Mexico resorts getting back in the swim
Tourism officials in the hurricane-battered Mexican state of Quintana Roo hope to have 80 percent of the accommodations and amenities in the affected Caribbean coast resorts fully operational by February.
The Yucatan Peninsula state, home to tourism magnets Cancun, Cozumel and the Riviera Maya, accounts for about 36 percent of Mexico’s nearly $11 billion tourism industry, according to Quintana Roo tourism secretary Gabriela Rodriguez.
Hurricane Wilma hit Cancun the hardest in late October, closing most of its hotel rooms. Between 8,000 and 10,000 of the city’s approximately 25,000 hotel rooms are now open, and officials expect 14,000 rooms to be open for the holiday week at the end of the month.
“For us, it’s very important that the tourists know exactly the status of Cancun, because we don’t want them to expect something else and then have frustrated tourists,” Rodriguez said.
More: cnn.com
Hurricane bashes Mexico resorts, heads for US border
Hurricane Emily slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula on Monday, smashing hotels and homes in the main resort areas and halting all of Mexico's oil exports before heading back to sea for a new strike toward the U.S. border.
Tens of thousands of locals and tourists along the popular "Maya Riviera" coastline of white beaches and blue-green seas rode out winds of 135 mph (215 kph) and torrential rain in makeshift shelters.
Several people died in Mexico in incidents indirectly caused by the powerful storm, which killed at least four in Jamaica.
Emergency workers in Tamaulipas state
Wilma slams Mexico resorts, tourists flee
Lashing wind and rain pounded Mexican beach resorts on Friday and thousands of tourists hunkered down in shelters to escape Hurricane Wilma, which was hammering Caribbean resorts on its way to densely populated southern Florida. Heavy rain was coming down in diagonal sheets and howling winds were buckling sturdy trees.
Tourists were evacuated from luxury beachfront hotels all along Mexico’s “Maya Riviera†coast and the normally calm, turquoise Caribbean seas heaved and Wilma dumped rain on streets patrolled by soldiers ordering people to take cover.
Described by forecasters as extremely dangerous and at its height later
UPDATE 4-Hurricane Wilma lashes Mexico's beach resorts
Hurricane Wilma's fierce winds and rain battered Mexico's famed Caribbean beach resorts on Friday, knocking over trees and trapping thousands of nervous tourists inside cramped shelters.
Powerful waves swallowed up white sand beaches in the popular resort of Cancun and electricity was cut all along Mexico's "Maya Riviera" and on the island of Cozumel, a favorite of scuba divers and cruise ship passengers.
Sturdy tropical trees danced in howling winds and others lay toppled in empty and flooded streets in the resort of Playa del Carmen, just south of Cancun. Snapped electricity cables dangled above the
Xcaret
Back on the mainland, there are some Maya ruins at Xcaret, a turn-off left on Route 307 to Tulum, after Playa del Carmen. The Maya site, an ancient port called Pole, was the departure point for voyages to Cozumel. It has now been turned into an overpriced and very tacky theme park catering exclusively for day-trippers. â– US$37 (children under five years free). This entry fee entitles you to visit the small ruins, the aviary, the -, K beach, lagoon and inlet, to take an underground river trip (life vest included) and to use all chairs, hammocks and palapas.
Hurricane lashes Mexico's popular Riviera Maya resorts
Hurricane Emily ripped roofs off luxury hotels along Mexico's Mayan Riviera, stranded thousands of tourists and left hundreds of local residents homeless today, forcing many to remain in crowded, leaky shelters.
Residents of Yucatan Peninsula resorts, including Playa del Carmen and Tulum, began wading through knee-deep flood waters to assess damage under a light drizzle, as the storm barreled west into the Gulf of Mexico.
There were no immediate reports of death or serious injuries on the peninsula, but Emily was expected to regain strength and threaten Mexican oil rigs before slamming into northeast The worst
Beach towns, glitzy resorts await on Mexico's Pacific coast
It's about time to pitch the sweaters, pack your swimsuit and sunscreen and head south to one of the beach resorts along Mexico's sunny Pacific Coast. You could go straight to the well-known Acapulco, but there are several other spots worth your attention.
promises 10 miles of beach for relaxing in the sun, while the older part of the city still shows the more traditional side of Mexico. Click on "General Info" at the top of the page for chapters with details on the beaches, especially the Zona Dorada. That section also
Hurricane reshapes Mexico's resort scene
The most frazzled, flustered, frantic people in Cabo San Lucas these days may be the wedding planners.
Thousands of vacationers are flocking to Cabo and other western Mexican resorts to relax and say their "I do's."
That's because more than a month after Hurricane Wilma thrashed Cancun — the country's premier resort — and the rest of Mexico's eastern coast, that area is still recuperating. Most hotels and businesses along the 10-mile waterfront strip are closed, and much of the beach has been stripped of its white powder sand.
The effect of Hurricane Wilma, says Ruben Cota,
Tulum
The Tulum ruins, Maya-Toltec, are 131 km south of Cancun, 1 km off the main road. They are 12th century, with city walls of white stone atop coastal cliffs. The temples were dedicated to the worship of the Falling God, or the Setting Sun, represented as a falling character over nearly all the west-facing doors (Cozumel was the home of the Rising Sun). The same idea is reflected in the buildings, which are wider at the top than at the bottom.
The main structure is the Castillo, which commands a view of both the sea and the forested Quintana Roo lowlands
Acuario Aragon: Mexico City
AQUARIUS ARAGÓN.
The park brother of Atlantis, located within the Center of Infantile Coexistence in the Forest of San Juan de Aragón. Display of aquariums full of all sorts of underwater fauna and flora, of both the saltwater and seawater variety, along with shows performed by trained sea lions, dolphins and birds. There are also green play areas for the children, all part of the Aragón Forest Infant Co-existance Centre. Admission costs Between 18 and 20 pesos, depending on what elements of the aquatic world people wish to visit.
Opened of Wednesday to Sunday, the 10:00 to 18:00
Police set to bring back teacher who fled to Mexico with 14-year-old boy
Police from a small Kentucky town are on a 1,500-mile trek to Laredo, Texas, to bring back a former middle-school teacher and her 14-year-old suspected lover, authorities said.
Mexican authorities found Angela Comer, 26, and the eighth-grade student on Tuesday night in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, after the boy's grandmother reported him missing on Saturday.
Authorities in Tompkinsville, Ky., are investigating the circumstances of the relationship, but Police Chief Dale Forward said the two are rumored to have been sexually involved.
Comer's 3-year-old son, who was with her at the Mexican hotel,
