Isla Mujeres
— — the first morning light Mexico catches.
Not only on a wall.
“A narrow limestone island about eight kilometres long, lying thirteen kilometres off the Caribbean coast of the Yucatán. Playa Norte at the north end is shallow and the water reads turquoise; Punta Sur at the south end is the first ground in Mexico the sun reaches each morning. The Mayan called it Ixchel's place. The light still gathers there before it crosses to the mainland.
Isla Mujeres, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Isla Mujeres sits in the Caribbean about thirteen kilometres northeast of Cancún, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The island runs roughly eight kilometres north-south and at its widest point is less than seven hundred metres across. Punta Sur, its southern cape, is the easternmost point of Mexico and the place the sunrise touches the country first. Population is about 14,000, concentrated in the small town at the north end.
The reef offshore is the northern lobe of the Mesoamerican Reef, the second largest barrier reef in the world. Visibility runs around thirty metres for much of the year. The whale sharks that congregate north of the island between June and September draw the bulk of the dive traffic; the resident green sea turtles are protected by a sanctuary on the western shore. The water on the lee side stays calm enough to swim in most days.
The high season runs from late November through April, when the wind drops and the air sits around twenty-seven degrees Celsius. May through October is hotter and wetter; hurricane risk peaks in September. The whale-shark aggregation has a defined window from mid-June to mid-September and is regulated by the federal protected-area authority. The annual dia de Ixchel observance in March marks the spring equinox at the ruined shrine on Punta Sur.