Hurricane Dean: Playa Pals for Mahahual

The relief effort goes on in Mahahual. So far, the “Playa Pals for Mahahual” (being the volunteers from Playa del Carmen who have been donating and fundraising through our paypal account, posting on the playa.info thread, and hauling items to Mahahual several times a week) have raised over $16,000.

Yesterday, we went down with four other trucks and many volunteers. The items we took were:

150 construction kits (shovel, hammer, machete & sharpener, gloves, nails, face mask)

216 hygiene kits (soap, toothpaste, TP, toothbrushes, razors, candle & matches, deodorant, sanitary napkins, baby wipes, insect repellent)

12,500 liters of water (collected by the Hotel La Tortuga)

Clothing

Towels donated by local hotels

Food

Unfortunately, in some ways the situation in Mahahual remains unchanged in the week since Hurricane Dean turned the lives of the Mahahualense upside down. As of yesterday, there were no professional relief agencies present. The Red Cross had indicated previously that it would start raising money and provide assistance in Mahahaul. So far that has not happened. The only assistance and relief Mahahual is receiving is from private donations and volunteers such as our little group.

It is good to see that the Mexican government is present with earthmoving machines to clear debris and haul it away. They have also brought in a number of chemical toilets.

We continue to raise money for Mahahual and ask everyone reading this to donate through our paypal account. On Saturday another convoy will be headed to Mahahual to take more materials and supplies.

On yesterday’s trip, after delivering the relief supplies, we made a couple of personal journeys through the devastated area along with our friend Heather. One was to deliver a bottle of tequila to Francisco, the volunteer chef at the community kitchen. Feeding a couple hundred familes each day, he has been working without rest since the hurricane passed through. He’s also working without pay. He was most appreciative.

We also took a large quantity of candy down and passed it out to the local children. We were rewarded with incredible smiles and laughter.

One example of the sad situation in Mahahual: A couple of days ago, our friend Claudia spent the night after making the trip down. There is one room in the Hotel Mahahual that is habitable, and it was offered to her. She protested, but the local family making the offer said that crocodiles have been coming out of the mangroves at night since the hurricane, and it was unsafe for her to sleep outside. She asked where they (a family of seven) would sleep. They told her, “Don’t worry, we’re used to it.” (!!!). This is one of the many reasons we continue to try and help this community.

Another convoy is going down on Saturday. We won’t be able to make that trip due to work at the hotel. However, we will returning to Mahahual early next week and will provide more information then, if not sooner. In the meantime, we continue to ask for any assistance that anyone can give us at this time.

Hurricane Dean: How to Donate to the Playa Pals for Mahahual Relief Effort

Here is the information on how to donate to the people of Mahahual who were devastated by Hurricane Dean. All money is being administered by the Playa Pals for Mahahual, a small group of mostly ex-pat volunteers based in Playa del Carmen, who are making trips to the Mahahual area once or twice a week to bring and distribute the items needed most at the time.

To donate money via paypal, go to www.paypal.com and click on the “Send Money” tab. The paypal email account to use is: helpthechicas@lunabluehotel.com. One hundred percent of all donations will be spent by the Playa Pals for Mahahual on the most immediate needs and taken by volunteers directly to Mahahual and the surrounding areas hit by Hurricane Dean. NO MONEY IS BEING SPENT ON ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS, including gasoline & other volunteer expenses, all of which are being donated.

If you are in or near the Playa del Carmen area, you can drop off donations in kind at the Luna Blue Hotel & Garden, Calle 26 between 5th and 10th Avenue, between 7:30 am and 10 pm every day. If you plan on donating items and want a specific list of what items are most urgently needed, please send us an email and we’ll let you know.

As needs in the area change almost daily, we prefer monetary donations at this time. This way we can be assured that we can provide exactly what the people need when they need it.

This blog contains an ongoing report of the trips we have made to the Mahahual area. For more information, including pictures posted by the volunteers, you can also click here to read the thread on playa.info.

Thank you to everyone who has donated and continues to donate. Your donations are making a HUGE difference to the people in this area.

Hurricane Dean: The Mahahual Relief Effort

We’re sorry we haven’t posted in the last day or so, but we’ve been a little busy. After our first trip to Mahahual to take relief supplies, the response from this blog, the playa.info website, and TripAdvisor was overwhelming. The word got out across the internet, and money began to come in. As of this evening, we have raised over $10,000 in private donations from this paypal account alone. That does not count individual donations of volunteers and others that have been immediately spent to buy supplies.

After the first trip down with all the volunteers from Playa, our friend Claudia Hurtado Valenzuela, an EMT volunteer for Cruz Roja and the instigator of this relief project, convinced the local state Red Cross to reevaluate the situation and send her back as an official representative with medical supplies. Part of her duties was to do a detailed evaluation of what specific aid was most needed. The Red Cross also agreed to open up its own paypal account for donations but specifically asked that private donations such as this one continue to operate.

