Jan 8, 2008
The Mexican equivalent to Maho Bay is a somewhat similar tented community on the Mayan Riviera
I'm a sucker for a Caribbean tent. On my very first visit to those tropics, emerging from the plane into 90-plus degrees, I asked myself: "Why am I staying at a hotel? Why doesn't some entrepreneur place tents, or simply scatter cots, along a beach (and maybe hang a canvas awning over the cots to protect from rain)? With heat like this, why do I have to spend big money for a hotel?"The first person to take advantage of those natural conditions was Stanley Selengut, who proceeded to construct simple, cheap, canvas-sided "huts" alongside a hill overlooking the sea on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Maho Bay, as it's called, has been a stunning success ever since.
Another such canvas-sided colony -- called "Cesiak," for Centro Ecologica Sian Ka'an -- has just come to my attention, thanks to a reader of this blog. This time, your lodgings are simple tents placed atop wooden platforms facing the sea, in the midst of a gigantic (1.3 million acres) "biosphere reserve" (protected area) of the Mexican Caribbean, alongside the so-called Mayan Riviera near Tulum. A tent accommodating two persons costs $90 a night ($45 a person) during high season (mid-January to the end of April) -- and that's a good price for the winter Caribbean. As Cesiak describes its tents, "they offer spectacular views from their private patios as well as plenty of shade and cooling breezes. Raised on platforms to allow ecological and hyrological processes to continue, the spacious tents come fully furnished. Shared bathrooms are always clean and also have stunning views over water."
I haven't been there myself (I have vacationed at Maho Bay), but a look at the illustrations in the organization's website -- www.cesiak.org -- should give you the confidence to try what may be a promising new discovery off Mexico's Caribbean coast.
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Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
