The long goodbye
Two weeks ahead of schedule, and a just a few days short of six months after Hurricane Wilma left her ugly footprint on Cancún, the resort now boasts miles of golden sand.
"Jan de Nul is getting ready to pack its bags" Gabriela Rodríguez Gálvez, Secretary of Tourism for Quintana Roo state (pictured) declared yesterday.
She added that the last recycled sand was being flushed onto a 70m stretch of beach in front of the hotel El Pueblito, the only section of the 11.7km (7-mile) strip which did not get its promised measure of 25m first time round.
While the two dredgers disappear over the horizon, Belgian maritime engineering company Jan de Nul may yet win the contract to maintain the replenished beach.
Just enough, never too much
The trustees of the beach recovery will announce phase two of the project when they next meet on Tuesday next week. While hoteliers insist on a further extension of the beach out to 60m, the likelihood is a scaled down operation to consolidate what they now have.
Photo: courtesy El Diario de Yucatán
Edited by 
April 13th, 2006 at 4:04 pm
Steve, Thanks for this site… it has been very interesting to follow the beach project. My kids check your link everyday because of an upcoming vacation.
Thanks again!
April 13th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
Steve, Hola! In front of Bayview Grand (km 9.5) the beach was easily 150ft wide! Spectacular results in a short period of time! Cheers JC
April 13th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Hi Brent. Why thank you for reading! This site will be around for a bit longer though. In fact, I have plans to continue it into the next hurricane season and beyond… and will invite resident bloggers… or people who would like to do a bit of writing… to make it even better :)
April 13th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
Jeff - glad you made it. Good timing, too. Yes, the beach at the Punta Cancun end is fabulously wide and inviting.
ps I’ll hold you to that beer one day, whenever…
April 15th, 2006 at 12:13 am
Great site, I have enjoyed watching and reading your site daily, we leave for Cancun on the 24th of this month. We will be staying at the Flamingo, and will be hoping to see a bigger and even better beach than last year, the son and wife are excited, keep up the good work.
April 17th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Hi! We are going to be staying at the Omni Cancun the second week of June, does anyone know how the beach is in front of the Omni? Also, has anyone been there to know whether all of the facilities are back up and running?
Thanks for an awesome site, I am enjoying reading all about the recovery!
Sarah
April 26th, 2006 at 2:57 pm
Kim, let me know what you think of the Flamingo and surrounding area. My husband and I are staying there in early June and we are taking our daughter(8). I would really appreciate any info.
Thanks,
Alicia
May 1st, 2006 at 1:50 pm
Steve, We have been following this site on the beach recovery progress since we are scheduled to vacation in Cancun beginning June 24th. We are thrilled to hear it is all done.
Now our concern has turned to the re-opening of the Marriott properties Casa Magna & JW - originally they were scheduled to open June 1st & May 15th (respectively) - now we are hearing that they both may have been pushed out to June 21st - any insight on their re-opening progress.
Dora
May 13th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Dora-
What is the latest you’ve heard from the CasaMagna? We are going in August and can’t imagine the stress you must feel about what’s going on and how it will affect your trip? Where did you hear about the “new” opening dates? Good luck and let me know!
June 18th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
E.Edmunds-
Saturday, June 24 we leave for Cancun and we’ll be staying at the Fiesta Americana Condesa due to CasaMagna opening date pushed out again to July 1st.
We booked originally through Expedia and luckily everything transferred over nicely at no add’l cost to us.
We read that the Condesa is a very nice property and fully operational, we’re looking forward to a nice relaxing trip . . .
June 20th, 2006 at 3:53 am
Dora,
That looks like a GREAT place to be transfered to! I had worried about what you were going to do. They say the CasaMagna will be open for us on Aug. 16th. Let us know how your stay was and have an absolutely AWESOME time! Check out the CasaMagna and give me the details first hand!
Best wishes!