With this in mind, we began to prepare for a return trip to Mahahual two days after the first. With our friend Heather and an empty Big Bastard, we went on a shopping spree. We cleaned out Sam’s Club, purchasing giant bags of rice and beans, a pallet of over 300 bottles of water, 50 dozen eggs, and bulk amounts of toilet paper, baby wipes, sanitary napkins, diapers, milk, cooking oil, soup, pasta, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, Clorox…the list goes on and on. We & some of the other volunteers also bought machetes, hammers, hand axes, shovels, tarps and hundreds of shoes & gloves. The Big Bastard was filled front to back and top to bottom and sunk pretty low on the wheels.

While we were shopping to fill the Big Bastard, other volunteers (Jessica & Alex, Michael, Luis, Willem and others) were also filling trucks. The Hotel La Tortuga also sent a truck and a trailer filled with mattresses. We helped coordinate pickup donations from the Barcelo Maya resort of 100 kilos of clothing that had been left behind by vacationing guests. And, all the time, locals and visitors alike were dropping off food and clothing donations at the Luna Blue Hotel & Garden, which were packed into the trucks.

Some of the donation money was also used to purchase medicine and medical supplies at a huge discount from the Red Cross pharmacy.

From the Luna Blue, we donated about 9 giant bags of towels, sheets, pillows & blankets as well as a few folding beds (one for the volunteer civilian doctor and one for Francisco, the volunteer chef—both of whom had been sleeping on the floor.). We’ll be encouraging other hotels to do the same. Locals also contributed toys, and we bought some soccer balls, to hand out to the children.

Claudia had all the trucks (7 in all) and volunteers meet at Cruz Roja in Playa del Carmen at 8 am Saturday morning. Claudia made sure to tell us all that this was the REAL 8:00, not 8:00 am Mexican time (which could translate into 10 or 11). There was a last minute scramble to buy a couple things we needed and spend more last minute donation money. Then we were all off and running. We drove the Big Bastard and took our friend Heather with us. Not only is Heather a nonstop workaholic volunteer, she is fall down laugh hysterically funny AND she made sandwiches and brought food for the trip—all in all the perfect traveling companion.

It took about four and a half hours to get to Mahahual again. Our route took us down highway 307 (the only main road through the Yucatan). We went from Playa to Tulum, on to Felipe Carrillo Puerto, through the little town of Limones and finally left to Mahahual. The road from 307 to the ocean and Mahahual had finally been cleared of the large tree trunks and branches that had partially blocked it on our first visit.

When we got to Mahahual, not much had changed. There is still no power, no fresh drinking water, no potable water, no phone and no internet. People are using the remains of broken houses to burn for cooking fires and for light in the evening. As we neared Mahahual, we were tremendously cheered to see that CFE—Mexico’s electric company—had already made giant strides in restringing power lines to Mahahual. However, they had not yet, when we were there, been able to make a collection to supply lights or electricity. Of course, once electricity is restored, its use will be limited. People’s houses are gone; there are few electrical outlets or sources for electricity. And of course, the houses in which people had wiring, electricity and lights are now so damaged as to need major repair before they can make use of electricity.

Our plan was to meet with a local Mahahual real estate resident and businessman, Kevin Graham, whose initial SOS to Claudia had started the entire relief effort. We had tried to hook up with Kevin on our first trip down, but the incredible chaos amid the destruction made it impossible for us to find each other. This time he was waiting for the convoy at the lighthouse, which is miraculously the only building still standing undamaged in Mahahual.

Meeting with Kevin provided us a pretty good shock. When we had visited last, we had been stunned by the destruction of central Mahahual. However, this morning Kevin sadly informed us that this was only part of the area that needed help. There were at least three other sections where people lived and desperately needed food, water and supplies. Access to some of them had just been opened by the Army, and others were only accessible by walking in. The volunteers divided into four groups to take supplies to each of these areas. The Big Bastard was assigned the central Mahahual area that we had visited last, primarily since we had brought bulk good specifically for the community kitchen which was operating there.

Kevin is our point person in Mahahual. Despite having lost his own home and office, he has been working tirelessly to help us coordinate the donations so that they reach the most people in the area. Kevin, if you read this blog, THANK YOU!! And, BTW, did anyone ever tell you that you look like Jimmy Buffet?

We drove through the town, again our hearts breaking at the devastation there. The people of Mahahual were everywhere, piling up debris, digging out sand and trying to find a place to get out of the elements. As we went we handed out drinking water and supplies. Without fail, everyone thanked us profusely and gave us a smile.

