There’s been a lot of buzz about the new beach restoration project that’s been going on here in Playa Del Carmen. A reportedly 2.6 miles of beach is being worked on with most of it south of Constituyentes complete. The sand was dredged, imported, then placed along the beach which widen some parts considerably. The project was authorized by the Mexican government and is very similar to the restoration project that took place in Cancun after hurricane Wilma.

I decided to walk over and take a few pictures and compare them to the photos I took about 2 months ago. You’ll see that the beach is now much wider, I would almost say too wide. I walked along the newly restored beachfront and thought my god, walking from the ocean to a beach bar to grab a cold beer is almost not worth it! It’s too far lol My gut also tells me that from an environmental perspective this doesn’t feel right.

The sand is most likely being dredged from parts of Cozumel which is known for their great diving. I’m not a fan of messing around with Mother Nature; you just can’t beat her long term. You’ll see from my before shots that the “old” beach was nice, good enough in my opinion. It wasn’t as if a hurricane had just hit…..than I would be all for the facelift. But otherwise I prefer my beaches au natural :)