Cancun – The Beach

I grew up in a beach side town. As such beaches tend to bore the pants off me. It’s hot, it’s sunny. So what. For some reason, people seem to find this very entertaining. As a result, any place with a beach becomes instantly attractive. After all, people flock to the stone beaches in England, even though they’re total crap. So how do the beaches of Cancun measure up?

Talking to Mexicans before I went, there were of the unanimous opinion that he beaches of Cancun were the bees knees – the best beaches in the world. Whilst I wouldn’t necessary agree, I can honestly say that the beaches in Cancun are actually really good.

The thing I look for in a beach is the sand. Rocks, like in England and the Mediterranean are a definite no-no. Sand is the way to go, but there are lots of variations in sand as well. The beaches in some parts of Asia and Fiji are mostly sand, but with big chunks of coral or sand thrown into the mix. This makes them a bit hard to walk on. Not good.

To me, the ultimate beach is one made of soft sand, easy to walk on with not big chunks. This is the sort of beach that I grew up on and is the norm for just about every beach in Australia. The beaches of Cancun are like this. They have perhaps a little too much grit, but it’s pretty close to perfect – soft, powdery and easy to walk in. Everything you could want.

The most impressive feature of the beach, however, is the colour of the water. It’s an amazing turquoise colour. It looks surreal. Water is not meant to be that blue! It’s like someone has taken food colouring and swished it liberally through the water. I’ve never seen water this colour before. It’s truly amazing. On top of that, it’s really, really warm!

On the downside, the geography of Cancun is working against the beach. A severe hurricane a few years ago washed away most of the sand. Also not good is the exposed nature of the beach. Looking out from the beach, the next land is Cuba. This means that the shore is rather steeply inclined and very choppy.

On the days I was there, there was a continuous on shore breeze. This made the sea very rough and dangerous. Indeed, most of the beach was closed to swimming. The bits that were open were under close supervision and were not pleasant to swim in. The water was just too choppy and the water rapidly became very deep. Not what you want. After about half an hour or so, I was driven from the water by a dangerous change in tide.

Overall, I was pretty impressed by the beaches of Cancun. The colour and the warmth make them great to play in. Unfortunately, the bad weather let them down, as did the steep incline.