In the middle of town is a single story concrete building that had been the schoolhouse. It is now the center for the Army and the community kitchen. When we got there, we were very pleased to see that the Army had not pulled out and had received instructions to stay in Mahahual. It seems our efforts and news had finally reached Mexico City. As we pulled up, soldiers began to come forward to help us carry things into the schoolhouse. Francisco, the volunteer civilian chef who appears to have been working 24/7 nonstop since the kitchen opened, came rushing out. He remembered us and our promise to return, and he was obviously thrilled. For some reason, Cheri got more hugs than Tony did. We explained that some of the goods were in other trucks being distributed throughout other hard hit areas in Mahahual. He completely understood.

After unloading the bulk food for the kitchen, we drove through the central part of down, distributing water, cookies, baby wipes and other supplies. We also wanted to get the news out to every person in town that there was food, clothing, and other items being distributed at the school. We drove as far south as we could before the road was too bad for the Big Bastard to handle. We have no spare for the van, and we have been extremely paranoid that we were going to get a flat tire each time we drove down and back to Mahahual. So far we have been very lucky.

As we drove around town, we also stopped whenever we would see a group of dogs. There are many pets wandering lost around the town. We had purchased a big bag of dog food, and each time we spotted some, we’d get out and offer them a meal. They looked pretty happy to get something. When we found families who obviously had pets, we dropped off bags of dog food to them.

After we distributed all the supplies we had, we drove back through town past the school and army post. We saw the army placing some of the food items, clothing and water that we had delivered into army trucks. We immediately went to investigate. The one thing we did not want to happen was to have our donations for Mahahual shipped back to Mexico City or other areas of Mexico.

Heather, who speaks pretty good Spanish, had struck up a friendship with a comandante (major) of the army who seemed to be in charge at the school. It was pretty obvious he thought she was something special. Heather went to the comandante and asked him what was happening to the supplies, and he assured her they were being loaded onto the trucks to be taken to another area in Mahahual that had been badly hit. That was good enough for us.

With the work done, we started back on the four hour return drive to Playa del Carmen. Claudia stayed behind to set up a medical tent with the Cruz Roja supplies we had purchased. She was also going to work on her list of needed supplies and return to Playa del Carmen either Monday or Tuesday. Once we have that list of supplies, we’ll go out on another shopping spree, again loading as many trucks as we can, and then heading back to Mahahual.

At this point, private donations and some small help from the Red Cross seem to be the only relief being offered to Mahahual. The Red Cross will be notifying the government of Mexico, and hopefully bigger, more organized relief, including construction machinery, will still be on the scene. However, we have received numerous emails and questions from people asking if we still need donations next week or even next month. The answer is YES, with absolute certainty. An entire town has been wiped out. The people there have nothing left. Right now we are simply trying to provide basics, i.e., food, water, medicine and hope. As people reestablish themselves, they will turn next to trying to rebuild. They will continue to need the basics but also will need tools and construction materials. Until power is turned back on, they will need to operate by generators. It is going to be a slow, painful process which will take months upon months to complete.

We are trying to fill the internet with pleas for more help. If you’re reading this, we ask you to help. We are not professional fundraisers or relief workers. We and our fellow volunteers from Playa del Carmen simply want to help our neighbors. Every penny that anyone contributes from our paypal site will be spent on buying supplies for Mahahual. No one is taking a penny to reimburse themselves for gas, food, or any kind of personal cost. When you give a dollar, you can rest assured that within a few days the items bought with that dollar will be in the hands of a family in Mahahual.

Once again, here is the information on how to donate:

To donate money via paypal, go to www.paypal.com and click on the “Send Money” tab. The paypal email account to use is: helpthechicas@lunabluehotel.com.

If you are in or near the Playa del Carmen area, you can drop off items such as utilitarian clothing, non perishable food, candles, flashlights, roofing material, plastic tarps, tents, diapers, powdered milk, rice, beans, cooking oil, spaghetti, cookies/crackers, sanitary napkins, and anything else you think might be helpful in a hurricane zone at the Luna Blue Hotel & Garden, Calle 26 between 5th and 10th Avenue, between 7:30 am and 10 pm every day.

If you want to help via check, Laura the “Map Chick” is accepting checks in the US which she will forward to Claudia down here. 100% of those funds will be used by the Red Cross in Mahahual. For more information, check out Hurricane Dean Assistance.

Because the needs of this area are changing almost daily, monetary donations are preferred at this point. This way we can buy exactly what is needed and deliver it as quickly as possible.

We will do a new report after we return from the next convoy or Wednesday, or sooner if we have news to report. And don’t worry, we will continue to provide information and reports on the pleasures of living in and visiting Playa del Carmen in the near future. First things first.

Hurricane Dean: A Visit to Mahahual

We’re pretty tired. We left at 8:00 am this morning, and it is now almost midnight. It was a round trip of about 350 miles from here to Mahahual. But before we went to bed tonight, people needed to hear and see what happened down there.

