# Tough Times in Isla Mujeres



## Dave&Linda (Oct 26, 2009)

Interesting article in the Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/23/AR2009102301916.html


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## pgrrider (Oct 26, 2009)

*Cut & Paste from above posting....Wash. Post*

 By Tim Carman
Special to The Washington Post 
Sunday, October 25, 2009 

My wife and I had the cabbie drop us in downtown Isla Mujeres so we could polish off some croissants and a plate of chilaquiles, that Mexican breakfast staple, before wandering over to Playa del Norte, the island's most popular beach. As we sat at the outdoor cafe, the early-morning sun still formulating its plan of attack on our cubicle-pale bodies, we couldn't help noticing that aside from the wait staff and the steroidal lobster lolling in a nearby tank, we were about the only creatures around. 

Our sense of being the last tourists on the island only intensified as we walked those few quiet blocks to the beach. The narrow streets, crowded with shops and restaurants and hotels, were almost deserted, too. The browned, weather-beaten men and women who stood vigil outside their stores viewed us, I felt, less as tourists than as sheep that must be trapped, and not released, until sheared of our wool. 

The come-hither hustle, of course, is nothing new to Mexican tourist centers, but the relentlessness, even desperation, of these street pitches underscored a sad truth about Isla Mujeres this past August: The place was dead, and merchants had far fewer opportunities to make a buck. The European backpackers who usually descend upon the island at that time of year were mostly absent. So were diners at some of Isla's finest restaurants, including Casa O's, where one Friday evening we were the only two customers sitting beneath the circular palapa with the gorgeous sunset views of Mujeres Bay. And Playa del Norte? We had the run of the sugar-white beaches once we made it through the gantlet of street hawkers. 

It wasn't hard to pinpoint the troubles afflicting the local tourism industry, but I still wanted to hear it from shopkeepers' mouths. Everywhere I went, particularly if I didn't have to converse in my embarrassing pidgin Spanish, I'd ask the owner why the island was so devoid of tourists. Their answers were always the same: the global economic downturn and swine flu. 

The country widely viewed as the epicenter of H1N1 virus was obviously paying the price for it. During the height of the swine flu hysteria in late April and early May, both the U.S. State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised against all nonessential travel to Mexico. Some companies outright banned business trips to the country, cruise ships avoided Mexican ports of call and airlines cut back flights. The warnings and restrictions took a quick toll on tourism, the nation's third-leading source of revenue after oil exports and money transfers from Mexicans working abroad. Some news sources during the spring pegged the drop in tourism dollars in Cancun at 82 percent, requiring the layoffs of tens of thousands of hotel employees. 

A truism of information is that good news never travels as fast, or penetrates as deeply, as bad news. By the summer, long after media outlets began reporting that H1N1 wasn't as deadly as feared and that the number of new cases in Mexico had dropped precipitously, tourists were still hesitant to return to the country. Tourists, in fact, were keeping their distance despite such tantalizing offers as Real Resorts' bold "flu-free guarantee," which promised a free vacation for three straight years if you could verify that you came down with H1N1 while vacationing at one of the chain's hotels. 


Even if the "swine flu discounts," as my wife and I started referring to them, aren't as generous as they were earlier this year, Americans still have a built-in discount these days. The dollar's exchange rate against the peso is approaching all-time highs. At current rates, each dollar exchanged will return you about 13 pesos, far better than the nine- or 10-peso rate you got during the late '90s. 

Your cash will go a long way on Isla Mujeres, particularly if you know where to spend it. Few tourists come to the island for its night life or Mayan ruins, since the skinny strip of land pales in comparison with other destinations on the Yucatan peninsula when it comes to those kinds of attractions. Your focus on Isla Mujeres, in fact, will almost always be away from the island -- toward the clear, multicolored water that grows gradually darker from shore to sea, from pale powder blue to turquoise to royal blue. 

