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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | December 2005 
Wilma-Damaged Cancun Still Under Construction
 AP
| | A bulldozer works at the beach in Cancun, Mexico, Monday, Dec. 12 2005. Mexico had hoped Cancun would be three-quarters recovered from Hurricane Wilma by Thursday. But nearly two months after the devastating storm, bulldozers are still easier to find here than tourists. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias) |
Cancun - The Mexican government had pledged Cancun would be three-quarters recovered from Hurricane Wilma by Thursday. But bulldozers are still easier to find here than tourists.
Luxury resorts normally packed for the winter season are closed to all but construction crews. Most of the booming discos, U.S.-style mini-malls and swanky restaurants remain dark. And though the clear turquoise waters of the Caribbean are as inviting as ever, they have gobbled up much of the resort's famed white beach.
President Vicente Fox's December 15 goal was impossible, said Gabriella Rodriguez, tourism secretary for Quintana Roo state, which includes Cancun.
"You want to reopen. But then you discover the damage to your building is more extensive than it seemed, or the insurer doesn't pay you on time," she said.
Fox set the deadline shortly after Hurricane Wilma ravaged the coastline in late October.
But of the resort's 27,000 rooms, only a few more than 10,000 are available this week. Another 3,000 could be ready by the end of the year. Many of those are located away from the beach.
Most resorts and restaurants plan to be back by January or February. Some say they won't be fully operating until March.
The loss of income will reverberate through Mexico's economy. Nearly 3.4 million people visited Cancun last year. Along with the "Mayan Riviera" coastline to the south, it accounts for 38 percent of the country's tourism industry, Rodriguez said.
"Tourism is all we have," said Raul Hernandez, who runs a T-shirt and trinket stall at the Coral Negro flea market. "Nobody's coming. Things are sad."
Much of the usually glittering hotel zone, a 24-kilometer (15-mile) spit flanked by the Caribbean and a freshwater lagoon, is still a construction zone.
Mountains of smashed concrete rise alongside piles of trash bags. Plywood covers the pulverized glass facades of hotels and storefronts. Five-star rooms are piled with building materials or water-logged furniture.
Despite the construction, Cindy Moreno of Sacramento, California, stayed a week at the Hotel Riu Cancun.
"We had fun at the hotel, but the city's torn up," she said. "The night life is shut down. It's not what you expect from Cancun."
Crews with rust-dotted wheelbarrows plant palm trees, but hundreds of dead or dying trees still sag in all directions.
"We'll be back after these messages," crows a banner outside Sr. Frog's, where the wooden red and yellow exterior is in ruins and the roof is almost gone. Displaced sand has turned the lagoon behind it several shades of tan.
Insurers have received nearly $1.75 billion (18.7 billion pesos) in claims and expect that figure to rise. Fox pledged $500 million (5.3 billion pesos) in loans and tax breaks, urging businesses not to lay off their employees as they rebuild.
Cristian Castro, a 22-year-old cook at Planet Hollywood, now spends his days cleaning debris out of the restaurant.
"Maybe Christmas in Cancun is out, but Spring Break and summer? Yes," he said.
Many tourists are shifting their winter trips to western Mexican resorts, including Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Mark Travel Vacation, which owns ATA and Funjet, said it planned to fly 120 charters to Cancun in December and 190 in January, but that many visitors are heading instead to the Mayan Riviera, the resorts just to the south that suffered less damage.
That stretch of coast, including Playa del Carmen, has 24,500 hotel rooms that should be nearly full by Christmas.
"Right now our focus is more on the Riviera Maya because we know that destination is up and operating and in very good condition," said Mark Noennig, vice president for Apple Vacations, in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. "It remains to be seen how quickly the Cancun hotel zone will come back."
The key may be the beaches. Where sunbathing decks and manicured gardens once stood, only sloshing surf remains.
Waves ate away everything up to the edge of many resorts' majestic pools -- and reached into others.
Fox's government has earmarked about $19 million (202.7 million pesos) to restore the beaches with sand dredged from the ocean floor in a project scheduled to begin January 16. Hotel owners plan to replenish three kilometers (two miles) of beach on their own.
Not all resorts suffered erosion.
"We're one of the few who still have a beach," said Tom Borgford, 78, who owns a time share at Cancun's Royal Maya.
"But the really weird thing is when you're on the beach you look around and there's nobody," said the retiree from Marysville, Washington. "Nobody's out there enjoying it." |
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