For those that don’t know, Mahahual is a small village on the Costa Maya about 175 miles south of Playa del Carmen. A beautiful little pueblo, it has been hailed as the perfect Caribbean paradise. Unfortunately, it is also where one of the strongest hurricanes in history, Hurricane Dean, came ashore three days ago. It has been isolated since then. The information that has come out of Mahahual has been very bad. Locals here in Mexico decided it was time to find out how bad and to offer what help we could.

This morning, a varied group of Playa del Carmen locals (Mexican, American, Israeli, Dutch and English) headed down the coast in a convoy with five truckloads of relief supplies for Mahahual. We weren’t sure what to expect, so we loaded our best guesses: water, rice, toilet paper, sanitary napkins, diapers, milk, clothing, etc. The entire thing was organized by the incredible Claudia, a volunteer EMT for Cruz Roja and long-time Playa resident.

When we got to Mahahual, we were stunned. Most of the buildings in this small village had been destroyed. Those that are still standing are incredibly damaged. This was, after, the third strongest hurricane in history, and the little pueblo of Mahahual was right on the beach. We were incredibly surprised that no relief effort had yet reached them. We were the first. The Mexican Army was there and had set up a great soup kitchen, but their primary task was to open the roads and clear debris from public areas. The Army was itself isolated, and we ended up offering food and water to them, which they graciously accepted.

The people of Mahahual are an incredible inspiration. They thanked us profusely for the assistance we brought. They calmly lined up to accept our donations. No one tried to take more than they needed; no one tried to hoard materials. When people had received food, water and clothing sufficient for their needs, they always stepped aside for the next person.

We are talking about families, children, even babies living in shattered homes which no longer provide shelter, with no power, fresh water, plumbing, food or access to the outside world.

The Army unfortunately is being pulled out on Saturday to go to other areas hit hard by Hurricane Dean. Mahahual will be left to its own devices and to the generosity of other people. The incredible Claudia is doing her best to get Red Cross to come into the area as quickly as possible, but resources are strained.

Playa del Carmen locals, visitors and hotels are donating as much as they can. On the paypal account we’ve set up for Mahahual relief, we’ve currently received $2324 US.. Tomorrow 100% of that money will be spent purchasing more supplies in Playa del Carmen to take down to Mahahual. In addition, our friends at the Hotel La Tortuga in Playa del Carmen have amassed an incredible amount of goods and will be convoying them down by truck on Saturday. We will be joining that convoy with many others, trying to get supplies as quickly as possible to the needy. Any contribution that any of you can make to paypal will go directly to purchasing supplies that will go directly into the hands of displaced families within the next few days.

How badly are things needed? One man asked if we had a shirt, since he had only one shirt left after the hurricane, and he had already worn it nonstop for four days. We stopped people from filling water bottles with rancid swamp water and offered them fresh water in bottles. Francisco, the chef at the soup kitchen, thanked us profusely when we gave him what we had and said they could really use some eggs, rice, beans, cooking oil, and large pots and spoons, as he was trying to feed 200 people at every meal with little or no supplies. Men with hands bleeding from hauling debris thankfully accepted the gloves that we brought. Mothers asked for milk and diapers, and we gave what we could until we ran out. The doctor who came down to work for free with no help and no end in sight simply asked if we had something to sleep on besides the floor. We found a sleeping bag. When we go back on Saturday, we’ll bring him a cot. And it was impossible to miss the babies and children playing in the rubble.

Anything you can offer: $5, $10…whatever…will put food and supplies directly in thd hands of someone who needs it. And it is not just Mahahual. The nearby town of Limones and the surrounding area have many people who need food, water and shelter supplies as soon as possible. As we take our next convoy down on Saturday, we will be stopping in as many places and as many homes as we can.

We took a lot of pictures today, and you can take a look at some of them at Hurricane Dean Photos. You can also find more pictures taken by more volunteers at Help Mahahual.

Thanks to all of you who have helped and will help in this time of need. Muchas gracias a todo. When you get to Playa del Carmen, the Luna Blue owes you many thanks…and a margarita. We’re going to get some sleep. If we have a chance, we’ll post tomorrow. Otherwise, we’ll post a blog entry when we return from Mahahual on Saturday.

Hurricane Dean: The Aftermath…Helping our Neighbors

Yesterday we promised a wrap up blog on Hurricane Dean today. We’re afraid that’s going to have to wait, because it’s not over for some people. Our friend Claudia, who works as a volunteer EMT for Cruz Roja (the Red Cross) today asked Playa locals to help gather, contribute and convoy supplies down the coast to the area just north of Chetumal that was hit so hard when Hurricane Dean made landfall. Early tomorrow morning, we will be joining the convoy with the Big Bastard Chevy Express van filled with clothing, rice, diapers, toilet paper, tents, bottled water and much more, all contributed by the people of Playa del Carmen.

There are many people trying to help in this area. The Mexican government and Army and international relief, including people from the United States, are all assisting. However, resources are strained because Hurricane Dean swept across the entire Yucatan peninsula, doing damage to both coasts, and then continued on to Mexico’s mainland. The people of Playa are going to try and do what they can to help their neighbors to the south. When we get back, we’ll do a new blog entry either Thursday night or Friday morning reporting back to you on how things look in the hurricane zone.

