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March 24, 2006
They were blown off course
Cancun and Mayan Riviera resorts should bounce back by spring.
BAILA LAZARUS
Facing hurricanes isn't what most Israelis are used to. Biblical
floods, frogs and locusts, yes; hurricanes, no. So it was rather
a shock when Alon Keynan and Eli Appel, new owners of a hotel in
the Mayan Riviera, had to face not just one, but two hurricanes
within six months of taking possession of their new purchase.
The two Israelis had been living in Los Angeles when they took a
trip to Playa del Carmen, located almost an hour south of Cancun
and a 40-minute ferry ride from Cozumel. It was early 2005 and the
two fell in love with the area and decided to buy a little hotel
called Fusion – an appropriate name considering the owners
came from Israel, lived in the United States and were now moving
to Mexico.
What they didn't know was that their little Caribbean venture was
about to be blown off course. They took ownership of the hotel in
June. Hurricane Emily hit in July. It was one of a record-breaking
27 named storms recorded last year.
"We arrived a few days after Emily stuck," said Keynan,
whose wife and three children stayed behind in Los Angeles while
he and Appel went down to take care of the hotel. "Coming from
Israel, we didn't know what it meant. It was something that happened
overnight, basically. The thing just came and swept us over. It
just came in and left and left this crazy devastation behind it."
Keynan and his partner took the clean-up time as an opportunity
not just to fix the hotel but to bring it up to better standards
than before the storm, renovating the bar, adding a deck and improving
the food. There were four months of intense work.
And then Wilma struck.
Hurricane Wilma formed on Oct. 17 in the western Caribbean. On Oct.
19, it became the strongest tropical cyclone on record in the Atlantic
basin, with 295-kilometre-per-hour winds. It moved slowly and struck
Quintana Roo, the province that houses Cancun and the Riviera Maya,
staying over certain areas for up to 60 hours. It caused 22 deaths
and damages estimated at $16 billion to $20 billion in the United
States, Mexico and Cuba.
"We thought Wilma would be like Emily," said Keynan. "We
thought it would be four, five hours and be gone. This one stayed
on us. We couldn't leave the house from Thursday night to Sunday,
middle of the day, because of the winds.
"The water side of the hotel was completely devastated –
doors, windows broken, railings gone. There was no sand on the beach."
Despite all the biblical style punishment, Keynan never thought
twice about his decision; that someone was sending him a message.
"We realized we can fix it all. We can take care of it,"
he said, with typical Israeli stoicism. "We decided we would
just be a bit smarter when we would build in a way that would be
hurricane-proof. We will just build smarter."
And now, with all the devastation behind them, the venture is paying
off. As of February, they had 28 rooms out of 30 in operation and
were anticipating being full for the 2006 season. In fact, Keynan,
who had worked in real estate for 13 years in Los Angeles before
moving to Mexico, believes there's only more growth to come in Playa
Del Carmen.
"You're talking about a town that is growing 25 per cent per
year," he said. "Even Las Vegas in its highest growth
days was growing 21 per cent per year."
The hurricane, he said, was a good impetus to get the town to take
a small step to becoming what he thinks will be a first-class destination.
"I call the hurricane the big cleanser – it comes in and
it takes away everything that's shaggy and not supported,"
he said. "And because there was free trash pick up from the
government, there was a really big clean up. The military came with
huge trucks in to help clean the streets."
Asked if the recent murder of two Canadians in the Barcelo Maya
Resort was having any effect on tourism, Keynan said he hadn't even
heard anything about it. The Barcelo Maya is 20 minutes south of
Playa Del Carmen along the coast, in an area where hotels are separated
by huge tracts of vegetation. It's over an hour's drive to Cancun
and the news seems to have only affected the hotel itself.
Outside Playa Del Carmen, clean-up and rebuilding efforts are happening
all the way up and down the coast, from the Mayan ruins of Tulum
to the five-star resorts of the Cancun hotel strip. Some hotels
had to close but most are planning to be fully open by the spring.
Already, in February, crowds were filling the Xel-Ha nature park
to go snorkling or swim with dolphins, and cruise ships were back
in service, dropping passengers at Cozumel. Many tourists are taking
advantage of special prices that have been offered to encourage
their return.
Linda Danforth of Taber, Alta., was on her sixth trip to Cancun,
where she owns a time-share. She wasn't sure if she was going to
take advantage of the opportunity to come down, given the hurricane's
effect, but in the end opted for visiting in one of the two weeks
she had available.
"All things considered, it's fantastic," she said, taking
a break from tanning on the beach at the Royal Solaris. "We
really appreciate seeing the rebuilding."
Her friend, Brenda, echoed her enthusiasm: "The food is excellent,
the service is fantastic. I'll be coming back here."
For information about hotels, activities and reconstruction updates
on the Mayan Riviera, visit www.rivieramaya.com.
For information about the Fusion Hotel, visit www.fusionhotelmexico.com.
Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer, photographer and
illustrator living in Vancouver. Her work can be seen at www.orchiddesigns.net.
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