The Caribbean is associated with frenzy and merriment, but there are always exceptions. In Puerto Morelos, a small town in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, the traveler immediately appreciates the stillness and quality of silence. That is almost total at night and at a very acceptable level during the day, since the biggest racket is the one made by the pelicans on the pier.
The sea reaches the urban beach very calm after overcoming the reef. Big words when dealing with the Great Mayan Reef, part of the Mesoamerican Reef System, the second largest coral reef in the world after the Australian one. It is like a great coral crown that films Yucatan (Mexico) and the countries of Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. A world where fish never scream except with their fiery colors. All of which begins just 500 meters from the beach.
But Puerto Morelos, with its approximately 30,000 inhabitants, is not such a remote or remote place in the Riviera Maya. The international airport of Cancun is about thirty kilometers away and this city, created in 1971, has already exceeded one million inhabitants. On the other hand, Puerto Morelos borders on Puerto del Carmen, another tourist enclave in the Riviera Maya full of animation and ferries to escape to Cozumel and other islands in the Mexican Caribbean.
Puerto Morelos has stayed in the middle, without crowds and with fresh fish supplied by its small but efficient fishing flora. Meanwhile, on its terrestrial border resists the mangrove saved from the voracity of construction. The mangrove area is protected and, in turn, defends the reef. There come the so-called “eyes of water”, with their brackish jets, promoting whirlpools and biodiversity. One more spur of this area declared a national park Arrecife de Puerto Morelos.
It is not little: mangrove, beach and reef. And its consequent fauna, because there are still alligators among the mangroves. And, of course, the wonders of the Caribbean are within the reach of scuba divers and snorkelers. The fish greet you without shouting, like the rays that fly, or the nurse sharks, which here have a reputation for not biting, although you never know. The squids will end up being bitten by fish and humans, although here in the park they are more to be seen, like the dancing lobsters. Meanwhile, the violet-toned gorgonians are like palms that extend their wide fingers to comb the sea current, or fan it as hot as this one. And, of course, that trapezoidal fish, with its changing color and dog’s snout, has eyes so clever that you can only see them seconds before he vanishes. The boquinete can only be fished with a harpoon and thank you for allowing us to try its smooth white meat fried later in one of the beach restaurants in Puerto Morelos. On another day, there is red snapper, a snapper with reddish meat, and with more luck one would score a grouper or dorado fillet. The beer usually has a slice of lemon on its neck.
On its outskirts, Puerto Morelos does not deprive itself of a few and far-flung all-inclusive resorts. But in its urban center there are hotels with the style of old inns, comfortable and affordable. It is also surprising in the middle of the brief Paseo Maritimo to run into the Leaning Lighthouse. Built in 1946, it survived the ravages of Hurricane Beulah, which devastated this coast in 1967. Against all odds, the lighthouse, with its foundations in the sand itself, did not collapse. He was left a burly Quasimodo, 10 meters tall, hunched over, but agile and arrogant in his own way. For practical purposes, another lighthouse was built later, a few meters from the first, on firmer ground, and it is the one that works by warning ships of the reefs.
After all, this town has the oldest port in Quintana Roo. It dates back to 1898, when this place was called Punta Corcho. From here that bark was exported, as well as the valuable fiber of henequen and vanilla pods. Crops uprooted from the Yucatecan jungle.
A marron basilisco (‘Basiliscus vittatus’) in the Jardin Botanico Dr. Alfredo Barrera Marin. Alamy Stock Photo
A useful way to understand what that jungle was like is by visiting the Botanical Garden, named Dr. Alfredo Barrera Marin in homage to that Mexican ethnobotanist, a specialist in the natural world of the Mayans and Nahuatles. The garden has 65 hectares and its part dedicated to some fifty medicinal plants used by the natives stands out. Meanwhile, the visitor may be observed by the spider monkeys or silently questioned by the iguanas.
There are no shortage of cenotes here either. Through the so-called Ruta de los Cenotes you can visit dozens of them. Many already offer zip lines, and driving quads, and finally taking a bath in those caves, almost superficial, and sometimes without a roof, which served as sanctuaries for the ancient Mayans. And where its fresh and fresh water always invigorates. Two cenotes in particular to take into account: Las Mojarras, due to its dimensions (it is 67 meters in diameter), and Ha’ —means water in Mayan— due to its nature (lilies and bats).
The rainy season is from May to September. Another thing is the unforeseen pace of climate change. But what does not usually fail is the appearance of sargasso from April to August. The beaches have to be cleaned with tractors, but the worst of these macroalgae is the dense floating blanket that makes it difficult to enter the sea from the shore. Sargasso often extend their own barriers for tens of meters. Of course, this is a far cry from the famous Sargasso Sea, “the terror of the ancient navigators”, as Levi-Strauss wrote in his initiation Tristes tropicos. The Sargasso Sea was also for the great ethnologist his baptism of a strange America, the one of silence, dead calm, the denied wind, after crossing the blue Atlantic, so full of life.
The sargassums float with their vegetable bladders and are collected by the tons on the beach. Many bathers opt for the pool. But the Caribbean, clean of veils, and full of silences, begins at the nearby reef.
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