Santa Clara

Santa Clara is the beach and fishing port of the municipality of Dzidzantún, a scatter of houses and fishing boats on the Gulf coast about 14 kilometers north of the town, between Chabihau to the west and Dzilam de Bravo, some 12 kilometers to the east. Only 38 people were counted here in the 2020 census, so this is a quiet place outside holidays. Its old Maya name was Tiyaxcah, usually translated as "first town".

Salt has been made here since before the Spanish arrived, and it still is: the salt pans line the road in from Dzidzantún, and on the way along the coast you pass the pink lagoons of Santa Clara. In the henequen era this stretch of shore, with San Crisanto, Chabihau and the nearby port of Mina de Oro, was used to ship out the region's produce; Mina de Oro, about 3 kilometers east and now abandoned, was linked by a narrow-gauge tramway to the hacienda of San Francisco Manzanilla near Dzidzantún.

The port takes its name from a statue of Saint Clare of Assisi that, by local tradition, fishermen found in the sea in the early 17th century: a figure of about 1.5 meters, said to have been bound from Spain for a church in Cuba when its ship was wrecked. They carried it on their shoulders the 14 kilometers to Dzidzantún, where it stays. Every 22 July the image is brought back to the port and taken out on the fishing boats to ask for protection and good catches; it remains a week and returns to Dzidzantún on 2 August, ahead of its feast on 11 August.

The beach itself is simple: pale sand, fishing boats pulled up on shore, pelicans, and a breeze off the sea. Small local eateries serve ceviche and fried fish, and mangroves and lagoons lie behind the shore. It makes a quiet swim stop on a drive along the coast road or after visiting the convent church in Dzidzantún.