News From Puerto Aventuras

Autumn 2005

December 20th 2005

As of the 17th of December all the hotels are open with the exception of the Serena Spa (no sign whatsoever of any work there). Occupancy will be 100 percent for new years eve. All very good news for PA and I have to say though still peaceful it's quite nice to see a more lively marina on an evening.

We are currently rewriting and restructuring all the pages on this site relating to Puerto Aventuras. Hopefully this explains the slower release of news than normal. Within a week or so we expect to roll out a few new pages that will make it far easier to keep in touch with what is happening here and shift the focus more towards the community.

December 12th 2005

Xel Ha, opened December 3rd apparently. Bit late with that news! To make up for the delay though, I can happily report that Xcaret opened today. Next time we go by Playa I will take a peek over the fence and see how things are.

December 7th 2005

While not exactly a huge "scoop" it is interesting for those who live here to know that the zip code is 77783 and not any of the variety of zip codes that everybody insists is the right one. This comes right from the horses mouth, "The Post Office" So now you know!

As a result of this page and a few others we tend to get quite a lot of mail from visitors, which we thoroughly enjoy. The letter below though I think is worthy of sharing as the message is so brilliantly clear and positive. I removed the name of the hotel for the sake of impartiality.

Karen writes about the wonders of the ocean around Puerto Aventuras and its true it's all pretty nice but in my opinion the best diving by far is most certainly in the cenotes. I was cave diving at Cenote Chac Mool a couple of days ago and took this picture as I came back through the cavern zone. The picture does not show the usual sapphire blue hues but a strange green tint due to a lot of tannic water on the surface. I plan to write a lot more about each of the more popular cenotes, Angelita, Taj Maha, Dos Ojos, Ponderosa etc over the next few months. Hopefully by early next year I will offer a cenote guiding service, but more about that later!

December 4th 2005

OK so I am a a bit attached to this tree, but lets see how it does. The little cenote in the Marina really would not be the same without it. As you can see from the picture, its has been pretty well pruned to get it back upright, but seems to have been a job well done. The little;e wall has been nicely repaired and the cenote pool is full of fish. I guess they went cave diving during Wilma. Speaking of which the cenote looks almost looks diveable, though a bit of a squeeze!

A local announcement today is that the school will hold a bazaar from 7 - 9 December between 12 and 3 pm. I'm not sure exactly what that means but Liliana asked me to say this!

December 2nd 2005

It's been a while since I last wrote anything here due to the extreme time constraints of my PADI IDC (Dive Instructor Training) and IE (Instructor Examination) which had me 100% occupied for 2 weeks. After successfully passing ( Big grin!) last Sunday I spent the rest of this week doing Emergency First Response instructor (CPR etc) and Oxygen Provider instructor training. I will write the whole thing up some time in the near future.

Anyway back to PA. Next week construction will start on the footbridge between the Poblado and Puerto Aventuras. This much needed project is expected to be completed January 2006. More than 1000 people signed a petition lobbying the government for this bridge. I am sure many lives will be saved by this project. I will report back on progress over the next 2 months.

The next Colonos Association ( Puerto Aventuras Residents Association) meeting is scheduled for December 14th at 9am in the Colonos building in the marina. I encourage all residents of PA to attend. We will hopefully publish the minutes here or at least a summary.

Last bit of news is that the cenote tree knocked down in the marina has been resurrected! I will take a picture at the first possible opportunity.

November 20th 2005

Gamma decided to spare Puerto Aventuras. We have our excellent weather back and we are enjoying the Mexican Revolution Day. The kids in the poblado celebrated last Friday with a Revolution Day Parade. I want to thank Viridiana for her excellent coverage of the event.

November 18th 2005

We are keeping an eye on tropical storm gamma here, though fingers crossed it will keep well away. I am currently doing my PADI IDC (scuba diving instructor training) down the road in Playa Del Carmen and what with all the homework I don't really have a great deal of time for the website. Liliana seems interested though and so will add a few of her own bits and pieces (Nov 17th was her) over the coming weeks.

November 17th 2005

We received several mails asking if Puerto Aventuras is safe for babies and toddlers. Look here for our thoughts and experiences about our Baby Karin in Puerto Aventuras.

