Anyone who has inquired about Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, etc. before their vacation is likely to have come across the topic of seaweed, sea grass or algae during the recessions.
When I was in Mexico for the first time from May to June in 2018, I spent my vacation in Playa del Carmen and also visited other beaches along the Rivera Maya. At that time I was shocked by the mass of sea grass that was washed onto the beaches. In the hotel where I spent my vacations the seaweed had to be transported by truck every day. Every morning we could watch how the trucks, partly with excavators, were loaded and transported away. This was all done to make the guests’ stay on the beaches as pleasant as possible. But after only a few hours the beaches were already full of sea grass, which after some time in the sun started to smell like rotten eggs.
This was not a peculiarity at a particular beach, but the whole coast from Cancún to Tulum was affected. On some beaches the sea grass was not removed, here the stench was so strong that it did not last long on the beaches. In addition, the water was no longer blue, but rather had a brown-green color.
At that time I didn’t want to go back to Mexico even for this reason. At that time I would never have believed that I would one day live here. 😉
How is the situation with sea grass on the Rivera Maya in 2020?
When I was in Cancún for the first time this year in February, all beaches were absolutely free of sea grass. I was absolutely thrilled by the beaches and the great water. I would never have imagined it to be so great. In my other articles you can see some photos of the beaches. Mexico definitely has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.
I talked with many people about the situation with the sea grass and I was told that the sea grass is very seasonal and weather dependent. The time of the seagrass starts at the end of May and continues until September/ October depending on the weather.
At the end of May you could observe how seagrass was washed up. But the mass of sea grass was by far not comparable to 2018, there was only a small barricade of it on the beach. With time it grew a little more, but over the months it was not so much that it was disturbing or started to stink. You can see this well on my photos.
Today in October there is hardly any sea grass left and the beaches are getting cleaner every day. I think that in a few weeks you won’t see any of the sea grass anymore and the beaches will be as nice and clean as they were in February.
So nothing should stand in the way of a wonderful vacation in Cancún this year. 🙂