It could have so easily been us.

If you would like to help and you are in or near the Playa del Carmen area, you can drop off items such as utilitarian clothing, non perishable food, candles, flashlights, roofing material, plastic tarps, tents, diapers, powdered milk, rice, beans, cooking oil, spaghetti, cookies/crackers, sanitary napkins, and anything else you think might be helpful in a hurricane zone. Generators are especially needed. Donations will gladly be accepted at the Luna Blue Hotel & Garden, Calle 26 between 5th and 10th Avenue, between 7:30 am and 10 pm. Or, you can bring them to Cruz Roja (Red Cross) at the corner of Juarez and 25th Avenue. After tomorrow, there will be other vehicles headed down south as more items are collected.

Or, if you would like to donate money, which will without doubt be put to very good use in this area, we will be accepting paypal donations (or cash at the hotel). One hundred percent of the money collected will go to help hurricane victims in the southern part of Quintana Roo, either directly or through Cruz Roja.

To donate money via paypal, go to www.paypal.com and click on the “Send Money” tab. The paypal email account to use is:
helpthechicas@lunabluehotel.com. (We are using the same paypal account we used for the Bloody Chicas’ accident, since it’s already set up).

If you want to help via check, Laura the “Map Chick” is accepting checks in the US which she will forward to Claudia down here. 100% of these donations will be used by the Red Cross specifically in Mahahual. For more information, check out Hurricane Dean Assistance.

On a personal note, we want to report that Mama Cat had not one but two kittens during the storm. We’re going to call them both Dean. Mama and babies are doing just fine.

Many thanks to all of you,

Tony & Cheri

Hurricane Dean: What a Difference A Day Makes

Twenty four hours ago we were exhausted, having put the final touches on our preparation for the big storm. The wind was kicking up, the rain was pouring down, and the streets were deserted. Now, a day later, we went for a pleasant stroll down Fifth Avenue and along the beach. Everything is different.

Fifth Avenue was packed tonight with locals and tourists alike celebrating their good fortune in escaping Dean’s wrath. About half of the businesses were open, and the others should be up and operating tomorrow. Again, we want to reassure everyone that there has been NO DAMAGE TO PLAYA DEL CARMEN.

Tonight we went by the hotel to make sure all was well, and it was. The storm didn’t even blow the bouganvillea flowers away! The sun was shining, and there was a warm breeze coming in off the Caribbean Sea.

We wandered down to the Jaguar restaurant on Fifth Avenue at Calle 8. It’s one of Playa’s oldest restaurants. A cheeseburger and Fettucine Alfredo were on the menu for us tonight. We sat in a little corner table on Fifth Avenue and watched a local TV station interview tourists about how lucky they felt about having Dean miss Playa del Carmen.

Afterwards, we walked along the beach. The guards are gone, and although the waves are still high, they are not violent and do not threaten people on the shore. As far as we could tell, there really has been no serious beach erosion. As we walked along the central beach in Playa between Calle 8 and Calle 12, we were struck by the difference between the way the beach was tonight and the way it looked after Hurricane Wilma two years ago. After Wilma, the beach bars were shattered and broken. The bar fronts were filled with sand up to the ceiling. This time, they are in perfect shape. Not even the palapa palm-thatched roofs were disturbed, and the sand is where it should be…on the beach! We wandered back up to Fifth Avenue and saw that the Tequila Barrell was open and operating. Then we wandered over to the Beer Bucket on Calle 10. It was obvious the dry laws prohibiting alcohol sales had been lifted. Locals and tourists who had been denied their margaritas and beer for 24 hours were making up for lost time. There was a true sense of relief and thankfulness in the air. We said hello to some friends and then headed home.

Tomorrow is cleanup day. The staff and work crews are coming to take down the plywood, chop up the fallen banana trees with machetes and sweep up the leaves. The Luna Blue Hotel & Garden will be open and accepting guests tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow night we will do our final Hurricane Dean blog with a wrap up of the things we think we’ve learned from this experience. Then, it will be back to blogging about more mundane things…like life on the shores of the beautiful Caribbean Sea.

We’re still here, and we’re still livin’ the dream.

Tony & Cheri
from paradise

Hurricane Dean: All’s Well in Playa After the Storm

We woke up this morning to a much quieter day. Most of the rain and wind bands extending out from Hurricane Dean seem to have passed us by. The really terrific news is that there is no real damage in Playa del Carmen that we can see. Our house did just fine. We lost the satellite dish and had some minor flooding in the top bedroom, but otherwise everything is in perfect order.

The same is true at the Luna Blue. Four of our giant banana trees fell over during the height of the storm, but nothing was broken and no one was hurt. By this time next week there will probably be 10 or 12 banana plants growing in their place.

