Dear Mexico.  My wife and I are currently considering a vacation in a couple of weeks.  We are considering many options.  We want a nice beach to walk on and we want scuba diving opportunities. 

With those criteria, Cancun or some of the other locations in that area, were under consideration.  Not any more.  If Mexico is going to suddenly start ruining vacations by suddenly closing down beaches because the government thinks the resort is "stealing sand", we'll just avoid the risk and make our vacation plans elsewhere.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,535820,00.html?test=latestnews

"A man never drinks anything that a plant lives in" --DBone (A Real Man).
http://vimeo.com/4938173

I imagine it would be take care of by the time you went. However, I hear Aruba is the place to go skin or scuba diving. Nothing like it near the US I hear.

Who would have thought that an island was even 50 years ago an ecological disaster would now be a diving mecca? During WW II it was the main terminal by which all oil coming out of South and Central America came to the US and where alot of the crude was refined and then sent to the forces in Europe or through the Panama canal to the Pacific theater.

I have read accounts from US Navy sailors describing what Aruba was like back then. The whole Island and it's coast were covered in oil. A permanent oil slick surrounded the island. At night the crews of the small wooden Sub Chasers and slightly larger steel Patrol Craft could navigate to the Island by smell alone if they were down wind of it.

Back then you wouldn't have wanted to even get in the water let alone dive there. The whole place was covered by a film of oil and stunk of oil. Now it has some of the most pristine beaches, clearest waters, and most interesting corals in the western hemisphere. Goes to show you that natures ability to clean it's self and recover far outstrips anything that man can do.

De Oppresso Liber

Rob, we have been to Aruba and dived there. It's a nice island with great weather (except the wind). It has nice beaches and a good mix of enough stuff in the way of restraunts and so forth without being too built up.

However, the scuba diving in Aruba is really very mediocre. The visibility is just good and certainly not spectacular and the sea life is skimpy compared to other prime diving sites.

You may be thinking of Bonaire. It is the B in the "Dutch ABCs" of which Aurba is the "A" and Curacao is the "C." We have heard that the snorkeling and diving in Bonaire is simply spectacular. Our local dive shop has a group diving trip going there over the New Years week this year and we are considering it.

The problem with Bonaire is that it takes forever to get there. The way the flights are arranged it takes as long (or even longer) to go from Indianapolis to Bonaire than it takes to go from here to Hawaii.

"A man never drinks anything that a plant lives in" --DBone (A Real Man).
http://vimeo.com/4938173