There are few lifeguards on Cancun beaches. They do, however, post a lot of flags, indicating the danger levels:
Red........ Don't swim.
Yellow.... Be careful.
Green.... No problemo!
Funny thing is, I'm not sure I've ever seen a green flag. I've heard people talk about seeing green flags, in much the same way that people report sightings of the Loch Ness Monster. In particular, green flags have been reported near Club Med (where the beach is sheltered by a natural reef), but it seems that yellow is basically the default color. This makes for an interesting situation.
I'll explain with an example:
While visiting the beach near Holiday Inn one day (just east of the public beach at Las Perlas), I noticed that the flags, though usually yellow, were red that day & asked the lifeguard why. He explained the reason: seems a stingray had been sighted in the area. How big I asked. "Small," he replied indicating a short distance between his hands. "Babies."
"Seriously?" I thought to myself as I disobediently waded into the water (shuffling my feet just in case).
Turns out I know a thing or two about stingrays, which are wary of people, and, even if buried in the sand, will usually scurry away as you approach. Unless you accidentally step on one (not easy to do) or threaten one (for example, by hovering over it, as the late, great Steve Irwin did before he was attacked), your chance of being killed (or even injured) by a ray is as remote as your odds of being killed by a shark (as one woman nearly was a couple of years ago near the Moon Palace resort a few miles south of Holiday Inn).
Do you know anyone who's stepped on a stingray? Me neither.
So if you're going to close a beach on account of a stingray, you should keep them closed 24-7 in case you encounter a hungry shark. Or an AIDS-infected hypodermic syringe. Or the tractor beam from a passing UFO. As far as I can tell, these risks all lie in the same general area of the probability spectrum.
Anyway, my point is this: for people like me, the prevalence of yellow flags has the ironic effect of making the beach a little less safe, because I take the warnings less seriously when I know that a yellow flag probably just means there are some waves in the ocean (go figure), or a guppy was spotted in the area, or the lifeguards are just too lazy to change them.
I know this post has a jokey tone, but the issue is kinda serious. The ocean, while beautiful when sparkling beneath a golden sun, also has a dark side -- one which swimmers & other ocean-goers are foolish to disrespect.
Trust me; I speak from experience...
After eating a big breakfast one day, Jen & our friend Jesse & went swimming in some waves a few minutes' past the Hard Rock Cafe. Because I was bloated, I just lay down & floated (now there's a song begging to be written), letting the waves take me where they might. After about 30 seconds, I popped up to see where I was. I was astonished to find that I had drifted about 20m further from shore & could barely touch bottom.
Yep. I was in a rip.
Luckily, I'm a decent swimmer & I know how to handle a rip current. It's actually very simple: you just swim parallel to the beach until you've passed the current, then swim in.
It's sad to think about the number of people killed by rips every year, especially in places, like Cancun, with onshore or side-onshore winds, where just floating (rather than panicking & drowning) would almost certainly eventually return you to the beach.
I repeat: you must respect the sea & be aware of its mercurial nature, irrespective of the flags. You can probably guess the color of the flag on the beach near the rip that day: it was yellow, of course.
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