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.