Learning New Things All the Time

 One of the attractions of the western edge of Progreso is its healthy dune system, home to native plants adapted to salt and wind and capable of holding soil in this difficult environment. 

In this, it is very different from eastern Chixculub, subject of a 2018 blog post critical of what I thought represented poor siting choices. In some places, houses are barely above the high tide line and facing serious erosion.

    What I learned this week is that the beaches of Chixculub were not being lost to the Gulf at the time most of the houses were built. Instead, much of the erosion on that section of this spit of land resulted from the construction of the Progreso Pier, which extends some four miles into the Gulf of Mexico. This extensive human construction has changed water movement and sand deposition patterns.

    It is unquestionable that the world's longest pier has been an economic boon to this area. Inshore waters here are shallow, too shallow for large boats. At low tide, I have seen people walking in water barely above their knees a hundred feet from shore. Because the pier extends so far into the Gulf, massive cargo ships now unload in Progreso's harbor, along with every drop of gasoline consumed in the state of Yucatan. (Fossil fuels create their own problems, but electric car infrastructure does not yet exist here to any great degree.) Cruise ships can now dock in Progreso, bringing thousands of visitors (and the money they spend) to the downtown area and nearby attractions every month. Local entrepreneurs have created small businesses to serve all these visitors, the city has used the tax dollars to upgrade services used by locals and tourists alike, and the presence of so many restaurants, shops, and interesting people has led some of us to spend months at a time here. And of course there are the beaches themselves.

There's a lot to be said for miles of this as an escape from some of the craziness of the world.

    But as with most things designed by humans, there was a price to be paid. This area west of the world's longest pier has benefited, but the dunes in a long stretch west of town are long gone. 

    I wonder how long it will be before some unfortunate folks' beach houses vanish as well.