Hound Dog
Dec 29, 2009, 10:39 AM
Post #3 of 3
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Re: [raferguson] Magical Road Less Traveled
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I have not been to Majahual, but my impression is that it is a city planned for a cruise ship stop, so recent and touristy, but probably clean and tidy. Maybe not so many hotels, but lots of shops. Am I close?
Richard
Well, Richard; I was not pushing Majuahal per se but the beach read between Xcalak and Majuahal which is a fun semi-wilderness drive over a well improved dirt beach road - at least when we drove that route a few years ago. In those days Majuahal was just a sort of shacky small beachfront burg with a newly constructed pier for luxury cruise liners and a beach front strip of modest eateries, souvenir sops and the like. Not a particularly attractive place and one inviting early departure after a modest lunch and cold beer on the beach. The reason I recommend the Xcalak-Majuahal beach road is that the alternative to get to Xcalak is a straight paved inland two lane road thorugh swamplands and mangroves that is exceedingly uninteresting. We did both roads and the beach road is far more fun but, at least when we were there, our maps did not show us an improved dirt beach road so we simply found it by accident.
The Mexican tourist authorities are going to try to destroy this wilderness area and turn it into this Southern Riviera Maya thing with that fancy new airport they´ve been touting and that Majuahal cruiseliner port. It´s a shame but that´s the way it is.
A word about Xcalak from my point of view. I think the town was a lot larger in the past but was pretty much wiped out a few years ago by a severe hurricane. When we were there about 2005/06 the remaining village was somewhat in tatters but north of the bridge on the way to Majuahal on the beach road there were a number of often isolated beach homes owned by foreigners or wealthy Mexicans from other parts of the country. In those days there was no electricity that far north and everyone was dependent on generators for electricity. Everyplace from the village proper to the fancy beach houses north of the village was spookily deserted and desolate. Even in 2005/06, these beach houses on an infamous hurricane coast were way overpriced. Just for the fun of it we called some guy in Michigan who owned a large beachfront house north of Xcalak off of the electrical grid because we had seen a for sale sign on the property and in 2005 this dude wanted $650,000USD for that isolated beachfront property facing calm coral encrusted shores suitable only for snorkeling or scuba diving as opposed to bathing. This was a pleasant beautiful environment but enduced an overwhelming feeling of loneliness and angst. It was akin to buying your own asylum in which to lose your mind just talking to yourself and establishing a dialogue with the sea creatures abounding thereabouts.
I asked a friend who had bought into such an environment on Mexico´s isolated Caribbean what it was like to live in such a place and he told me; "It starts off nicely with early morning scuba diving in the sea or perhaps sailing on the lagoon or fishing for game fish but then there you are day after day after day and that´s really all there is to do there and the nearest town of any consequence is at least two hours away by car and as romantic as that beach life sounds, anything in life becomes tedious after a while so by, say, mid-afternoon you find yourself drinking whatever alcolohic refreshment puts you in a good mood and then that´s all you remember until the next day which is a repeat of the day before ad nauseum until you either get out of there or lose your mind.
No thanks. I´ll rent in these types of places for a week or so at a time and then head back to whatever town I live in for the relief of human interraction.
Just remember. I had to call Michigan to find the retiree who owned that pardisiacal beachfront home and I´ll bet you dollars to dimes that SOB never goes there any more if he can avoid it.
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