Much ducking and weaving, much passing of the buck in evidence today as most of the local newspapers on sale in Cancún carried a story on the post-Wilma squabbling between hotel reps and insurers. I covered some of the background in January.

Insurance salesmen would probably squeeze their way into the top five in most polls of the least respected, least trusted professions – certainly where I come from. They are the perennial bad guys.

Now, I am not about to leap to their defence, but, all the same, while hoteliers may baulk as premiums skyrocket and insurers drag their feet to settle their dues, I believe they should share the blame as the cycle of build and…

Now is the time of year weeny stinging organisms begin to bloom in these waters, resulting in what locals call "aguas malas"; literally, ‘bad waters’.

The larval form of the thimble jellyfish, or "dedalillo", is the culprit. Direct contact with skin – particularly in the friction areas of a swimsuit or bathing cap, or in body creases – can trigger the discharge of nematocysts, or ‘arrow cells’. The releasing toxins may cause skin affections, a little local pain and itching.

Around the Caribbean, the common wisdom specifically warns against ocean swimming between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day yearly, but the problem ‘window’ is often longer.

Lifeguards will usually know when the little buggers are most prevalent.…

After the season of fasting and penitence, for many in Mexico, Easter is a time for processions, altars, flagellations and realistic reenactments of the crucifixion.

Unrepentants flock to the beaches over Semana Santa (Holy Week) and Christmas, something I remember well when I lived on the Pacific coast of Michoacán.

Cancún will fill up this week, particularly from Thursday to Sunday. Many will bus in from neighbouring states, filling hotel rooms and the cinder-block rooms of friends and relatives in equal measure.

All in all, it’s an especially bankable time for taquerias and coctelerías and smaller restaurants in el centro.

Hotel occupancy and business fall off quickly the day after Easter, the end of high season.

There’s no question Tammy Chase is enchanted by Isla Mujeres.

Meanwhile, Maria de las Mercedes took the photo on the right… and some others of the books, beads and batiks at  "Cosmic Cosas".

The used bookstore and internet café established by Molly Fisher and Genevieve Pritchard is a popular Avenida Matamoros hang-out on Isla Mujeres.

Come on in the water’s lovely…

Chantelle Tucker captured the turquoise-blue Caribbean Sea at Playa del Carmen on March 26th.

View the complete photo set on Flickr.

Reminded me of the crystal clear breaking wave captured by Alejandro Mejía Greene in Cancún last month. 

24 hours later… Le Blanc now has a beach.

These guys sure work fast.

This stretch of the beach was wiped out by Hurricane Wilma. You can see what little remained in this photo taken just last week by Nancy McElroy, who is, alas, now back home in Michigan.

View a slideshow of Jim Wehrle’s before and after photos from April 4th and 5th.

The beach recovery operation has now reached the Le Blanc Spa Resort.

Approx. 1 – 1.5 km left to go (view a map).

Thanks to Jim Wehrle, who took this photo early this morning from the Royal Sunset. View a larger version.

Despite feeling slightly uncomfortable about posting this so soon after my last (deeply troubling) post, I just couldn’t pass up on this one.

World Hum’s "Theodore Fez" dishes out style advice to the Fox/Bush/Harper three-way Cancún summit.

Ellen and Jim Fields say more on their Working Gringos blog.

Kimberly Kim and Cheryl Everall, the two unlikely suspects in the murder of two of their fellow Canadians on the Riviera Maya have appealed to Prime Minister Harper to speak on their behalf with President Fox, reports the Toronto Star.

Domenico and Annunziata Ianiero were found in their hotel room with their throats cut on February 2oth.

Right: the front page of the Windsor Star for March 1st.

Newspaper editorials in Canada have slammed Mexican justice (a bit of an oxymoron) and even urged Canadian travellers to consider avoiding the country.

That would be sad… and serious for Mexico; the country is the No.3 destination (after the US and UK) for tourists from Canada. Canadians…

Franchise operation 100% Natural has a foothold on Fifth Avenue ("Quinta Avenida"), the main drag in Playa del Carmen (between Calle 10 & 12). It serves up veggie pastas & soups, and fresh fish, meat and poultry, which you can eat in their tropical courtyard garden.

Chantelle Tucker (a regular in my posts here) shares out all the wholesome goodness in this set of photos.

Just south of Playa is Ikal del Mar, with thirty beautiful, thatched villas, scattered throughout its lush grounds (the hotel prides itself on the fact that no trees were cut down during its construction).

Brighton-based Andy Budd was a guest earlier this month. Andy’s…

As Cancún continues to rebuild and reinvent itself, a new study sheds some interesting light on how the hurricane’s impact has been felt in the resort.

Overall, the number of tourists staying in Cancún has fallen by 10 per cent since the October storm. But it could have been so much worse.

An article [Spanish] in today’s La Jornada reports that researchers at La Salle University’s Institute of Tourism Research [website not available until April 3rd] in Cancún have identified that Mexicans themselves flooded in to nullify the slump in US visitors, whose numbers peeled back to a third of what they were before Wilma struck.

In the twelve months to January this year, domestic tourism…

Cancún’s rapid recovey from Hurricane Wilma is being held up as a role model for other destinations to follow.

The Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), Francesco Frangialli said yesterday: "…the speed and efficiency shown in the recuperation of Cancún should be used as a blueprint for other countries facing similar threats."

Monsieur Frangialli is now in Acapulco for the annual “Tianguis Turístico” jamboree.

I would have to agree with the WTO’s assessment. Are you listening Mr Bush?

I think it was Theodore Roosevelt who said "Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time."

Five months on from Wilma, I’ve detected signs that some people are beginning to wonder what may be in store this year. The hurricane season starts in June, which somehow suddenly now seems just around the corner.

Right on cue, Sean Mattson poses some questions about hurricane preparedness in Cancún in an article for the San Antonio Express. He remarks on how insurers have announced higher premiums and are now more demanding of construction quality. You may recall that I wrote about it in January.

As they say in the Caribbean…

"June too soon, July stand by,…