Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, Mexico. December 19, 2009.
This report marks the end of phase one for this blog - the last posting before I return to Canada tomorrow.
Isla Mujeres is a sliver of an island off the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, right at the north end, very close to Cancun. If you've read my updates from the last two days, you'll know I've been lamenting the incredible changes here since I last visited in 1990.
In the rosy mists of my memory, I recall a modest fishing port, a naval base, a smattering of medium-size hotels and a big luxury resort on its own peninsula at the north end. It's not like we discovered the place, but the island was a word-of-mouth phenomenon, described in the budget guidebooks as an escape from the package-tour conformity that defined Cancun. No longer.