March 13, 2010

Arroyo Seco's Playa Grande beach suddenly harder to get to...

ARROYO SECO, Jalisco, Mexico - For years the beach road along Arroyo Seco's Playa Grande extended past the row of houses, crossing private land to get to a small beach area that half the village seemed to go to every weekend.

The road also gave easy access for people to drive vehicles to the lagoon, where fishing isn't just sport - it's livelihood.

And the same area has been adopted by legions of surfers, depending on the swell and wind, of course.

But Thursday morning the village woke up to find that the property owner had closed off that road by digging a trench and mounding up an impressive looking sandpile.

Roadblock in Arroyo Seco
Roadblock from the north

Trench to stop drivers
The trench shows the owner is serious

For now, persons with four-wheel drive vehicles still can sneak around the end of the fence towards the beach. But if the owner fixes the barbed-wire, extended it to his property line towards the ocean, anyone driving will actually have to go down on the soft sand of the beach if they want to get to the swimming beach, the lagoon, and the beach of El Tecuan. And that sand can be very soft.

The stories as to why the owner suddenly closed the area off vary: there had been vandalism, there was criminal activity, the roadblock is a precursor to a massive development.

?Quien sabe?

In the meantime, a delegation of fisherman from Arroyo Seco have been complaining loudly to anyone who will listen in the government.

That complaining might be a little louder soon when the campers (from Guadalajara and elsewhere) begin arriving for their Semana Santa holiday and find out they can't get to the beach areas where they have been coming for years.

Watch out La Manzanilla, they might in your direction.

Playa Grande - view from the hill
Playa Grande view from the hilltop

Quad from hilltop
Still accessible by quad

1 comment:

slamont said...

Obviously, a rich guy that was irritated.