How It All Began

by Lydia Linton Pontius

RE-launching Sac-be has me looking back at how it all began.  Our first trip to the Riviera Maya was for a family vacation to celebrate the holidays and welcome in New Years 1998.  We stayed at Blue Bay resorts in Puerto Juarez, just north of Cancun, near the ferry docks for Isla Mujeres.  We ventured as far south as Xel-Ha. as I was researching dolphins in captivity for a possible documentary and was able to meet the staff and dolphins prior to them being open to the public. That, in itself, is another story. 

We returned the next year with friends and again stayed in Cancun and visited Tulum and Chichen Itza. 

My third and forth trip were with film crews, when I was producing pilots for the Travel Channel.  The pilots never got sold but by that time I was completely sold on the area. 

I was hired by Centro Ecological Akumal to do some videos, work on their website and membership, and lasted for several years.  Mike, who was a Website developer, started to get clients from the area, including, at the time, the most exclusive rental agent in the Riviera Maya. 

As we spent more time in and around the area we met more people and forged some lifetime long friends.  Two of those friends were Dani Knod and Scott Brown, who had started a free local newspaper called Sac-Be.  We joined hands with them and created on the online aspect of the publication.  Overtime the cost of doing a paper became prohibitive and Sac-Be.com took over for years as an online eco-travel publication about the Yucatan. 

Several years ago we realized it was too difficult to do Sac-Be.com justice, with us living in the US and only visiting one or two times a year, so we put her to rest.  But she never really would go completely to sleep.  From time to time her articles would pop up or people would inquire about it. 

Now we are retiring and living our dream of moving to the Riviera Maya.  We went back, for purely nostalgic reasons and looked at our sleeping Sac-Be and decided, with us moving to the Riviera Maya, maybe it was time to wake her up.  Her content is dated right now, but it is good to have archives and with the area changing so much over the last 20 years it is nice to be able to look back. 

We will begin writing again soon for Sac-Be.com, and what we, and we hope to inspire others to share their thoughts, articles and information with our followers.  That’s what worked so well the first time around and there’s no reason not to try it again. So, if you are a writer, or have always wanted to try your hand at writing, please feel free to submit you articles to us. 

Sac-Be in Mayan is the term for the white road or highway system that was developed to connect the ancient Maya world. On Sac-Be.com you will find articles about all parts of the white road network, stories of the past and the present.