Hurricane Wilma: Cancun back on its feet yet?

What's the latest? Anyone know of any hotels that are either still
operational or will be within the next week or so?

I have been reading El Diario de Yucatan almost every day. I think that
some hotels are open. The federal government is working with the major
local businessmen to enable them to reopen by Dec. 15, but some people
express skepticism that this date is possible. The headline for that
article was "Pacto de Caballeros", with the businessmen being referred
to as Caballeros (literally horsemen, but better translated as a term of
respect). Another article said that they would have 80% of the area
back in business by that time. I noticed today that one of the news
bits is that the Cancun airport will now be open 24 hours a day. No
details, so not sure if the US airlines will be willing to use it after
dark. Only 8 out of 60 shopping areas are open yet in Cancun.

The damage is not uniform, that is, some hotels were more damaged than
others. Some hotels lost all their windows, for example, so it will
take a while to get them ready for occupancy. The president of the hotel
association says that 20,000 hotel rooms in the state of Quintana Roo
are ready for occupancy. You would need to contact the individual hotel
and ask them lots of questions to determine if you thought that they are
ready for visitors. Even so, I would urge you to have a flexible
attitude, and realize that things will not be normal in Cancun anytime
real soon.

Richard



Jeffers wrote:
What's the latest? Anyone know of any hotels that are either still
operational or will be within the next week or so?



--
http://www.fergusonsculpture.com
Sculptures in copper and other metals

Thanks, Richard. How about Chetumel? Is that in better shape and does
it have a reasonable tourist infrastructure? It would also save me
several hours of road trip en route to Belize...

Jeffers wrote:
Thanks, Richard. How about Chetumel? Is that in better shape and does
it have a reasonable tourist infrastructure? It would also save me
several hours of road trip en route to Belize...

Chetumal is a clean medium size provincial capital and as such has good
hotels at all price levels. It is also boring, aside from a small but
informative Maya museum.
Its bus terminals have frequent busses to Belize City and one or two
non-stop express busses or vans to Flores Guatemala.

Anybody have any information on Cozumel and Chankanaab? Will it be
worth going there next March?

Maisie wrote:
Anybody have any information on Cozumel and Chankanaab? Will it be
worth going there next March?

There are some photo albums out on the web with recent pictures of
Cozumel. It looks like severe damage in some places, however the Mex
authorities look efficient at restoring power and phone lines.

You might consider Playa del Carmen, Cozumel sheltered it from the storm.

According to today's Diario de Yucatan, Cancun has more tourists right
now than they have functioning hotel rooms. This is causing problems of
tourists who cannot find a place to stay. They suggest going to Cancun
only with reservations. The article says that Cancun has 27,500 hotel
rooms, of which 5000 are functioning today.

The folowing hotels were reported open Royal Resorts, Cancún Clipper,
Riu Palace Las Américas y Le Meridien.

The Cancun Hyatt Regency was described as very heavily damaged, but
after careful study, they have decided to rebuild it rather than raze it.

Richard


Jeffers wrote:
What's the latest? Anyone know of any hotels that are either still
operational or will be within the next week or so?



--
http://www.fergusonsculpture.com
Sculptures in copper and other metals