What you can see on the Xcaret cam
The view looks over the pools and the limestone inlets of the hotel next to the park and out to the coast and the open sea. The rock here is the same porous limestone that covers the whole Yucatán Peninsula, and the sea has worn it into small coves of clear green water. It is a quick check on the weather along this stretch and on how calm the sea is.
The coast at Xcaret from Hotel Xcaret
From high on Hotel Xcaret, next to the park, this camera looks over a landscape of pools and inlets. On the left an infinity pool and the hotel's terracotta-colored buildings; below, tropical gardens with umbrellas and a channel of clear green water winding between them; beyond, the rocky coast and the open sea. A few blades of a plant growing in front of the lens sway across the right side of the picture.
It is a good view of how this part of the coast is shaped: limestone, inlets and sheltered pools rather than long open beaches. Webcams de México streams it.
Polé, the port for Cozumel
The name Xcaret is thought to come from caleta, the Spanish word for a cove. In Maya times the place was a port, identified by historians with the Polé of the old chronicles. Facing Cozumel across the channel, it was one of the main points where pilgrims from all over the Yucatán set off by canoe to the island's shrine of the goddess Ixchel, and its traders sailed along the coast as far as Honduras. Some of its stone buildings still stand inside the park.
When to watch Xcaret
The day starts over the channel toward Cozumel, the same water the Maya canoes crossed, and the first light on it is the reason to look early. From early afternoon, with the light coming from behind the cam, the inlets show their brightest greens. On windy days the cam shows the contrast that made this cove a harbor: the open sea is choppy while the water inside the rock stays smooth.
Nearby
Playacar and downtown Playa del Carmen, where Fifth Avenue and the Cozumel ferry are, lie a short drive north, about 6 km (4 miles). South along Highway 307 come the marina town of Puerto Aventuras, the beach of Xpu-Ha and the bay of Akumal.
Getting there
Xcaret is a private park that charges admission; its hours, prices and the shows it runs change, so check them on its official website before going. The entrance is on Highway 307. In the water, use mineral sunscreen or a rash guard, and don't touch or stand on coral.