We did discover that a feral cat that lives in the hotel garden gave birth to at least one kitten during the night in the stone overhang of our front gate. Everybody seems to be okay. We have fed and watered mama. The kitten appears to be all black and of course we’re going to name it Dean, boy or girl.

We’ve gotten out and walked the streets, and everyone seems to have done just fine. Everything is littered in leaves and twigs, but there are no power lines down, no broken glass, in short no real damage anywhere. We have internet and phone at the hotel (from where we’re posting this). Our phone and internet at the house is out, but we’re hopeful that it will be restored soon. We lost power at the height of the storm, but only for a couple of minutes.

We have heard a couple of things from various news sources, some good and some bad. First, the good. It appears that the first reports out of Chetumal, where the eye of the storm made landfall, is that there are no reports of deaths and that damage seems to be minimal. If true, that will be fantastic news. On the bad side, we have the US media, specifically Fox News, which during the storm last night appears to have reported that Playa del Carmen was destroyed. We never liked Fox News to begin with, and now we really don’t care for them. If you hear reports like this, ignore them, or better still, send a nasty email to the news source.

The hotel will be closed today as the staff has the day off to clean up their homes and yards. We will be doing the same. Tomorrow it’s back to business as usual for the Luna Blue Hotel & Garden and for the rest of Playa del Carmen. As soon as we have more news about what happened in the southern part of the state, we’ll post it here. Right now all we can say is how thankful we are to have missed being part of Hurricane Dean.

Hurricane Dean Comes Ashore

This will be just a short one, because we’re tired and it’s about 4:30 in the morning here. The wind is blowing pretty strong, and there is a driving rain. We were asleep but things seem to have intensified since we went to bed around midnight. From what we can gather off the internet, Dean went ashore about 40 miles north of Chetumal about an hour and a half ago. We were awakened when the wind tore our new Sky television satellite dish off the roof. The one that was installed THREE DAYS AGO. Actually, we’re feeling pretty lucky. When the howling wind and noise of something tearing loose from the roof woke us up a little while ago, our first concern was that the tinaco, our water tank storage, had come loose from the roof of our house. This worried us even more when we stepped out of bed to water running across the floor.

Luckily, it turned out to not be the tinaco but the satellite dish, and the water on the floor was just being driven in under the door that leads from our bedroom to our outside terrace. If we had just put one more sandbag against the door, we would have been all right. Cheri was right again.

However, despite the powerful wind, amazingly we still have electricity and internet. Of course, we have no satellite TV and only one or two channels are coming through on the cable. But considering the fact that we were prepared for no power all night, we’re pretty luckily. We’re going back to bed; we’ll post again in the morning.

Say a prayer for the people in the south.

Hurricane Dean: On the Edge of the Storm

It was a dark and stormy night….sorry, we couldn’t resist! The rain started about an hour ago, just as it was turning dark. After days of work and worry, we were finally finished and went for a hand holding, romantic walk in the rain. It finally cooled down. By the time we got home soaking wet, we were able to sit down, open a couple of cold beers and reflect on how really blessed our life is.

After posting our blog entry this morning, we set about today’s tasks, primary get the last guests out of the hotel, get the Big Bastard Chevy Express van operating again and run down to Paamul to secure our palapa/trailer on the beach. Two were easy, one was not. Take a guess which was which.

Eliezer Velasquez, who runs the transportation company we use to pick up guests, answered his phone early, and when we explained the situation, said he would take care of it. He came by the house and picked up a key. He went off with a helper to get our car started again. Gotta love Mexico. He got it started and returned it to us, but we couldn’t keep it running. At his suggestion we took it to his auto service shop in the Ejido (the local neighborhood across the highway). A couple of hours, a new battery, some filters and a thorough engine cleaning later, the Big Bastard was purring like our new kitten, Marley Buddha. Nothing was seriously wrong. It was so dirty the electrical contacts weren’t making good connections, and the battery was draining off. Or something like that. Car repair, or for that matter maintenance, has never been one of our strong suits. Later in the afternoon, Eliezer delivered the car to our home. Unfortunately, he also delivered a lecture to us about how things like changing the oil and maintaining the engine might serve us better in the future. Who knew. That was one of the easy tasks of the day.

Then we went down to Paamul. The little beachfront trailer community was pretty empty, as most people had fled the area based on the prior day’s storm predictions. Unfortunately some of them headed south to Chetumal, only to reverse course when they heard that was the latest site for landfall of Hurricane Dean. Our palapa is in pretty good shape, so it was simply a matter of checking the breakers, making sure the doors were locked and putting our sea kayaks in a safe place. We said hi to a couple of neighbors and then headed back to Playa. Easy task #2 accomplished.