Ninety percent of your pleasure will be derived from the outer edges of Isla Mujeres. It might come from lounging on the pristine beaches of Playa del Norte or gobbling down the Mayan fish plate known as tikin xic on Playa Lancheros, or strolling the pathways of Punta Sur as they wind around and through the rugged cliffs on the southern side of the island, offering close encounters with a still-untamed section of the Caribbean as its waves slam hard against rock and land. All these are cheap thrills in the best sense of the term. 

Guidebooks will try to persuade you to lay down serious cash for a chance to snorkel at another attraction on the island's fringes: Garrafon Natural Reef Park. (Garrafon's fees vary, depending on your preferred activities, but expect to spend nearly $30 just to enter the place.) The park is, without a doubt, a gorgeous spot with access to the island's best coral reefs. It also has zip lines and a climbing tower and kayaking and restaurants. But here's what it doesn't have: a sense of connection to the island itself. Garrafon looks like a rusty slice of Kings Dominion on a strip of land that still feels, in many ways, like a rustic old fishing town. 

If it's snorkeling you want, locals will tell you that the place to go is just up the street from Garrafon: a private beach with the similar name, Garrafon de Castilla. For about $5 per person, you can enjoy a beach chair and an umbrella and, for a few bucks more, get the proper equipment for snorkeling. You can even buy a small container of pellets and quickly find yourself surrounded by hundreds of hungry fish, each seemingly ready to nibble the flesh right off your hands. Don't worry. They want the pellets. One tip, though: Don't feed the marine life around nervous kids at this family-friendly beach. They -- the kids, that is -- will just flee in terror as they see a massive school of fish rushing right toward them. 

What do you, the adult traveler, have to fear on Isla Mujeres? Not a lot. Mexico has prepared for the fall and winter seasons with millions of swine flu vaccine doses, and you certainly don't need to sweat all the latest State Department warnings about drug-cartel-related violence, which is relegated mostly to the northern border towns. 

But you do have to worry about petty crime. On an island where the average wage can be less than $20 a day, a few discontented souls may have no problem levying a "tourist tax" on visiting Americans; locals will warn you, repeatedly, to keep your valuables locked away while enjoying the island's beach culture. You should listen. 

You also need to worry about something else: that this quaint little island might one day aspire to be the next Cancun. Isla Mujeres Palace, a luxury property, is already open there, and more fancy-looking properties are under construction on the south end of the island, not far from Garrafon. And just as worrisome to someone like me: Taco Campos, the island's best taqueria, has vanished from the baseball field where it was once located. So said the taxi driver when we asked him to take us there. 

I momentarily panicked at the thought of missing those tacos, but then the cabbie said that he was related to the owner, who had renamed the institution and moved it to a spot much farther south. Within minutes, we were sitting at a table at El Cachirul, under a TV playing "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" in Spanish, and enjoying a platter full of the freshest corn-tortilla tacos, each brimming with meats and tomatoes and onions and cilantro. It's one of Isla Mujeres' few pleasures not found on a beach. 

Tim Carman writes the Young and Hungry column for the Washington City Paper.


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## cerralee (Oct 26, 2009)

I absolutely love Isla Mujeres, sad to hear that it has hit on rough times.  I plan on tacking on a week at Villa Vera after my owned week at Casa Maya.  I hope I can get the time off!!


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## Dave&Linda (Oct 26, 2009)

*And it gets worse....*

Over a month old, but still disturbing:

Excerpt from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation website:

Man in custody after Canadian killed in Mexico
Last Updated: Friday, September 18, 2009
CBC News 

  Renée Wathelet, 60, was killed in her Mexico apartment Thursday. Mexican police say they have a man in custody who claims to have killed the Montreal woman found stabbed to death in her apartment on an island off the Cancun coast on Thursday.

Authorities said they found the body of Renée Wathelet, 60, with multiple stab wounds and her throat cut.

According to local newspaper reports, neighbours on Isla Mujeres said they heard screams coming from Wathelet's apartment Thursday morning.

