History of Playa del Carmen

[El Graduado]

I just published my latest book, The True History of Playa del Carmen. It is available as an eBook or paperback on Amazon.com

There is a lot more to PDC than shops and bars. The book tells all about the area's early history, the many Maya ruins still standing in the city, the cave shrines, and the quirky things that happened when the town started to grow. PDC was burned to the grown by Maya rebels in 1918, but rebuilt soon after. Most of the chicle for Wrigley Gum was shipped to Cozumel from PDC before making its way to the US. It is an amazing story of slow growth over decades and then a population explosion that was faster than Cancun's. The first time I drove to Playa del Carmen there were less than 700 people living there. By 1980, there were only 737. Ten years later, there were over 3,000. Today, there are over 300,000.

 

[ggunn]

I just published my latest book, The True History of Playa del Carmen. It is available as an eBook or paperback on Amazon.com

There is a lot more to PDC than shops and bars. The book tells all about the area's early history, the many Maya ruins still standing in the city, the cave shrines, and the quirky things that happened when the town started to grow. PDC was burned to the grown by Maya rebels in 1918, but rebuilt soon after. Most of the chicle for Wrigley Gum was shipped to Cozumel from PDC before making its way to the US. It is an amazing story of slow growth over decades and then a population explosion that was faster than Cancun's. The first time I drove to Playa del Carmen there were less than 700 people living there. By 1980, there were only 737. Ten years later, there were over 3,000. Today, there are over 300,000.

A few times before and every year since 1987 (except 2020) I have gone deep sea fishing from Cozumel, and the preferred fishing area has always been across the channel up and down the Yucatan near Playa del Carmen. The changes in the appearance of that area from the water over that time have been astounding.