Our most difficult task of the day involved the couple still remaining as guests in the hotel. Although we had been talking to them over the last two days about the dangers of the upcoming hurricane, they seemed pretty unresponsive. Yesterday we reminded them that they were checking out at noon today and expressed our concern about where they would go, how they would get to the airport, etc. Sometimes we worry more about our guests than they do themselves. And of course, we were not only worried about them, but we wanted them to vacate the hotel so that Genaro (the only staff member working today) could go home to his family and we could secure their room and lock up the hotel. They came back to the hotel after a morning on the beach, substantially past checkout time. When Genaro went to ask them to leave, he found one of the guests au natural trying to gain access to another empty room! Genaro informed them that they needed to leave immediately and called us. By the time we arrived on the scene and had to deliver another lecture, they finally left about an hour late. We were glad to see them go. Some people are just thoughtless and irresponsible, regardless of the situation.

We were finally done. Genaro got to go home to his wife and four kids (cuter kids you won’t find anywhere). We finished preparing the rooms for the two people that were staying the night at the hotel (our friend Dave and our employee Mario). We caught Blue, the hotel cat, and put him in a room with food, litter and a comfortable place to sleep. We turned off the gas, the breakers, checked all the security and were finally, finally, finally done.

We took a stroll around town. Fifth Avenue was empty. Totally empty. At 3:00 am on a midweek day in the middle of low season we’ve never seen it empty like this. Almost all of the businesses were closed and shuttered. We did find a great ice cream store open on 10th Avenue, near the corner of Calle 8. Try their chocolate coconut. It was incredible. We saw some fellow Playense (people who live in Playa) and congratulated each other on the incredible luck that the eye of the storm would pass so far away from us.

We walked down to the beach and looked at the darkening horizon. By 4:00 pm, wind had already pushed the water up out of the ocean, across the beach, and up to the steps of Mamitas, our favorite beach club. The red warning flags were up, but a few foolish people were in the water anyway, some with surfboards. We’re always amazed how invincible people feel when they are on vacation.

As we started home, two young guys in uniform approached us and asked if we were Americans. Tony’s San Francisco Giants t-shirt may have been a giveway (Barry Bonds – yeah!!!). We said that we were Americans living here in Mexico. They were from the US Embassy in Hermosillo. They and other embassy workers had been flown in on an emergency basis to scour the Yucatan offering help to American citizens. How cool is that?! They gave us phone numbers for the US Embassy in Mexico City and email addresses for a US/Mexican government task force aimed at people stranded by Hurricane Dean. They were simply moving through the streets and beaches handing out these flyers to any American they thought might need help. The American government and the Mexican government working in cooperation to help people in the face of a crisis. It doesn’t get much better than that.

On the way home, we stopped at the hotel to unplug the computer and, as the dry laws are still in effect, to pick up a bottle of rum from the back room. Around 7 pm it started to rain—a nice easy drizzle that began to cool things off. We went walking in the dusk. It was really a beautiful moment after a couple of hectic days.

However, by the time we got home, it was really pouring, and the lightning and thunder began to crash. Huggybear, our English bulldog, barks protectively with every thunderclap. The cats are hiding under the beds, except Marley Buddha. The “Bood” is climbing all over all the stuff piled in the living room from the backyard–bicycles, BBQ grill, lawn chairs, etc. He thinks it’s great fun.

It is now 8:15, and a citywide curfew is in effect. Hurricane Dean is supposed to make landfall at Chetumal now, around midnight. Chetumal is a couple hundred miles south of Playa del Carmen, on the border with Belize, and is the capital of our state, Quintana Roo. Our weather guru, Jeff Masters, has said that Chetumal is probably the best place for this giant of a storm to come ashore. It is a large, secure city not prone to flooding or damage. However, we are concerned for the people there, as they had very little notice. Chetumal was not designated as the landfall target until about 8 hours ago. That’s not a lot of time to prepare for a major hurricane. They get the thoughts and prayers tonight.

Our thoughts are also with the tiny islands known as the cayes (pronounced keys) in Belize, particularly Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye. These small islands are actually nearer to Chetumal than to the mainland of Belize. They really are beautiful and sweet, and the people living there are some of the nicest we’ve ever met. This will not be easy on them. These are poor areas sustained mostly by human spirit rather than money. We will be thinking a lot about them tonight.

Even though it’s far away, Hurricane Dean is going to have its effect on us tonight. This is a monstrous storm. While the eye of the storm is only about 40 miles across, the outlying wind and rain bands extend over the entire Yucatan peninsula. It makes for a very frightening picture. Playa del Carmen will be subject to tropical storm level winds and rain (between 40 and 80 mph sustained winds) throughout the night. At the height of the storm, or maybe even before, we will lose our power. Traditionally, CFE (Mexico’s electrical power company), turns off the power voluntarily before it is blown out by the storm. Then it’s just a question of how quickly the power can be restored after the storm passes through. Earlier today we saw 15 or more CFE trucks lined up on the highway just outside of Playa, which reassured us that they were on top of the situation.

