Tulum, Mexico is the crown jewel of the “Mayan Riviera”—shimmering blue waters and incredible beaches among stunning ancient Mayan sites. Among afficionados of this hot spot south of Cancun, the most pressing concerns seems to be the level of seaweed clogging up the famed beaches. But seaweed is only one of Tulum’s problems—including failing infrastructure, overzealous developers, drugs, and too many DJs.
In barely more than a decade, Tulum transformed from a backpacker’s beach into the next stop after Ibiza on the global DJ party circuit. It now has 40,000 residents, with 200,000 expected by 2030, and the town hasn’t been able to keep up with the arrival of wealthy jet-setters and the people who follow them on social media. There is no electricity on the beach, so diesel generators groan all day and night to run the air conditioners that customers demand. The beach has no adequate sewer system, and waste has been leaching into the water supply beneath Tulum and out to the ocean, killing the coral reef. Tulum’s old landfill, a few miles outside of town, is full, and last summer it burned in the heat for three months straight. The new dump was supposed to last five years but was already overflowing after 18 months. The beach and the jungle stretching away from the coast are dotted with construction sites, and small hotels started by hippies chasing a dream are being pushed out by large developers who seem to anticipate no end to the growing number of tourists hoping to see what Tulum is all about.
Tulum first opened for renovation in 1970, when the Mexican government converted mostly empty land on the Yucatán Peninsula’s northeastern-most point into a vacation destination. Cancún now welcomes six million visitors a year with its gorgeous beach, a strip of all-inclusive resorts, and Señor Frog’s serving tequila shots. That success led the government to rebrand 80 miles of beachfront to the south as the Riviera Maya, including what was once a quiet fishing village called Playa del Carmen, where there are now four Starbucks within ten blocks.
Tulum, meanwhile, was little more than a truck stop a few hours south, with a Mayan fortress on the beach where tour buses disgorged visitors for an afternoon. Unless you were looking to get off the grid, there wasn’t much reason to stay. Beachfront hammocks went for $10 a night, or you could sleep at the ruins, under the stars. But an empty beach a few hours from the U.S. wasn’t going to stay that way for long.
But Tulum has become even more infamous for the incredible surge in violence (much of it occurring in and around tourist areas)—now becoming the most violent tourist destination in all of Mexico.
In April 2020, a tourist shopping on the beach in Tulum was shot after being caught in the crossfire when a vendor was targeted by gunmen. The next month, a man and a woman were shot to death by three hitmen at Mercurio and Palenque streets in Tulum.
On August 5, 2020, a man was shot and killed in broad daylight in Tulum outside Plaza Andador. Two others were injured. The shooting happened when two armed men attacked others inside the square. Upon their escape, they shot at three other men, killing one and injuring two.
In October 2020, two people were executed and three people injured in an armed attack on an electronic music event that took place in the hotel zone of Tulum, which resulted in a stampede of about a thousand tourists.
In January 2021, a man was shot multiple times by two armed men who fled inside the I Scream bar.
On March 2, 2021, a man and a woman were shot while on Playa Paraíso in Tulum. The couple were at Playa Paraíso when at around noon, two men aboard a motorcycle showed up and began firing at them.
On March 4,2021, an early morning shooting in Tulum left one dead and four with injuries. The shooting took place during the early morning hours of Thursday in the city’s center on Beta street. When police and paramedics arrived, they found one deceased man laying in the street with four others injured. On the same day, a man was shot dead in broad daylight while riding his bike in the Mezzanine area of Tulum. He was found lying dead on the ground beside his bicycle.
In March 2021, Tulum authorities reported a double execution near the Kaan Luum lagoon next to the road that leads to Felipe Carrillo Puerto.
Also in March 2021, a man was shot at the entrance to the archaeological zone. Two gunmen on a motorcycle arrived at the parking lot and opened fire at the man, and then fled to an unknown destination. On that same March day, armed robbers struck at the Hotel Era on Calle 6 Sur in the La Veleta neighborhood of Tulum. Several armed men entered shortly after 1:00 pm, subdued the employees and hotel guests in the lobby, and took cash and valuables. The thieves escaped in a vehicle that was parked at the scene.
In May 2021, there was a shooting outside the Hartwood restaurant. Men on motorcycles chased down and shot a man dead on Route 15 near the restaurant. On May 29, 2021, the body of a dead man, handcuffed and wrapped in black garbage bags, was discovered in a green area of the federal highway near Akumal, in front of the Dreams hotel in Tulum. A day later, a man was executed while traveling in a taxicab in the hotel zone of Tulum. The attack took place in an area crowded with international tourists.
