When we turned off Highway 307 on Saturday and entered Akumal, I breathed a sigh of relief. We’d left the craziness of Cancun and Playa del Carmen behind us, and I thought Akumal was unchanged. I was wrong. In the 8 years we’ve been coming here we’ve seen an ever-growing number of tour groups coming from resorts up and down the coast to snorkel in Akumal Bay. The number of resorts is exploding too as the highway to Tulum, the next big vacation spot, is improved.
Akumal was founded in 1959 as a community of scuba divers attracted by a coral reef which also serves as home to giant sea turtles. Part of the town is still owned by the family of one of its founders, Pablo Bush Romero. It’s a community of condos and hotels with a few shops and restaurants. Ocean and the sunrise to the east and sunset over the jungle to the west. Across the main highway is Akumal Pueblo, where the non-tourists (about 1300 people) live. The first time we came we stayed on our own side of the highway, but an overpass has been built and we’ve visited a couple of the local restaurants on our last few visits.
This year, there’s trouble in Paradise. Depending on your point of view, long-overdue efforts to protect the bay and the reef have necessitated steps to limit access to an appropriate number of visitors and legitimate tour operators OR 
Bush Romero’s family, which owns a couple of hotels and the nicest restaurant in town AND has invested in a new 400-room resort, had blocked beach access for locals. For several months, either a small group of rogue tour operators OR a legitimate group of Akumal citizens have organized protests and, occasionally, blocked vehicle access in and out of town. On Monday, fences were broken, a statue was overturned, and the main beach was (briefly) closed. Since we’re staying further into town on a secondary beach, we missed it all. Today, a blockade went up and at least one tourist couple walked out through the grounds of the new hotel to get a taxi to the airport, leaving their luggage behind.
This is so hard. A few elites are trying to do the right thing and save the bay, but apparently the rules don’t apply to them. No help is forthcoming from the local or national governments. It’s heartbreaking to see the the environmental consequences of growth as the “Riviera Maya” attracts more and more tourists. We’ve faithfully purchased “turtle safe” sunblock for years, blah blah blah. But we’re part of the problem. We’ve also shopped at local stores, eaten at local restaurants, and tipped the staff generously wherever we have rented. Who can blame the local people who see restricting access as limiting their income? For years we’ve read about the influence of one family here, noted environmentalists who nevertheless seem to be making a lot of money by bringing in more tourists and tour groups but now feel it’s time for them to protect the reef and the local community by preventing anyone else from doing so.
Oh, Akumal. I thought you were not part of the real world. I was wrong.