Commander Leo Ortiz, director of public security for the island, said officials arrested Jose Palacios, 24, who they believe had known the victim for about one month.

Ortiz said Palacios confessed to the killing, saying he did it for personal reasons. He said investigators are trying to determine the nature of the relationship between the two, and that Palacios might be suffering from psychological problems.


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## Toughbeat (Oct 26, 2009)

*what do you mean "And it gets worse?"*

I beg to differ that your post is somehow related to the OP's article.  Your title suggesting "it gets worse" (although a horrible tragedy in and of itself), is unfortunately the kind of news you would read in the newspapers of many cities, but certainly is not shown to be as a result of, nor related to the tourism industry or economic downturn from the swine flu hysteria.  According to the article, the victim was a resident there and the perpetrator knew his victim.  

It would be a stretch, and certainly an inaccuracy in this case, to use this incident as an instrument to support the news article in the OP's post, or to suggest that the contents of the article somehow go hand in hand with the senseless murder.

just my opinion...


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## tonyg (Oct 26, 2009)

I enjoyed our day on Isla Mujeres around the turn of the century. Garaffon was closed but the beach south of it was open for about $ 1 per person. We travelled in a rented golf cart and had a great time. One thing I remembered that cast a pall on safety was a wall around a house with broken glass built in on the top. It was also the scene of my longest bargaining session in Mexico--and yes my wife got the necklace and I bought the guy selling it a beer. We didn't leave the island until nightfall, as they forgot to send the 5:30 boat to pick us up.


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## pgrrider (Oct 27, 2009)

Toughbeat said:


> I beg to differ that your post is somehow related to the OP's article.  Your title suggesting "it gets worse" (although a horrible tragedy in and of itself), is unfortunately the kind of news you would read in the newspapers of many cities, but certainly is not shown to be as a result of, nor related to the tourism industry or economic downturn from the swine flu hysteria.  According to the article, the victim was a resident there and the perpetrator knew his victim.
> 
> It would be a stretch, and certainly an inaccuracy in this case, to use this incident as an instrument to support the news article in the OP's post, or to suggest that the contents of the article somehow go hand in hand with the senseless murder.
> 
> just my opinion...



I would have to agree with you....!!!  That incident has no relation to the economic conditions on Isla.

AND..that kind of story is what sells newspapers and makes people watch the TV "NEWS"..... which in and of itself is a joke!

Again - just another opinion.....


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## irishween (Oct 27, 2009)

So, I am headed to Cancun this weekend with my girlfriends.  If we were to head over to Isla  what would you recommend.  The out of the way places, which beach?  Any thoughts appreciated.


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## pgrrider (Oct 27, 2009)

irishween said:


> So, I am headed to Cancun this weekend with my girlfriends.  If we were to head over to Isla  what would you recommend.  The out of the way places, which beach?  Any thoughts appreciated.



when you get there...just rent a golf cart...and drve around the island....there is a ring road...so you cannot get lost!!!!  just stop at what interests you...  Have a ball..!!


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## alfie (Oct 27, 2009)

*girlfriends*

So, when you and your girlfriends get off the boat at Isla, if you walk straight you can visit the little town.  If you turn left and keep walking thru the throngs of vendors down the sidewalk you will reach the first public beach which is quite nice.  But, keep walking, just follow the beach until it really opens up.  You, will come to an area called North Beach.  It is the best beach on the island, and right now the best beach in the entire area.  You can rent chairs and a palapa near a restaurant and use their facilities.  Enjoy.  It truly is a beautiful island.


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## chriskre (Oct 27, 2009)

This is so sad for the Mexican people.  This is such a beautiful place it's a shame to see them suffering so needlessly.  

I hope things turn around for them soon.  I'd hate to see this area deteriorate.  This is one of the most beautiful beaches I've seen in all my travel years.  Just as nice if not nicer than any Caribbean beach or even Hawaii/St. John.  

God bless you Isla bonita.


