Cancún

Sand, sand, glorious sand…

Jan De Nul’s managing director, Marc Verhaert, Mexico’s Tourism Secretary, Rodolfo Elizondo Torres and Quintana Roo state Governor, Félix González Canto, were all present at a brief ceremony held on Playa Delfines this morning.

At 10:30am, Cancún time, Elizondo symbolically dio el ‘banderazo’ – waved the flag – to signal for the sand pumping to start.

There was a momentary hush as the 22-inch pipe belonging to the Belgian maritime engineering group first spewed out a mouthful of murky water. This was quickly replaced by cheers and applause as the first recycled sand gushed onto terra firma.

Many thanks to Jim Wehrle who was on the spot shortly afterwards to capture these neat hills…

February is shaping up to be a milestone month in Cancún’s painful recovery from Hurricane Wilma, despite a muddle over when some hotels will re-open.

An estimated six thousand hotel rooms will be added to the resort’s total available inventory over the next four weeks – a significant leap from the 13,179 open today (48% of the pre-Wilma total) to a much fitter 19,436 (70%) by March 1st.

However, I’ve uncovered further evidence today why ‘official’ pronouncements should be taken with a pinch of salt, and always verified.

Today, for example, the website of the Cancún Convention & Visitors Bureau (OVC) is showing that the Spanish hotel group Oasis will re-open all six its Cancún hotels…

Belgian maritime engineering and construction giant Jan De Nul has begun to assemble machinery and equipment ready for the restoration of miles of Cancún’s beaches washed away by Hurricane Wilma three months ago.

This is what I know so far about the Cancún Beach Reclamation Project: 

The first ‘reclaimed’ sands will begin to be vacuumed onto the beach before the end of January.
Approximately 2.7m cubic meters of sand will be dredged from two offshore sandbanks to replenish the 12 km strip from Punta Cancún to Punta Nizuc (view a map).
Operations will start along this stretch of beach in front of the Hilton Cancún Golf & Spa Resort and move south, in the direction of Punta Nizuc.

…

Many of Cancun’s classiest hotels and tourist attractions pummeled by the hurricane have resorted to borrowing as insurers dither over post-Wilma payouts.

On Monday, during his stop in the resort for the start of the beach recovery project, Tourism Minister Rodolfo Elizondo Torres angered hoteliers by suggesting that some had not kept up with premium payments while others had exaggerated claims of damage to property. "The government," he said, "could not intervene in what were ‘personal’ disagreements."

The Governor of Quintana Roo, Félix González Canto, said insurers had been slow to react in the aftermath of the hurricane. He accused the industry of taking advantage of every available "legal loophole" not to respond to appeals from businesses…

Tourism Minister Rodolfo Elizondo Torres will be in Cancún today to oversee the start of the ambitious project to recover miles of beaches lost to Wilma.

As I reported last month, around four miles (6.5km) of the area’s fifteen miles of beaches were swept away during the hurricane. At least another five miles suffered severe erosion.

Details of the project have been difficult to obtain, but more information is expected to be released today.

However, I understand that beach restoration will start from the Westin Resort at the southern end of Hotel Zone (Punta Nizuc), and work north towards Punta Cancún. (View a map).

Engineers will try to ensure that disturbance to hotel guests is…

Novedades reports today that the car and cargo ferry Bahia del Espiritu Santo, which beached near Puerto Juárez during Hurricane Wilma should be back in deep water in about one week. She will then head to Cuba for repairs.

The ship has been captured on camera by no fewer than three different contributors to the After Wilma photo pool; by Ozzy on October 30th, one week after Wilma, and more recently by Esteban on December 27th and Cliff two days later.

Ellen and Jim Fields returned to the Riviera Maya last weekend. They more or less traversed the same route as on their previous visit at the end of November.

You can read Ellen’s largely very positive report here.

The word on Tulum is that things are practically back to their pre-Wilma state.

Ellen and Jim dropped in on Paola Sbrizzi at Hemingway’s. As a measure of the speedy recovery along this strip of coast, Paola has already completely rebuilt her restaurant, which overlooks the Caribbean.

Further up the coast, there is practically no evidence of a hurricane ever passing over Playa del Carmen – at least on the blocks immediately behind the beach. …

Sol Meliá is keeping five of its eleven Mexico properties closed a little longer than first planned after damage caused by Hurricane Wilma, reports Bloomberg.

The Majorca-based company has closed three five-star hotels in Cancún and two resorts on Cozumel until as late as June. This means that more than half of Sol Meliá’s 3,499 hotel rooms in Mexico are currently shut.
 
The Meliá Turquesa, which has more than 400 rooms, is closed until June 30th, while the 800-room Gran Meliá Cancún is shut until March 31st.

There is as yet no re-opening date for the Sol Cabañas del Caribe located on Cozumel.

Sol Meliá expect insurers to cover the cost of patching up its hotels. 

Cancún’s ongoing post-Wilma recovery efforts will shift into high gear on January 16th with the start of efforts aimed at restoring over 12km of powder-white sands eroded by the October hurricane.

Funded by an initial investment of around US$20 million, Belgian maritime engineering and construction firm Jan De Nul beat off four other contenders to win the rebuilding contract, and will be also be charged with maintaining the sand after it has been replaced.

Between two and 2.8 million cubic meters of sand will be dredged from ‘La Ollita’ and ‘Megarizaduras’, two sandbanks lying in the deeper waters of the Bahia de Mujeres, and deposited on the Hotel Zone beaches.

The work is scheduled to be…

Travel writer Peter Hutchison took this photo on November 28th. It shows the eastern end of Playa Norte on Isla Mujeres.

Before he left Mexico today, I quickly asked him for his impressions of what he saw.  Here are a few snippets…

"Land transport is not restricted in any way…but the boat shuttle service from Cancún no longer exists as the dock was destroyed by Wilma.

"I knew Wilma had dallied over Cancún, but I was still shocked by the amount of damage. Palapa roofs have been ripped off, palm trees have been shredded, but they’ll recover.

"The amount of damage to hotels and shopping malls is incredible – as if a small bomb had gone off in…