We’re going to sign off now. If we have power in the morning, we’ll post another blog entry. Right now we’re going to make some dinner, and as long as we have some power, probably watch a DVD. But NOT the Perfect Storm. We are reflective and thankful tonight. This type of situation always brings neighbors together and shows the best sides of people. We also appreciate whatever cosmic forces—be they spiritual or sheer luck—directed this monstrous storm away from us tonight.

Thanks again for your concerns and wishes. We hope everybody has a great night.

Tony & Cheri

Hurricane Dean: 24 Hours Out and Looking Good for Playa

We woke up this morning to more good news, for us at least. Hurricane Dean continues to look like it will move southward, making landfall somewhere–according the local press–between the town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto and Majuahal, both of which are substantially south of Playa del Carmen. Of course, it’s not all good news. The hurricane is going to hit someplace, and somebody is going to have to suffer through it. And, we’re not out of the woods yet. While it looks better and better that we aren’t going to be hit by the eye of the hurricane, we’re going to get something. This is a big ass storm (that’s a technical weather term). It spreads out for hundreds of miles.

Part of the danger that exists from the storm hitting the southern Yucatan is the fact that between Playa del Carmen and the border with Belize a couple of hundred miles away, there are few major cities. There is, instead, a number of isolated villages and pueblos, and sometimes just houses by themselves, scattered through the Sian Kaan Biosphere, which is an internationally protected section of the tropical rainforest. Many of these villages are not accessible except by foot. If they are lucky, they will have a single radio for the entire area. We heard on CNN International this morning, which was broadcasting from Playa del Carmen, that federal troops were evacuating people from the isolated villages within the Biosphere. Once again, we are incredibly impressed with the response of the Mexican government to this situation.

Living outside the United States offers an amazing array of opinion and news information that is just not readily available back home. Here we watch CNN International and the BBC and listen to internet radio and read internet newspapers. It really makes you realize how much larger the world is than just the borders of the US.

While the chances that we will experience hurricane force winds diminish hourly, we’re still going to be hit by the fingers of the storm which carry tropical storm force winds of between 40 and 80 mph. This, combined with even higher gusting winds and rain, are going to give us about 24 hours of very nasty weather. So, if you were one of the smart ones who flew out early to avoid the hurricane, you still did the right thing.

This morning in Playa it’s beautiful. It’s very warm with a temperature of around 85 degrees. But it’s also very muggy as Dean, somewhere out in the Caribbean, is kicking a lot of moisture up into the air. It’s also very calm right now with a strange soft sort of light. This is what people are talking about when they refer to ‘the calm before the storm.’ But there still will be a storm.

According to the National Hurricane Center’s data this morning, Playa del Carmen currently has about a 70 percent chance of experiencing tropical storm force winds, being winds of 39 mph or more and sustained for a minute or more (not just gusts). It looks like that percentage will go up as Hurricane Dean moves cloer to shore. We also currently have about a 20 percent chance of experiencing hurricane force winds, being winds of 74 mph or more and sustained for a minute or more. This may also go higher as Dean moves closer, depending on whether he wobbles north or south in making landfall. Click on this picture to go to the National Hurricane Center site with the most up to date figures. Of course, Dean being a Category 4/potential Category 5 hurricane, wind force is much higher than 74 mph. Near the eye of the storm it is something like 200 mph.

We’re off now to do a final walk through before closing the Luna Blue. The last two guests will be gone this morning. We’ll have only two people seeking shelter from the storm. Mario, our regular night watchman, lives in a trailer, which he’s quite proud of here, in Playa del Carmen. However, it would not be particularly safe in a major storm. So he, his dog, and his cat are moving into one of the rooms. Our good friend Dave from Paamul will also be taking over one of the rooms. Like Mario, he lives in a trailer and will ride out the storm at the Luna Blue with his little dog. Dave is going to be staying in the same room in which he rode out Hurricane Wilma two years ago!

After the walk through, we’re going to try and find a mechanic to get the Big Bastard started and try to transfer our generator home. We may be hauling it by hand truck for a couple of blocks. By then we should just be starting to get the first wind and rain and will be heading home to hunker down with the pets.

We have no idea given the uncertainty of how severe the storm will be here whether we will lose power or not. Our best guess is that we will be incomunicado during the storm. It might be for a couple of hours; it might be for a couple of days. To our friends and family: don’t worry, we’ll be fine. We’ll try and fire up the generator and get enough power to post on our blog, assuming our cable and/or phone lines stay intact. We’re not hopeful. After all, this IS Mexico. Regardless, we’ll get word out at the first opportunity about how we are and how Playa is.

Keep a good thought, and if you’re so inclined, say a prayer for the people who are still in the storm’s path.

Once again, thanks to everybody for the kind words, emails, telephone calls, etc.

Hasta luego, amigos.

Tony & Cheri