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## CoteauPlatte (Oct 27, 2009)

*What to do on Isla?*

Yes, rent the golf cart and go round the island.  We spend at least one day on Isla every time we go to our place at VCI.  I have driven my rental car on the car ferry but that's way too much trouble -- and Isla should not be trouble.  Our favorite lunch--which can take hours --spot is Playa Lanchero and if you want to go upscale you can go to Casa Rolandi for dinner.  

When you are on Isla, it's hard to pay attention to time but you need to make sure you catch the ferry.  Over the decades, we have had lots of family members who were "forced" to spend the night on the island.  When the island is crowded, finding a hotel room on short notice can be tough but we've always been able to find something.


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## Zac495 (Oct 29, 2009)

So if you're staying in Riveria Maya, how does one get there? Ferry? What time should one leave and how long to stay (not overnight as I have a t/s stay planned)


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## cerralee (Oct 29, 2009)

Zac495 said:


> So if you're staying in Riveria Maya, how does one get there? Ferry? What time should one leave and how long to stay (not overnight as I have a t/s stay planned)



The ferry (Puerto Juarez) is easy and inexpensive, they leave regularly throughout the day.  Last spring I believe it was under $4.00 pp.  If you get there around 11:00 you can plan to lunch (I like tiburon where you can eat fresh caught fish and pet a shark!) then North Beach for some serious beach hanging out time.  Then hit the shops and eat dinner in the nearby downtown.  Hang out a bit more, explore the island, just make sure to hop on the ferry before the last one leaves.  I think its around mid-nite.


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## jschmidt (Nov 1, 2009)

*Isla Mujeres - Been There, Done That!*

I just returned from Cancun and have crossed Isla Mujeres off my of Things-to-Do list!   

The cost of the ferry leaving from Puerto Juarez has doubled in price from last May, but only for tourists.  The locals still pay the same price.  In May the cost was $35 M.P. p/p one way, now its $70 M.P.  I called the Delegacion de Tourismo de Cancun and told them my thoughts on this.   

The Route 1 bus no longer goes all the way to Puerto Juarez so you must catch a colectivo (van) at the end of Ave. Tulum for the rest of the trip.  The cost is $5 M.P.  When you return to Puerto Juarez from Isla Mujeres, the taxi drivers will tell you that you cannot get transportation back to town and they will take you to your hotel for only $400 M.P.  It’s a LIE!     You can catch the colectivo to downtown Cancun across the street from the ferry terminal for $5 M.P.

The cost of a golf cart on Isla Mujeres has gone from $20 U.S.D. per day to $37 U.S.D. per day.  You should be able to negotiate this down because there are very few tourists on the island.

A bottle of beer at Casa Rolandi now costs $35 M.P. ($2.80 U.S.D.)   

The stuff in the stores on Isla Mujeres is the same stuff that is every where else, so you don’t need to go there to specifically shop.

If you’re going to Isla Mujeres for a low price day or to Cancun for a low price Mexico vacation, think again!


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## quezsmith (Nov 2, 2009)

jschmidt said:


> I just returned from Cancun and have crossed Isla Mujeres off my of Things-to-Do list!
> 
> The cost of the ferry leaving from Puerto Juarez has doubled in price from last May, but only for tourists.  The locals still pay the same price.  In May the cost was $35 M.P. p/p one way, now its $70 M.P.  I called the Delegacion de Tourismo de Cancun and told them my thoughts on this.
> 
> ...




yeah - we were there 3 weeks ago and totally agree. BUT we paid $50 for the golf cart!!!!  guess we really got ripped off.  

jan


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## hvacrsteve (Nov 9, 2009)

*That is sad!*

We visited the island on our last trip, we had a great time, rented a golf cart!

The people on that island were extremely nice, I know Mexico is having a hard time with the Swine flue and the Gangs at war.

We have crossed Mexico off our list for now, also the airfare has risen
quite a bit since last year.

I am happy just going to NYC, I can visit the world in NYC and never leave the US!


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