Author Archive

The ‘After Wilma’ group pool on Flickr now boasts over 500 photos. Each one paints a picture. Together, they tell a story.

For those of you interested in these things… this blog has generated over 70,000 page views since January 1st. I’m indebted to many people who have contributed in so many ways. Thank you all.

There’s so much more work to be done.

What a difference a few days make.

On Friday (March 3rd), the ‘view’ in front of the Cancún Palace was of waves licking at the hotel boundary wall (photo: Jim Wehrle).

Today, the transformation is nothing short of miraculous (see photo, right).

Bulldozers are today smoothing out the recycled sand in front of hotel Le Meridien (photo), the Golden Crown Paradise and Ritz Carlton (photo).

Special thanks to Mel Zelniker who took these photos earlier this afternoon along the stretch of Cancún’s beach known as Playa Ballenas.

Chantelle Tucker, aka orcagirl, captures the weekend buzz at Playa del Carmen beautifully.

Sunday is traditionally a day to head to the beach - even more so last weekend as local families celebrating Día de la Familia mingled with the tourists.

And look at these guys demonstrating their acrobatic skill on the sand and in the water.

Check the status of the hotels in Playa del Carmen.

The beach recovery teams are currently working in front of the Grand Melia Cancún (scheduled to re-open at the end of this month) and the CasaMagna Marriott (June 1st).

Jim Wehrle took this photo today from in front of the Palace hotel (no beach whatsoever). Looking south, the JW Marriott (May 1st) can clearly be seen… and in the distance, the earth moving equipment working the beach at the Grand Melia.

This photo shows the bulldozers working in front of the CasaMagna Marriott.

The second dredger - the Barent Zanen - has also now arrived, but I expect progress to slow a little as this stretch of the beach was washed away completely.

South of Cancún, two diminutive hotels that have caught my eye recently are the Básico in Playa del Carmen, and the Mezzanine, close to the Tulum ruins.

Both first opened less than two years ago. Both are minimalist in name and style… but you do need fairly deep pockets (doubles at the Básico start at US$150; US$170 at Mezzanine).

Básico has just scooped the best "small hotel" accolade in Travel + Leisure magazine’s second annual Design Awards. The T + L jury singled out the Básico (pictured, right) as "small-scale and casual, slightly unkempt and very chic".

The kind of hotel where "you can throw your flip-flops anywhere."

Further down the coast, the ecologically-sound Mezzanine labels itself the "hippest little boutique hotel" in Tulum, and who am I…

LP’s Ali Collier conducted a 20-minute telephone interview recently with Oregon-based Suzanne Plank, a contributing author to the popular Mexico guide.

You can download the podcast from their website.

Suzanne was in the region in Sept/Oct last year, researching for the guide’s 10th edition. The author is asked about her experiences "living through Wilma" (actually she fled to Campeche) and covers the region’s "miraculous recovery" since then.

No big scoop, but a good general intro / listen… with one caveat: Suzanne, the Sheraton hotel did not "collapse". The Resort building has been demolished to make way for the Westin Lagunamar, which will rise in its place.

Meanwhile, after a week of celebrations in Cozumel (and elsewhere), Michael Gerber has posted this set of carnival…

Last night I received an email from Mexican ecotourism pioneer Marlene Ehrenberg Enríquez, whom I count as a friend.

Marlene is exasperated having suffered from repeated tour cancellations from German tour companies, including this one.

For example, a complete ten-day tour of Mexico (arranged in June 2005) has just been cancelled in its entirety, despite only two itinerary days scheduled to be spent on the Mexican Caribbean - and in Playa del Carmen of all places, which is 99 per cent back to its pre-Wilma state.

Marlene has sent an appeal to the Mexico Tourism Board: tell ‘em the real story next week in Berlin, where the humongous International Tourism Fair begins on March 8th.

The issue is more than academic; in 2005, the Riviera Maya…

I’ve updated this page to take into account the speedy beach recovery to date.

Note that no timetable for the work has been made public, so these dates remain my best guesstimate.

Cancún’s beach reclamation project looks well on schedule to finish before April 30th, the ‘delivery’ date in Jan de Nul’s contract.

Lee Taylor took this photo (right) a few days ago during a brief sojourn at the Royal Islander.

I have to admit, I’ve become a beach recovery photo junkie. I’m no marine engineer [laughs], but I’ve found the whole spectacle… well, a spectacle.

Another photo

I do not think I’m the only one finding myself ‘lusting’ over "trailing suction" dredgers and earth-moving equipment [?]. Maybe it has something to do with the…

Isla Mujeres escaped remarkably well from the wrath of Hurricane Wilma.

Eduardo García lives in Cancún and took a day trip to Isla Mujeres on Saturday.

He took the car ferry from Punta Sam for the 45-minute crossing to the island. You get a good view of Playa Norte on the approach to the jetty downtown.

Check the status of the hotels on Isla Mujeres

Hills of sand are already appearing in front of the Royal Islander as phase two of the beach reclamation project starts ahead of schedule.

Kudos to Royal Resorts as one of the very few to regularly post news updates online. Their website even features a short video of the beach recovery teams at work earlier this month.

Another photo.

Shortly after two o’clock this afternoon, the ferry Bahía del Espíritu Santo was finally refloated following a painstaking salvage operation lasting two and a half months.

Novedades reports that an all-Mexican team of 60 engineers had worked to free the vessel from where it wedged in the sands near Puerto Juárez.

The 2000-tonne vessel seems likely to resume ferrying passengers between Cancún and Cozumel at some point in the future.

I’ve been following progress since my January 12th post. I guess this should be viewed as another symbolic step in Cancun’s rehabilitation.

Another batch of trip reports from the Riviera Maya…

Marsha and Adam Smith painted a serene picture of a recent trip to Cabañas Ana y Jose in Tulum to attend a friend’s wedding.

"The hotel was beautiful (although the restaurant was a little expensive)," Marsha wrote, "but otherwise we really enjoyed our stay there… the beach, the friendly staff, towel art… and best of all, our friends who we don’t see often."

A short distance further south, Jenn saw orange at Amansala, the self styled "bikini boot camp and eco chic resort".

"They had fixed almost everything [by January 3rd] Jenn emailed.

Elsewhere on this blog I’ve written that Wilma actually gifted a few more metres of talcum-white sand to the beaches around Tulum. Still not convinced?…

Jim Wehrle snapped this photo of the newly-widened beach in front of the Westin Resort & Spa yesterday afternoon (Feb. 19th).

The beach recovery crews have now moved on in the direction of Club Med. We reckon they are slightly ahead of schedule, according to our ‘unofficial’ timetable.

Jim can also vouch that Jan de Nul are working flat out. The dredger - the Filippo Brunelleschi - anchored right off the beach, close to where he lives… journeying back and forth during the night.

A second dredger is expected to arrive later this week, ready for the start of the second phase of the project.