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Anyone Been To Riviera Maya, Mexico?


Wease

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  • 4 months later...

So for anyone who's considering going to the Caribbean this summer, I just cancelled our trip to the Riviera Maya. I had been reading reviews of our resort all Summer and I kept seeing things about seaweed on the beach, and you couldn't get in the water. Google news brought back more results of "sargassum" seaweed, all over the Caribbean. Hell, it's even washing up in South Florida. Then I found a beach webcam just south of where we were going to stay. This is a pic from today:

 

http://wease.net/pics/Seaweed.png

 

It was going to be my kid's first time snorkeling, and they would have been crushed if we couldn't do it. At that point it's almost been reduced to a pool vacation and hell, I can do that in the U.S.

 

Fortunately for me, I bought the trip insurance, but not the full blown "You get your money back" one. The one I bought gives you a voucher that you have to use within a year. So I called them Monday and cancelled our trip. I'm thinking of going to Aruba over Thanksgiving instead. From what I've read, they've been unaffected by the seaweed and we were there 10 years ago and had a great time.

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That's crazy! :eek: When we went there was a lot of seaweed like that but not to that extent, most of it was remnant piles left on the beach from the high tide. We also went in October so that may have something to do with it too. Sorry to hear you aren't going but probably for the best. Hope you enjoy Aruba instead :)
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Holy shit that’s crazy. Not sure if that’s washing up from afar but my wife and kids just came back from Naples and the Red Tide algae bloom is strongest it’s been in over a Decade all along South Florida. Wonder if there’s a big kill going on somewhere.
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It was like that in April when I was there. Massive piles of it on any shore facing the East. Not only does it pile up on the shoreline but it turns the water around it brown and smells pretty bad when it starts to rot.

 

It would have been very disappointing if we had been staying on one of those beaches...

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Not only does it pile up on the shoreline but it turns the water around it brown and smells pretty bad when it starts to rot.

 

It would have been very disappointing if we had been staying on one of those beaches...

 

Yup. All of this factored into my decision to scrap going there and do something else. I've also read that most of the seaweed issues seem to be happening in the Summer, so if I move our vacation to Fall or Winter, that should help. I just can't describe how pissed I would have been if we get down there and the water is pretty much off limits... :(

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it's awesome... make sure to take the ATV tour through the jungle... they will lead you to a hole in the ground which feels sketchy. once you get down there it opens into this awesome water hole... hands down our favorite thing we've ever done.
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  • 2 weeks later...

So I just re-booked this trip. We're now going to Cozumel over Thanksgiving. Prices were really good, way better than Xmas or New Years. I had to upgrade the flights a bunch to get good times, but my goal was to use up my voucher and pay little else. And I succeeded, as it only cost me $131 extra, after my voucher was applied. :)

 

I was looking at Aruba, which is far enough south to be seaweed free, but apparently the west side of Cozumel (where most of the resorts are) is mostly seaweed free as well. I went to Cozumel for my brother's 40th birthday back in 2016 and we had a really good time, so I know some about the island... :cool:

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