November 12th 2005

I drive to Cancun airport yesterday to pick up the in-laws and had the luxury of free parking. I guess the car park system was a very low priority. The airport was operating without problem and seemed busy and efficient. One thing worth considering if hiring a car is that a lot of road signs are missing. I accidentally ended up on the Merida road at one moment as i couldn't remember if the airport was before or after the Merida turn off. I chose wrong! It's not a big deal, but if you were planning to hire a car and don't know the area, it might be best to look closely at a map before hitting the road.

The Aventura Spa Palace (North) opened yesterday with 40 or so guests and the Catalonia Riviera Maya had people playing volleyball on the beach Thursday night. I will try to do a final walk around to check on the status of all the hotels.

The work on the new dual carriageway between Xcaret and Tulum is moving at an incredible pace, hopefully cementing president Vicente Fox's rhetoric of a few weeks ago.

If you have ever tried to turn left out of the Puerto Aventuras entrance towards Tulum at 6pm you will know just how dangerous this junction is. At this time workers leave Puerto Aventuras and cross the federal highway to the poblado with the traffic at its thickest. Apparently there have been 60 pedestrian fatalities on this stretch of road in recent years.

It has been rumored that the much needed traffic lights would be installed, and had in fact been bought and paid for by the poblado. Unfortunately it seems that the uninsured new traffic lights were damaged somewhere in the state of Veracruz in a traffic accident. I hope very much this rumor is false, and will try to find some more solid information.

November 9th 2005

I added the page about the Mayan ruins and the caleta. Please let me know what you think.

November 8th 2005

While snorkeling in the newly found caleta, next to the Puerto Aventuras mayan ruins this afternoon we met a couple of girls from the sunscape who tell us that their opening date is December 12th and possibly earlier, though perhaps they need to take note of the Catalonia who were ready to open, but as they received only 2 guests decided to delay things until this friday. The two guests we were informed, were sent to a different hotel. They have sun beds on the beach and certainly give the impression of being open, though there certainly are quite a few workman banging away at things, though with no guests, I guess there is no need to keep the noise down!

November 7th 2005

I spent the morning cave diving in Ponderosa and noticed that the first signs of green are showing in the jungle trees. Later while driving into Playa del Carmen, without prompting, Liliana mentioned exactly the same thing. It really is astonishing how quickly the vegetation recovers. In two weeks I am quite sure everything will be completely green. Not as thick as before but certainly the wintry feel will go.

We stopped off at Xcaret on the way to Playa del Carmen to ask how things were going and when they expected to be open. We got a tentative and not very confident date of December 12th. While driving over to the Occidental hotel and convention center to ask how they were doing we passed the giant Xcaret theater which certainly looks worse for wear. At the Occidental they told us they had no idea when they would be able to open. I guess they suffered a great deal of damage. It really has been bad for Xcaret considering how everything was looking for them with the MTV music awards to be held there and subsequently being canceled.

We went to Playa del Carmen to try to send a package to the USA via DHL, unbelievably DHL are not operational and expect not to be operational for another month! It seems nobody at DHL thought about driving stuff to Merida or even Mexico city. We ended up using Estafeta (Mexican courier) who it seems have a deal with Fed Ex and have worked out that it is not essential to use Cancun airport.

While in Playa we stopped off at La Floresta for a few shrimp tacos and a chelada. La Floresta, for those that don't know, is something of an institution in Playa del Carmen, loved by some and hated by others. Basically it was a big palapa with plastic seats that sells simple seafood, particularly shrimp tacos. Anyway the news is that La Floresta lost their palapa completely and are now operating under a couple of little tents. They said they will fix the palapa and also expand a bit, when the price of palapa comes down. Currently the palaperos are charging three times what they did this time last year!

So what about the Mayan ruins, cenote and snorkeling? Sorry but it's postponed until tomorrow, but a page will still be ready by the end of the week.

November 6th 2005

Something important that I forgot to post is that we got the mains water back on November 3rd. Pool is clean now and is no longer standing by as an emergency reserve. We also got our first electricity bill here. Very very big, so big in fact that we were sure that is was a mistake, but it seems it may actually be correct. I will do some research and try and find out why electricity here seems to cost ten times more than I am used to paying elsewhere in Mexico.

