Our Chicxulub Home

While Playa del Carmen may be the swinging Blackpool of the Yucatan Peninsula, Chicxulub is a like a forgotten little backwater clinging to the edge of the Norfolk Broads. There is nothing swinging here – apart from the coconut palms and mangroves that fringe the sandy golden beach…

Bumping into Chicxulub along its wide, hot, dusty streets is like driving onto the set of a 1950s spaghetti western. Any minute now Clint Eastwood, sporting a Pancho moustache, will swagger around the corner and pull a couple of pistols from under his poncho while muttering in spanglish, “I hate gringos.” But nothing happens; the streets are almost deserted, and a few local Mayans welcome us with a “Buenos dias,” and seem content to share their peaceful little hideaway with us as the world and time passes by. The only concessions to modernity are on the beach where a veneer of opulent villas and low-rise condominium apartments stretch to the horizon in each direction. The contrast between the scruffy concrete bungalows crammed along the village streets and the monstrous mega-homes that haughtily hog the shoreline are a stark reminder of the gulf between the haves and have-nots. But many of the haves here are Mexicans. Although there are a few gringos – almost all apparently from Canada – most of the villas are reputed to belong to the local drug barons who consider this area to be out of bounds as far as any ‘funny business’ is concerned, (everyone needs to get away from the office sometimes).

Chicxulub beach is a paradise for bird fanciers, (the feathered variety). Flocks of pelicans, cormorants and kittiwakes fish in the warm waters while frigate birds soar effortlessly in the clear blue sky on a constant breeze…

The shallow sea of the Gulf of Mexico would love to be as clear and cerulean as its Caribbean neighbor but the churning winds turn it an aquamarine green. However, the blue skies and sea breezes mean that we will be spending a lot of time on the beach and on the sparkling new pier in Chicxulub over the next two months…

Hasta la vista.