Akumal
Encyclopedia
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
resort
Resort
A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for holidays or vacations. Resorts are places, towns or sometimes commercial establishment operated by a single company....
community 100 km (62.1 mi) south of Cancún
Cancún
Cancún is a city of international tourism development certified by the UNWTO . Located on the northeast coast of Quintana Roo in southern Mexico, more than 1,700 km from Mexico City, the Project began operations in 1974 as Integrally Planned Center, a pioneer of FONATUR Cancún is a city of...
, between the towns of Playa del Carmen
Playa del Carmen
Playa del Carmen is a balneario resort city just south of Cancún on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, in the northeast of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The city is the seat of the Solidaridad municipality. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 149,923 people and it is rapidly growing...
and Tulum
Tulum, Quintana Roo
Tulum is the largest community in the municipality of Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is located on the Caribbean coast of the state, near the site of the archaeological ruins of Tulum...
. It is located in Tulum Municipality in the state of Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Quintana Roo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 10 municipalities and its capital city is Chetumal....
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. The 2010 census showed a population of 1,310 inhabitants.
Akumal, home to Ondarte International Artist Residency, is also a creative haven and the locals have always lived in harmony with nature and the arts. Ondarte, along with other initiatives in Akumal, is focused on preserving the natural beauty of the town while responsibly sharing its creative voice with the rest of the world.
Akumal means "place of the turtle
Turtle
Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...
s" in the Mayan
Mayan languages
The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras...
language. The town was officially founded in 1958 as a community for scuba diver
Scuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
s by Pablo Bush Romero--a Mexican businessman, diver, writer, historian, and archaeologist
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
. Pablo Bush's family (the Bush/Wolfe family) still owns a large portion of Akumal, including the largest resort/hotel Hotel Club Akumal Caribe
Hotel Club Akumal Caribe
Hotel Club Akumal Caribe is a resort located along the shore of Akumal Bay , in the heart of the Maya Riviera in Quintana Roo, Mexico....
. Local bartender and DJ Ryan Wolfe is a direct descendant.
The fine white sandy beaches at Akumal Bay and Half Moon Bay are ideal for swimming and snorkeling
Snorkeling
Snorkeling is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, a wetsuit may also be worn...
. Sea turtles can be found in Akumal laying eggs on the beaches at night throughout the nesting season (end of April to October) or swimming in the main bay during the day. Hatching season runs from June to November, coinciding with hurricane season. This translates to big losses in the turtle population when major storms hit the area. However, Green turtle populations seem to be steady. Many environmental associations are settled in the Akumal area, including Centro Ecológico Akumal (CEA_. The local hotels, dive shops, independent aquatic tour operators and CEA are working with government authorities to run a bay management program aimed at protecting the resident juvenile sea turtles and coral
Coral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
species in the bays of Akumal. Sea turtles are endangered species
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
and are protected by federal law.