New Information About Blue Kay/ Thirsty Turtle/ El Faro and Tropicante

[crewsweeper]

For those of you interested in going to Tropicante, I had an email from Steve Uhl regarding an incident that occurred recently between him and the two neighboring beach clubs, Thirsty Turtle and El Faro.  For a long time those two clubs have been attempting to horn in on Tropicante's business by telling cruisers they were part of Tropicante then over charging and giving poor service.  It almost came to blows last week when the thugs from TT and EF attempted to attack Steve and his employees and possibly threatened to burn down Tropicante.

The mayor of Mahahual is on the side of the thugs--kinship with El Faro.  The owner of TT also owns Blue Kay. Lives in FL. Doesn't care. But did transfer the Hondurans working at TT to Blue Kay.  So those going to Blue Kay may see some changes there.

If you enjoy the beaches along the malecon, please avoid Thirsty Turtle and El Faro, And possibly Blue Kay, which used to be a nice spot.

If going to Tropicante, go directly inside the Tropicante bar/restaurant.  It's white facing with blue lettering.  Make sure Steve or one of his employees there direct you to their loungers.  don't accept the word of a lounger hawker along the malecon.  Tropicante doesn't solicit cruisers to their loungers.

 

Thanks

[lifes-a-beach]

They “attempted to attack” and “ possibly threatened”?  Perhaps those are your words, but if they came from Mr. Uhl some clarification might be in order.  Never been to Thirsty Turtle or El Faro but have always enjoyed Blue Key.  Unless the help attacks me or can’t cook I can’t imagine what else they could screw up.  I know how to count American currency and what the conversion rate is and I know how to get up and walk away if the service, food, drinks or prices are not to my liking.  

 

For the record, we have been to Tropicante and found it quite nice.  

[kpjb]

I was going to go there next month. Bringing my kids, so this is giving me serious second thoughts.  Last thing I want is to have some incident go down  when my kids could be in danger.

[crewsweeper]

Some clarification.  These "thugs" behind this would not attack cruisers.  Cruisers are their livelihood.

Just poor service and misleading people to their places.

 

Re Blue Kay:  Steve Uhl, did follow up with an email realizing he had misspoke on Blue Kay.  That beach club is NOT implicated.  Steve apologizes, he errored in the original email.  Rather is was a group of employees from an local condo building whose owner lives in Florida.  So Blue Kay is still okay.

 

 

[lifes-a-beach]

Thanks for the clarification.  Costa Maya is our favorite beach destination and the people there have always been of the finest sort.  We'll be there next week and I expect another awesome day.

[c-leg5]

2 hours ago, lifes-a-beach said:

Thanks for the clarification.  Costa Maya is our favorite beach destination and the people there have always been of the finest sort.  We'll be there next week and I expect another awesome day.

 

 

Please report back on current pricing policy at Blue Kay.

 

We have several trips coming up to Costa maya but variable pricing policies at Blue Kay puts me off using them as a destination for the whole day. Location is fine but i don't need to haggle over price of lounger etc - too many other options available along the beach if they havent worked out upfront pricing yet.

[kpjb]

I have my reservations for Troipcante... I was looking in to a couple other places (but no one has responded to that thread!) but will probably just stay put unless I hear anything else is awry.

 

Thanks for the update.

[zounds]

   Thanks very much for the info.  We'll be there again in Jan.

[c-leg5]

On 10/19/2018 at 4:51 PM, crewsweeper said:

For those of you interested in going to Tropicante, I had an email from Steve Uhl regarding an incident that occurred recently between him and the two neighboring beach clubs, Thirsty Turtle and El Faro.  For a long time those two clubs have been attempting to horn in on Tropicante's business by telling cruisers they were part of Tropicante then over charging and giving poor service.  It almost came to blows last week when the thugs from TT and EF attempted to attack Steve and his employees and possibly threatened to burn down Tropicante.

The mayor of Mahahual is on the side of the thugs--kinship with El Faro.  The owner of TT also owns Blue Kay. Lives in FL. Doesn't care. But did transfer the Hondurans working at TT to Blue Kay.  So those going to Blue Kay may see some changes there.

If you enjoy the beaches along the malecon, please avoid Thirsty Turtle and El Faro, And possibly Blue Kay, which used to be a nice spot.

If going to Tropicante, go directly inside the Tropicante bar/restaurant.  It's white facing with blue lettering.  Make sure Steve or one of his employees there direct you to their loungers.  don't accept the word of a lounger hawker along the malecon.  Tropicante doesn't solicit cruisers to their loungers.

 

Thanks

 

Just as an update: 

we were in Costa Maya in December with reservations to Tropicante. We took a taxi  from the port and were dropped off at a car park in the street behind the malecon. We were met by a worker from El Faro. Keeping Crew’s warning in mind, I told him we were Ok, had reservations and knew where we were going. He insisted on walking with us but he did deliver us to Tropicante where i was met by a server who had my name on a list.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Blue Kay was still a very nice spot in December 2018. We enjoyed our time there very much.

$10 pp got us a lounger and 2 drinks (any). 

Edited January 24, 2019 by Itchy&Scratchy