petroleum in Mexico, has a nationalized monopoly because beginning in 1938 Mexicans wanted to restrict foreign investment.

Pemex has annual revenues of nearly $80 billion, and is one of the largest oil companies in the world. Mexico is the 5th largest exporter of oil. One of the executives from Pemex had his 4 million dollar Azimut yacht parked in the slip next to us at Puerto Isla Mujeres during hurricane Dean.

As we walk around the neighborhoods here, we are struck by two facts, a great number of houses are unfinished—there are piles of sand, and stacks of cinder block in front of about a fourth of the houses, and there are far too many tar-paper and stick shacks. One of our friends here has her house lined with cardboard.

Perhaps because of persistent poverty there are many pretty flowers, and Mexicans have colorful houses. Two general decorating rules seem to apply: any color but white, and don’t use any color that your neighbor used.

The house in the above picture belongs to Lenore (Lenny) Vaughan, who was married to Stevie Ray Vaughan, a famous Austin guitarist who died in a helicopter crash. I think Lenny and her daughter had great fun painting the walls in such psychodelic schemes.

Despite rampant poverty, many Mexicans are quite generous. The Salazar family, for example has invited us to dinner twice, even though obviously it is a bit of a burden to feed our boisterous boys. Mari Salazar is quite a cook, and one afternoon she fixed us " brazo de reina" (queen's arm) which is a local specialty. She also taught us how to make potato pancakes and how to cook chayotes.

Although her one room house is literally made of sticks and tar-paper held together with wire and rope, and although one wall is lined with cardboard, she was completely un-selfconscious about it.

Her sink is outside and basically consists of a water hose and a large basin that drains on the ground. Her stove is the size of a two-burner Coleman camping stove. She had one or two chairs and a small bed, yet she is always smiling. When we left her house, she wanted to give us three bags of rice! Perhaps she felt sorry for us because we live on a boat. We later invited her and her husband over, and Lora made pizza.


There are three primary modes of transportation for those who live on Isla Mujeres: motor scooters, golf carts, and taxis. Very few own a regular car. It is common to see Mexican moms motoring along on their scooter with a baby in their left arm and a child riding on the back. Some build a little wooden seat in front so that their child can perch there. We have seen several famlies of four all riding on the family scooter.


Becuase the average Mexican here does not have airconditioning, their doors and windows are usually wide open making it easy to peek inside. Many sleep in colorful hammocks that are cheaper and cooler and more compact than a bed. In the evenings they congregate outside to enjoy the balmy sea breeze. This promotes a sense of community, and we enjoy watching all the children playing outside while the adults talk. I believe that the large Mexican family is starting to die out. While the birthrate was once around 3.5% it is now at .9%


These shacks are not typical, but a few exist.

Mexican Independance Day


So last year on my birthday, William, Henry, and I sailed our little 21’ Sea Pearl cat-ketch over to Double Bayou and then up the Anahuac River to the annual Alligator festival. One evening, when a friend couldn’t hail us on the VHF radio, he called the U.S. Coast Guard, who called Lora asking if she had heard from us. She said that she didn’t expect to hear from us for two more days. The Coast Guard said that they were going to send out a helicopter to search for us, and she told them that they shouldn’t. She assured them we were okay. There were no storms, we knew what we were doing, and that we had probably just pulled in somewhere else. An hour later the search helicopter flew right over us, but didn’t see us even though we were right where we said we would be. We made the evening news!



The next day, motor-sailing up the Anahuac River, the outboard motor bracket broke, and it plopped right into about 12’ of water the color of cafĂ© con leche. I pulled on my swim suit to dive for the motor, feeling around in the murk. At one point I swam up on a submerged log, and I thought it was a giant alligator lurking on the bottom. A few minutes later, while still diving for the illusive outboard, William and Henry noticed an alligator about 7’ long swimming over to investigate what was thrashing about in the water. Yikes.



I returned the next day with a scuba tank, but I was a little nervous about my large reptilian friend. Even with a tank it still took me about two hours to find the motor. Lora and I celebrated with dinner at Papadeaux’s where to my amusement, I noticed that they actual served alligator; revenge never tasted so sweet!

This year, my birthday fell on Sunday, so we celebrated Saturday. It just so happens that September 16th is also Mexican Independence Day, and in Mexico it is celebrated on the evening of the 15th so that worked out well.


We left the marina on Isla Mujeres and went first to the fuel dock. One of our boisterous boys tied the bow-line while I tied the stern. After we fueled up and paid, we were on the dock dumping trash when I noticed that the bow-line had come loose. Our boat was swinging out into the busy channel, but our dinghy was still tied to the dock. Everyone jumped aboard quickly while I loosened the stern-line and told Lora to take off. I jumped into the dinghy and motored up to the boat and climbed on. The episode provided a couple of minutes of excitement.


After that, William climbed up to the spreaders, using the mast steps that he installed, and video-taped us as we motored through a narrow cut that leads out toward Cancun. One of our objectives was to photograph the boat on the turquoise water.


As we approached the coast, Lora commented that the sky was sure dark and that we would probably get hit by a thunderstorm any minute. I assured her that it probably wouldn’t hit us, and if it did, it wouldn’t be for at least an hour. Ten minutes later the wind was gusting to 30 knots and the rain was pouring down. We doused the mizzen sail and furled the jib, and moved along with just the mainsail. Everyone scurried below except William and me. We tried to stay dry under the Bimini. Fortunately, in about forty minutes the skies cleared; we continued toward Cancun, and took some pictures of Boisterous from the dinghy.

That night we went into town for dinner. For a buck, one gets a fish or chicken taco with beans, rice, a mini-salad, and pico de gallo. We also had some of Mexico’s famous pan dulce. While eating we were serenaded by fire dancers.


Later at the town plaza, we watched as the senoritas danced in their colorful dresses. The Mexican Navy band marched around; there were patriotic speeches, Mariachi music, the shouting of el grito, and then fireworks—all adding up to another memorable birthday.