Hell’s Half Acre

We spent almost two months at PaaMul in April and May of 2005. PaaMul is hard to be believed; an infinity pool overlooking the Caribbean; camping on white sand instead of gravel, wonderfully clean bathrooms, dedicated high-speed internet with Wifi, a dive shop with decades of experience, iguanas, a wonderful, on-site restaurant, it really has it all. During the winter months, it is quite crowded but caravans will still manage to squeeze in.

There are a few rows of palapas at PaaMul. To see pictures of varied and sundry palapas, click THIS link. The first row has been there forever and you pretty much have to purchase the lot from the owner and rebuild it. Lots are rented on a yearly basis, in 2005, the lease was $4000USD a year. The lease is payed directly to the owner of the PaaMul camp and area; he and his family live on the premesis.

Here is a LINK to pictures of PaaMul and palapas. There is a LOT of English spoken at PaaMul; if you speak no or little Spanish, you’ll have no trouble negotiating here. The camp and beach area are owned by the local family who lives in a large rambling beach house on the PaaMul beach. The owner’s wife is American and they have two darling little girls. If you see a yellow-orange Hummer with Texas plates tooling about the premesis, you’ve found the owner.

You might find that you fall in love with the place and want to build a palapa. You won’t be the first. We seriously considered the idea last summer. As the hurricane season (remember Emily, Katrina and Wilma?) was forecast to be harsh, we decided to wait. We’re now glad we did. At the time, building a palapa with rooms and all appliances was running around $25K. Not too bad for a winter home. If you’re interesting in less permanent digs, they normally run a “pay 6 days, stay 7″ deal and have a monthly discount. Daily rates are $25/night.
Playa del Carmen (large grocery stores and more restaurants) is about 15 minutes away, Puerto Adventuras is about 20 minutes away and Tulum is within an hour. One of our favorite adventures when we stayed at PaaMul was hunting for treasure on what we called “Treasure Beach”. I’ll write and provide a link on that soon.

Click HERE for a link to our PaaMul blog entries 2005.