Recently on Riviera Maya, the resort area south of Cancun, I had the once-in-a-lifetime chance to play the Greg Norman-designed El Camaleón Mayakoba Golf Club by myself. Somehow I dodged iguanas, cenotes (openings to underground caves), mangrove forest, a labyrinth of canals and pounding surf to do pretty
well. A stunning example of today's "eco-green" club, Mayakoba is a carefully managed Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary of protected habitat where herons stalk in the reeds, cormorants dive like black daggers into the water, and after their fishing expeditions, anhingas spread their wings to dry in the sun.
One of five hotels in the vast Mayakoba resort complex, the 5-diamond-rated Fairmont Mayakoba is comprised of low-rise casitas
built of limestone and red sapote wood and hidden away in dense mangrove thickets along the edges of saltwater lagoons and canals. Golfers step out of their accommodations into small "lanchas"–– thatch-roofed boats––to be ferried to the first tee. El Camaleón is the home of the PGA Tour Mayakoba Golf Classic which this year takes place February 23 - March 1, 2009.
The Fairmont's Green Adventure Package offers nightly accommodation, daily breakfast for 2 adults (children to age 12 years of age eat free), unlimited golf for the day when purchasing a round of golf at El Camaleón; picnic boxes for 2 adults and 2 children, a cooking lesson, a tour in a “lancha” (covered boat) through the canals with the resort’s ecology expert, and amenities. Rates: from $459 per night to April 26, 2009.
For more on Riviera Maya golf resorts, watch my feature article in the February 2009 issue of GO!, the AirTran inflight magazine.
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