Yucatan

[petr_wagner]

Any news about the cave diving conditions there?

[Cindy]

Cancun Airport is closed. Marida airport is backlogged. The normal dive sites and hotel areas have damage. Cancun is under military command due to looting. Electric wires still down everywhere and a LOT of damage and homeless people. No electric. No phone, no ATM so take cash. No water and no food. Of course you can't recharge your lights or fill tanks unless you stay someplace with a generator. It will take weeks for the area to be safe and up and running. Many of the main roads are flooded. Tulum had electric but the hotels are full. The road from Tulum south is open and that's how I got out. If you can get there I have been told the caves should be OK in a couple of days. Have a nice trip, Cindy

[Mart]

Cancun and Cozumel have been hit the hardest, Playa less so, everything south of Playa is not too bad.
Caves are OK, electricity is back more or less, Marcos is filling tanks so diving is possible.
To get there is another matter.
If you have plans to go, do so by any means, you will support the people by doing so, but be prepared: business is not expected to be back to normal untilhalf december.

ciao, mart

[normblitch]

Cancun Airport is closed. Marida airport is backlogged. The normal dive sites and hotel areas have damage. Cancun is under military command due to looting. Electric wires still down everywhere and a LOT of damage and homeless people. No electric. No phone, no ATM so take cash. No water and no food. Of course you can't recharge your lights or fill tanks unless you stay someplace with a generator. It will take weeks for the area to be safe and up and running. Many of the main roads are flooded. Tulum had electric but the hotels are full. The road from Tulum south is open and that's how I got out. If you can get there I have been told the caves should be OK in a couple of days. Have a nice trip, Cindy

Glad you made it out Cindy!

Norm

[Gary]

Glad you made it out Cindy!

Definitely! Sorry your trip ws so exciting.

[Capt Tim]

There are photos in the newsletter that did not embed into the article below.

--- Capt Tim
*******************************************


Special Bulletin – Hurricane Wilma

ProTec Newsletter October 2005

Here is the latest news as of Monday, October 24th, 19:00

Hurricane Wilma has hit the Riviera Maya hard. The eye of the hurricane came through Cozumel and Playa del Carmen on Friday evening 23:00. The storm was big and very slow with lots of rain. Large parts of towns and roads where or are still flooded. Today was a beautiful day, sunshine and a flat ocean.



Cozumel
Cozumel took a direct hit. Its been hit hard. The car ferry got immobilized just prior to the storm and stranded in Chinchorro bank, leaving no ferry transport for help or electricity workers to get to Cozumel. Three cruise ship piers have been badly damages or a partially gone. The caletta marina was badly hit with a lot of boats sitting in it. The northern marina was hit hard and is partially gone. I fear for the worst there, I would assume a lot of schools have been hit there too, destroying the infrastructure to teach the kids.



Puerto Aventuras
Puerto Aventuras got hit again as with Emily with a lot of damage, powerloss, trees, to condos, houses and buildings and 10 smaller boats sunk in the marina. I have not been in the Poblado yet but hope that the damage there is not too bad.



Playa del Carmen
Playa del Carmen took a direct hit and its been hit hard. 5th avenue is damaged glass and palapas. Ocean side buildings are flooded with a couple of feet of sand. Mamitas beach club has been hard but will be rebuilt I am sure. In Playacar beach side buildings have lost there foundations, the beach road is gone at parts. Two planes on the airport flipped. A large number of building is damaged beyond repair. The Super San Francisco Supermarket lost a entire wall.


Puerto Morelos
Puerto Morelos got hit hard. The road between Puerto Morelos and Cancun is closed since a large section of it is flooded completely. The road from the gas station to Puerto Morelos proper is flooded too. The gas station is working though. Quite a few of the large power towers are broken. A lot of the palapa roofing is gone but restaurants and stores are open



Cancun
Cancun took a direct hit. The airport is closed but is supposed to be back open by Wednesday. We heard reports that the lagoon in the hotel zone connected with the ocean on the locations. We heard as well that there where some riots, martial law has been declared in Cancun and a curfew is in place. The hotel zone is largely damaged and flooded, the inner town areas are damaged too.



Akumal, Tulum
Small damage only, have not been there, heard its still going, they selling gasoline in Tulum



Whats gonna happen ....

I am not the greatest optimist on the planet but for Tulum, Akumal, Puerto Aventuras and Playa del Carmen I can see its gonna bounce back pretty soon. The way things do improve and the ferocity of the emergency work force to bring it back will succeed pretty fast. There will be areas that will take some more time but in general I am looking optimistic into the future.



ProTec is open, we are diving the caves but the ocean diving is gonna take a while to come back, mostly the boats into the ocean and gasoline.

Just because we got hit by a hurricane we did not disappear, neither a lot of the other dive shops or hotels in the area.


Having just been through the hurricane and its aftermath I am looking far north to Florida where a lot of our friends are just happened to be in the way of windy Wilma. Our thoughts are with you guys and gals.


As always if you are close by and want to chat or give us a call or email please feel free to do so.



info@protecdiving.com
0052-984-8031168