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The Cost Of Progress
Posted On Sunday May 6, 2007 By Kathy Dee
In January of 2006 I took my first trip to Puerto Morelos, Mexico. Puerto Morelos is a small, quaint fishing village about 20 miles south of Cancun, Mexico and 30+ miles north of Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. This strip of land is also known now as a part of the Mayan Riviera. You can view Puerto Morelos at Wikitravel @ http://wikitravel.org/en/Puerto_Morelos. Wikitravel is like Wikipedia except it’s for travel.
Puerto Morelos is about 2 miles long and 4 streets wide. There is a marsh to the west of the town that feeds the coral reef that protects Puerto Morelos from pounding surf. The small town has resisted the extensive development around them and has maintained its quaint and small village feel. One general store, a variety of wonderful eating places, and local artisans sell their hand made crafts. Every day in the afternoon you can go down to the town square when the fishing boats come in and buy a fresh caught fish and take it home and have a wonderful dinner. And if you are so inclined you can go snorkeling and see the amazing fish and wild life close very to the town square. The reef was made a national park and is now protected.
The ’06 trip was marvelous and I had such wonderful experiences I went back this year again. There was lots of growth and development. There is an apartment complex that has condos and time shares that had begun in 2006 and was complete this year. Landscaping, big drive ways and lots of living spaces were in place of the rebar wires and construction site. The locals love the development. Although I understand their interest in and pleasure with development I am personally concerned about the costs.
There was one special place I discovered last year. It is a magical beach called Punta Brava. Punta means brave and Brava I believe means spirit. So it is a brave spirit place. The surf pounds hard and it is a dangerous place for swimming. The shells on the beach are superb…In 2006 we were there just after a hurricane that devastated parts of Puerto Morelos and Punta Brava had an abundance of shells and the pounding surf mixed with shells washing up in the beach created this amazing music. I spent a good deal of time listening to the “music.”
On my trips to the beach I saw an alligator and several different kotomundi. Kotomundies look sort of like ant eaters with brown short fur. I was amazed at the wildlife. Last year, the habitat for the wild life was about 3 miles along the road. This year when I went back there was only about an eight of a mile left. There were no alligators or kotomundies. I did see snake tracks this year but I didn’t see any of the animals like I had seen in 2006.
I learned that by 2008 public access to Punta Brava will be gone. So as high cost condos and time shares increase there will be no more access to the animals that run wild along the road, the surf symphony and the pounding surf. And so it goes…..
Tags: alligators, animals, beach, development, kotomundis, mexico, morelos, music, puerto, walks, wild
This Location: Puerto Morelos, Mexico
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You were informed correctly. Punta Brava, which means the brave place or point, is gone now. It has a 1,200 to 1,500 room resort, which is under construction now, taking the place of the mangrove swamps you saw. It is a good example of how not to develop property. They took out the mangroves in a hurry to not loos the opportunity to get their permits and destroyed them and their fragile system.
I just want to know where they will get their fresh water from and where they will put their waste water.
There are some that want to develop in a proper manner in Puerto Morelos, only it becomes more difficult after things like this occur.
By-the-way, you did not see an alligator, it was a salt water corcodile!
— Pablo Sunday October 7, 2007 #