TripAdvisor Inside™ is a travel wiki. We can all now read, write and edit online travel guides on thousands of destinations around the world. There are no doubt other examples, but TripAdvisor are the big players.

Travellers - and residents - can now collaborate to write travel guides together. One person starts a topic, like “Cancún: Travelling during Hurricane Season” Another person adds to it. Another fixes a couple of typos. Another adds more to it. And shortly you have a travel topic written from the collective wisdom of dozens of people.

Better than an outdated guidebook.

The Cancún Palace is a mess; still looming over the beach, imposing an ugly and noisy backdrop to the festivities. Nevertheless, the beach appears to be back to its glorious self.

The article also includes some hotel updates…

• the 515-room Westin Resort & Spa reopened July 7th, but still has rooms being worked on
• the 365-room Ritz-Carlton Cancun is due to reopen in mid-September
• the 450-room J.W. Marriott Cancun Resort & Spa has 235 rooms open. All are due back by the end of August
• the 450-room Marriott Casa Magna Cancun Resort has 200 rooms open; all are due back by the end of August
• the 300-room Hyatt Regency Cancun is due back in November

Still, last year’s rash of storms did make an impression: sixty-three percent said they would purchase travel insurance.

So as we look ahead to the really big tropical months coming up - August and September - let’s hope that the Atlantic remains as quiet as it has during June and July. But something tells me it won’t.

Laura quotes me in her article published today, although my opinions are rather more rounded than they might appear from the morsel in Laura’s piece.

This morning, whether from neglect or design, the beaches were positively filthy. It was as though Fonatur [the Mexican tourism development agency] has given up on cleaning the beaches, which were clogged with huge bundles of seaweed and other detritus.

It seemed as though the Park Royal had attempted a small cleanup, but it could also be the meter to meter and a half ’shelf’ in front of the property keeping the seaborne garbage off the beach.

The beaches in front of Le Meridien and Ritz Carlton have lost their shelves and the sea has deposited what appears to be about five meters of additional sand.

The beaches themselves were as filthy as the rest. Were I a paying guest in Cancún, I’d be upset. 

The “ecological restoration area” constructed in front of the Cancún Palace, which I photographed a fortnight ago, is gone, obliterated by the ongoing demolition and reconstruction of the Palace. One wonders what the point was in the first place. There are now huge mounds of sand obstructing the beach south of the Palace (pictured; view larger version). The project itself has worn out its welcome; despite the steady stream of trucks, dirt and noise, there’s no visible progress.

The public access to Playa Ballenas was covered by the smell of dying vegetation and fish. Between the smell, the continuing onslaught of construction noise and dust from the Cancun Palace project and the really unruly surf today, we fled back to the comfort of our pool.

Another photo looking north from Playa Ballenas.

Photo courtesy of Cancún Visitors Bureau (Oficina de Visitantes y Convenciones de Cancún), with additional thanks to Manuel Cuevas and Sandra Ibarra of William H. Coleman Inc.

While the hotel is being re-developed, an "Ecological Restoration Area" has been planted at the back of the beach. A ‘beautification’ project really.

• View a larger version of  Mel’s photo of the beach.

Mel adds that it appears the beach cleaning is restricted to hotels that are open; the area in front of Le Meridien (the green-roofed building in the background) is pristine, while the area next door in front of the Ritz Carlton is laden with seaweed and junk.

Another photo of the ecological restoration area, and another.

It just got even better. As part of the global celebration of World Environment Day, Planeta.com has named me as the recipient of the annual Colibri Ecotourism Achievement Award, largely for my work on this blog.

Colibri means "Hummingbird" in Spanish and this year the Award celebrates its sixth anniversary, making this one of the longest-running ecotourism awards. Needless to say, I’m chuffed to bits.

You can read what some very nice people have to say about me on the award page. I feel humble because I know I wouldn’t have got a look in were it not for the efforts of so many people.

Special thanks to Ron Mader of Planeta.com, Emilio Kifuri, president of Canyon Travel, and especially my family, for putting up with the late nights.

Now somehow I’ve got to get over to Mexico to collect the award; may need to beat my wings like a true hummingbird.

Again, a big thank you to all those who have helped make this blog what it is. You may notice that there is no one on this long list from the Mexico Tourism Board. Despite frequent emails to over thirty individuals in Mexico City and Quintana Roo, not one of them felt the need to acknowledge this work.

As always, email me with your thoughts on how to improve this website going forward.

"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