So now that everything is pretty much back to normal around here, we had an opportunity to explore a bit. We found a small mayan ruin, a beautiful mangrove cenote and a fantastic caleta perfect for snorkeling, all about a 20 min walk from the Puerto Aventuras marina in the new development. We will return tomorrow or Wednesday and and take some more pictures of this area previously unknown to us. I should have a page about this sometime by the end of the week.

November 5th 2005

Following on from my comments about the new swamp and wetland area developing next to the Catalonia it seems somebody didn't like it and so now it has gone! Oh well it was nice while it lasted.

Though I have written on this page about the state of the diving in Puerto Aventuras, I have been receiving a lot of emails asking for more information. I added a new page today with pictures detailing exactly how things are with the reefs and cenotes around here, Puerto Aventuras - Diving After the Storms. Click the link for details

One other very common thread of the emails I receive is "Should I come, will there be food and services?", The answer is definitely yes, and I say that completely without bias, not working within tourism (yet!) and very much enjoying that my very close neighbor, the Catalonia hotel doesn't have live music or an MC at the moment! As nice as the peace is though, I can honestly say that Puerto Aventuras and the Riviera Maya is open.

November 3rd 2005

I have been getting quite a few emails from people asking about the foliage in Puerto Aventuras and the surrounding area and so will try my best to describe how it is here. Most of the trees have lost their leaves, with the exception of the palms, most have which look a little ragged, but otherwise are fine. A lot less trees fell than during Emily, which is to be expected I guess as the weakest have already fallen. The landscape particularly in the jungle is strangely surreal, wintry but in bright blue warm skies. Due to the lack of cover it is far easier to see the amazing variety of animals and birds that live in there. It is also strange to drive around Puerto Aventuras and be able to see the golf course. It like the birds and animals of the jungle is well hidden by a dense green blanket.

The rate of recovery of foliage though is truly astonishing based on my experience after Emily. Fallen trees were cut back to stumps and two months later were lush green bushes (now they are not so lush but still have the new branches). I fully expect within 3 weeks that the wintry feel will have left and that a feeling of springtime will take over!

November 1st 2005

Not a lot to report today. We still don't have mains water, but it seems that everyone else does! Maybe its the price we pay for getting our electricity back so quickly before the rest of Puerto Aventuras. Everybody has electricity now so we don't feel so special anymore :(

I walked passed the Catalonia this evening and they have really tidied up the huge fallen palapas that shade their entrances. They have also been busy putting up the little beach palapas. It looks very likely that they will make there deadlines.

It's very nice to see that they have also cleaned up the little shanty town they had after Emily on the northern side of the hotel.

Something interesting on the northern side of the catalonia is that a little swamp has been established complete with croaking frogs and wetland birds! It originally appeared to be water left over from Emily but now seems to be an established ecosystem. There is quite a bit of Catalonia junk there , but its still quite pretty and the sound at night is very peaceful!

October 31st 2005

We had an interesting walk around the beaches today and asked various security guards, engineers and builders at each of the hotels about the plans to reopen.

The results are as follows :

Hotel	Opening Date	Observation
Aventura Spa Palace (North)	21 Nov	Could be about right. The beaches look fine and they are certainly focusing the work at the Northern end.
Aventura Spa Palace (South)	No date	Looks like they still have a lot of work ahead of them and it seems to be Emily damage still not Wilma. This is the first time we managed to slip past the security guard to really see what is going on there.
Catalonia (Riviera Maya)	Nov 7th	Very possible, the beach is pretty much finished and they need to rebuild the entrance palapa. A lot of engineers were hanging around the damaged plant (generator?) but I guess they have time to get things fixed!
Catalonia (Yucatan Beach)	No date	Damage appears to be less here than the Riviera Maya, but they are clearly focusing on Riviera Maya.
Sunscape	Mid December	This was a surprise, but I guess they are still fixing up after Emily. A lot of the post Emily beach work including the huge palapas was undone certainly but the hotel really doesn't look so bad beyond a few broken windows.
Omni Hotel	16th nov	The impressive damage to the entrance palapa and wiring has been cleaned up now and things look fine. I think they will make there deadline without problem.
Serena Spa	Christmas	The Serena has been closed since Emily and they have not fixed anything that I can see. Unfortunately they also forgot to tell the people who have reservations with them, including my sisters family. Lucky I was here to see how it was. Apparently they will honor room reservations but the hotel will certainly not be what you are expecting.

