On which side of the island?

We are biased when it comes to which side of the island to choose, because our Isla Mujeres rental properties and our sales properties have always been on the side of Isla Mujeres, overlooking the bay to Cancun, the sheltered side of the island. The first properties we built and sold were on the Curva de Diablo; the properties they call Los Castillos. Due to our inexperience in those days, we bought land and then discovered part of what we thought we had bought was federal land, but anyway, we managed to end up with very nice properties each with their own pool and gardens. We were then looking at land on the Caribbean side of the island. There was plenty available at the time, and it was less expensive than on the Cancun side.

The plan to buy land and build on the Caribbean side was all looking quite promising, then on October 21, 2005,  hurricane Wilma struck. Wilma was a particularly devastating hurricane, as it was enormously powerful and because it was slow moving, so it was over the island for a long time. It took everybody by surprise, there hadn't been a serious hurricane since Gilberto in 1988, so everybody had forgotten about hurricanes.

Our plans to buy land on the Caribbean and build there were  abandoned, when we saw the damage Wilma had done to the properties on that side of the island. When a hurricane hits, that is the side of the island that takes the full force, we saw properties where everything had gone; doors, windows, kitchen and wardrobes, with just a shell remaining. Our properties on the Cancun side of the island sustained no damage. Overall, it  took the island's tourism nearly two years to recover after Wilma and Isla Mujeres rentals a little longer.

In general, there was a lot of damage to the island, but Cancun was far worse. It looked like a war zone: there wasn't a streetlamp or a set of traffic lights left standing. On the island, all the services were affected, there were no street lighting, it had all collapsed, there was a toque de queda (curfew) between 7 PM and 7 AM. The electricity company worked around the clock and the service was restored within a week or so.

There is another reason we favor the Cancun side of the Island; residents have probably noticed that there are now two places where the road on the Caribbean side of Isla Mujeres has collapsed.  Coastal erosion is becoming a problem for the Island. That is not to say all the properties on the Caribbean side of the island will end up in the sea, but it does give pause for thought.

We have now been twenty-one years without a hurricane of significance. We keep our fingers crossed.