MEMORIES:
PHOTOS:
At the southernmost tip of Mexico, sometimes referred to as the “Mayan Riviera”, lies the tropical paradise of Cancun, a tourist Mecca for over 20 years. With its white sandy beaches, exquisite coral reefs, jungle lagoons and festive nightlife, Cancun made a name for itself quickly. And just as quickly, it saw its tourism industry come to a screeching halt with the arrival of Hurricane Wilma in 2005, a storm that did extensive damage that Cancun still struggles to recover from. But Cancun is rising from the ashes and will hopefully regain its standing as one of the world’s premier vacation spots. It certainly has plenty to offer.
Dreams of a tropical resort in the town located in the Yucatan Peninsula began in the 1960s, as the Mexican Government recognized the region’s strong potential for tourism. By the 70’s, the first two hotels appeared - The Palacio Maya and Club Med. Offering an assortment of activities from golf, fishing, scuba diving, snorkeling and windsailing, as well as a place to visit tropical jungles, Mayan ruins, or simply relax on a powdery-white beach, word began to spread like wildfire that Cancun was worth checking out. The 80’s brought an extraordinary growth spurt and by the next decade, Cancun was almost unrecognizable from its former self, with 140 hotels and almost 25,000 rooms available. American companies such as Hilton, Best Western, McDonalds, and Domino’s Pizza soon wanted in on the action. Cancun was simply the place to be.
All of that changed in October of 2005, when a category 4 storm hit the island paradise, its 140 MPH winds doing an estimated 5 billion dollars in damage and killing at least three people. When the storm was over, the majority of the pristine beach had been washed away in the process. Recovery efforts began immediately, including the importation of sand from other nearby areas to restore the beach. Today, all but small areas have been rebuilt and Cancun hopes to recapture its glory days.
To many people, however, those glory days were actually in the early 80s, before it became the tourism behemoth in the years that followed. Back in the day, it was quiet, secluded, and ever so romantic, a little hideaway from the hustle and bustle. There were no nightclubs, no mile upon mile of towering resort hotels. It was a place where you could interact with wild iguanas, giant turtles, and swim the warm surrounding waters in solitude, as if you were a castaway on your very own island. Of course, the Mexican Government sees things a bit differently, preferring the later years and the millions of tourism dollars that Cancun once brought in daily.
And even if Cancun can’t go back to the sleepy little village it once was, it still delights all that visit with a glimpse into a tropical paradise sure to make your worries disappear and your tan grow darker. And when the sun finally sets for the day, it’s off to the clubs, where a masked man will grab your head, tilt it back, a pour a steady stream of tequila down your throat. It the stuff dreams are made of.