Still no mains water, but we managed to purchase a PIPA (lorry load of water) so we were happily washing today. An interesting piece of gossip that may explain why we have no water even though there is electricity turned up today. We had heard that someone had drowned in a cenote during Wilma. It seems that the drowning occurred in the cenote that supplies water to Puerto Aventuras!

October 30th 2005

We are still without mains water, but have enough in reserve for a couple more days and then it's time to move the pool water into the water tanks. Apparently half of Puerto Aventuras has electricity now but unfortunately the water pumps and wells are in the half without!

We were without electricity from about 1am until 9:30 am last night. I guess that this is a maintenance window, maybe it means water soon!

October 29th 2005

Chedraui (supermarket) in Playa del Carmen opened today, but far more more significant is that the sale of beer is once more legal!

Sam's Club is allowing people to shop on their own again without the need for an escort.

October 28th 2005

I dropped my sister and her family off in Cancun today. While you can't access the airport, the airlines all have temporary check in desks at a high school in downtown. Once checked in they bus the passengers to the airport.

The first normal inbound flight arrived in Cancun airport with 60 passengers. While a clear milestone it seems rather weird in contrast to my experience at the high school watching the rescue flights being coordinated.

Driving back from Cancun, I noticed a lot of work being done by bulldozers on the eastern side of the federal highway between Playa Del Carmen and Puerto Aventuras. This is interesting indeed as it seems to strongly confirm the promises of President Vicente Fox to complete the dual carriageway between Playa del Carmen and Tulum by March next year.

News for me was also the plan and more importantly Fox's commitment to build a federal highway from Playa del Carmen directly to Merida. I will watch for work starting on that very closely.

Liliana walked along the Catalonia beach today and spoke to one of the guys there who said the hotel planned to be open in 10 days. While the damage certainly seems nothing compared to Emily it seems a little optimistic to me, but we will see.

October 27th 2005

We walked up to the marina last night, to have a goodbye meal with my sister and her family visiting us from England. A few places were open, but we were amazed to see that there is still no power in the marina. We had a very nice meal at Tiramisu by candlelight with the ever present drone of generators in the background. One great thing about the power being down is there is no light pollution and the night skies are really beautiful.

During the day we visited Cenote Ponderosa and I dived the cavern line with my Brother in Law. The flow was unbelievable. We surfaced in Cenote Corral and turned the dive. We had planned thirds and there was no way it was going to work in that flow. The halocline was all mixed up and visibility was absolutely terrible.

October 26th 2005

We have electricity! it's a bit erratic, but it means we also have water for as long as our tanks last. We estimate about 7 days.

Sam's club is open in Playa Del Carmen, with an interesting anti looting system. You queue up outside and then when an escort is available you are escorted around to get your things. They zap the barcodes as you put them in your trolley. Strictly no browsing! They have a big hole in the roof fenced off. Pretty good thinking getting the shop open ASAP.

October 25th 2005

I dived from the beach today. Conditions were incredible! Crystal clear water and more fish than I have ever seen here. I descended to almost land on top of a spotted eagle ray and for the rest of the dive kept meeting with huge shoals of bar jack and an enormous school of hogfish. I don't think I have ever seen more than about four hogfish in one place. In this dive the school must have numbered more than one hundred!

My sister and her family traveled to Tulum today, managed to get internet access and buy food and gasoline. All is well then! The gas station at Puerto Aventuras is open now the big shocker now is that the sale of alcohol has been prohibited until further notice! We start to get back to normal and can't celebrate with a Chelada!

October 24th 2005

We traveled the federal highway after being told that a little super market was open in Akumal. There were fallen power lines all along the southbound lane and the driving needed a little care. As expected the further south we traveled the better things are, and I guess Tulum should be virtually untouched. Shops were open on both sides of the federal highway at Akumal and we managed to buy more water, some food and nappies.

The gas station at Puerto Aventuras is closed but rumored to be OK. Apparently they are only waiting an inspection from Pemex before opening.