October 6, 2000 - The Napa Valley Register
By SUSAN FERRISS
Cox News Service
For giant hotel developers, the azure sea and sugar-white beaches of Mexico's "Mayan Riviera" add up
to a lucrative paradise.
But for native Mayan fisherman Antonio Balam, this fragile Caribbean coast on the Yucatan Peninsula is in danger
of becoming Paradise Lost.
The so-called Mayan Riviera is home to some of the world's most beautiful beaches, which are flanked closely by
the second-longest coral reef in the world. But the coast is rapidly being gobbled up by huge resort hotels. Not
long ago, the 80-mile stretch south from the resort city of Cancun down to Tulum boasted miles of open public beach
and small, simple hotels.
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