Two expats described in a Tripadvisor post how they were robbed in broad daylight at the Chedraui market in El Centro in June 2021. Also that month, in the presence of tourists, two subjects were executed mid-day in front of tourists at Playa Paraíso, a kilometer from the archaeological remains of Tulum. Witnesses said the victims were enjoying the day on the beach, when two people arrived with long and short weapons and opened fire, leaving them lying on the sand and on the lounge chairs they were renting.
On July 1, 2021, two gunmen on a motorcycle stopped at Camello restaurant on Mercurio Street (between Kukulcán Avenue and Palenque Street) got out of the vehicle and shot a man to death and fled. Also on the same night, armed individuals arrived in a vehicle at the México Lindo restaurant on Tulum Avenue (between Centauro and Satélite) and began shooting at those who were inside. One person died as a result of the attack, while another was seriously injured and a third was slightly injured in the neck.
Two Americans were shot at Tabu Restaurant on July 16, 2021. In another Tripadvisor post, a father described how his family of four (including two children) were robbed at gunpoint at the Deli Fresh market in Aldea Zama in the same month.
In September 2021, two people died and one injured after gunfire erupted at the Rosa Negra restaurant in Tulum. Witnesses say that armed people entered the restaurant around 10:45 p.m. and began shooting. At least eight shots were fired before those responsible fled. Two men, one security guard and one taxi driver, were killed.
Earlier this month, travel blogger Anjali Ryot from San Jose, California, was one of two foreign tourists killed in Tulum, after being caught in the crossfire of rival drug gangs. The other tourist was 35-year-old German national Jennifer Henzold. Three other tourists from Germany and the Netherlands were also injured as they dined in an outdoor restaurant on Tulum’s main drag.
Also this month, a worker at a car wash was shot by two men on a motorcycle in the Tulum business district. Just a couple of days later, a local man was murdered by a shooter on a motorcycle in front of tourists in the archeological zone of Tulum.
A news report from Mexican news outlet Reforma cited information from state authorities alleging that at least five criminal groups operate in Tulum, including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and a faction of the Zetas. The disposable income brought by tourists and a popular culture of late-night partying has added value to the local drug market where cocaine and marijuana are in high demand.
A recent traveler to Tulum reported on his trip as follows:
The hotel zone is 100% congested with cars and with people trying to walk on the main road with no sidewalks. So, it's difficult to not encounter hordes of people as you walk down the street. Most of the tourists seem to be the very young party set (college age) who seem to be heavy drinkers most of the time and no regard for the current pandemic. Our family did not feel comfortable venturing to any of the restaurants or walking outside the hotel given that the majority were drunks with no masks.
Restaurants are very expensive; taxis to town are very expensive and take a long time, 25 mins each way. Dinner for two, with a basic meal was over $100.00. There is lots of promotion from the local pharmacies for drugs such as pain killers, Viagra, etc. This is a prime super spreader environment, and the atmosphere seems to be a combo of spring breakers gone wild and/or burning man goers. It's definitely not a tranquil, calm or respectful place which is very sad because this area was at one time quite beautiful.
Mother nature is also taking a hit in this paradisical corner of the world. Lax environmental regulations and out of control development has led to widespread contamination of the water table, with 25% of household waste water not being treated before being put into the aquifer system.
Tulum is built on highly permeable limestone, the geologic equivalent of Swiss cheese, below which flows one of the world’s largest underground river systems. Some of Tulum’s biggest non-beach attractions are its cenotes, where the ground has collapsed to reveal open-air pools with highly Instagrammable turquoise water. The trouble is that less than 10 percent of the town is connected to the municipal sewer system. The beach, and many of the newer developments, aren’t connected at all. Most businesses depend, instead, on septic tanks, but, whether by accident, neglect, or ignorance — willful or otherwise — a significant amount of Tulum’s waste ends up in the ground, where it eventually leaches through the limestone into the water. In January, a documentary called The Dark Side of Tulum was released with footage (shot by cave divers) of feces floating in the rivers. According to Mexico’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, 80 percent of the cenotes in the Yucatán Peninsula have some level of contamination, and it is now being reported that even human fecal matter has been found in the region’s cenotes.
Tulum’s problems are becoming harder to ignore, and before COVID, there were signs that the Tulum bubble was gently deflating. Some hotels began reporting more vacancies than usual, and with so many new condos for rent around town that some had to lower their rates. During the height of the pandemic, Tulum seemed to be ground zero for scores of selfish COVID-truthers and anti-vaxxers looking for a sunny locale where they wouldn’t be subjected to the minor inconveniences we have all accepted as part of the new reality. But it is uncertain that they will be enough to bring the area's glory days. Many seasoned travelers now consider Tulum essentially a dead-end filled with pothole-filled streets, overpriced taxis, terrible traffic jams, out-of-touch yuppies, celebrities, influencers, wannabe gurus, COVID deniers, and well-to-do folks looking to “find themselves” in overpriced retreats, hotels, and bars.
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