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Archive for 2009

NEWS FLASH!! BEACH RESTORATION IS SUSPENDED Author: CancunTom Dec 31

From an article in today’s Navedades it seems that the city of Cancun was stalling on their agreed share of payment towards the beach restoration. The Mayor is saying that they are only trying to find a better interest rate for a loan to pay it with. The amount is $230,000,000 dollars! The Mayor stated that interest rate offered by Banco Nacional de Obras (Banobras) ranges from 10 to 14 percent a year for a term of 14 years, which considered as “exorbitant”. ……….Yeah!……..I guess so :(

So meanwhile back at the beach………….it’s all stopped somewhere near the Marriotts.

(Many thanks to Al Rubin a viewer of this web site whom provides very much appreciated comment that have proved to  be very accurate)
Category: Akumal, Beach Restoration, CANCUN, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, MEXICO, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Moreles, Riviera Maya, Travel, Tulum  | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  | One Comment
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM CANCUNTOM TO YOU Author: CancunTom Dec 31

We wish all our viewers a Very Happy New Year, filled with peace, good health, wealth, and happiness.

Tom & Suz w/ our 3 feathered friends Larry, Moe, and Curly, in Cancun

Category: Akumal, Beach Restoration, CANCUN, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, MEXICO, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Moreles, Riviera Maya, Travel, Trip Reports, Tulum, Uncategorized  | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  | One Comment
General Information about the Cancun Beach project. Author: CancunTom Dec 31

The general contractor for this project is the Belgian firm Jan de Nul & it’s Mexican affiliate Mexicana de Dragados. The two main ships (dredgers) are the Volvox Terranova and the Kaishuu shown here in some file photo’s

The Kaishuu dredger file photo

The Volvox Terranova Dredger file photo


The hook up to the beach piping


The project includes the southern beaches of Cancun starting at km.9.5 near the Dreams Cancun resort/hotel, at Punta Cancun and will include the beaches all the way to Punta Nizuc for a total of just over 11.1 kilometers. The project got underway on Oct. 20th and is scheduled to be finished around January 15th. Then they will them move further south to the Playa del Camen/ Playacar area to do the beaches there. After that they are supposed to do a few beaches on Cozumel Island.

The sand is mined from two locations: one from a sand bank La Ollita between Isla Mujeres and Contoy. The second from Punta Norte in Cozumel. The amount of sand to be dredged it 2.7 million cubic meters!

The breakwater is being restored at Punta Cancun  to the Islet (Isolet Golodrinas) which should provide some erosion protection for the beaches.

The cost is $52,000,000 USD for the Cancun part of the project. This time a 10 year inspection and maintenance program will also be implemented.

This is truly a world class engineering project.

Category: Beach Restoration, CANCUN, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, MEXICO, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Moreles, Riviera Maya, Travel  | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,  | One Comment
Royal Sands Beach is SPECTACULAR !!!! (Episode 6) Author: CancunTom Dec 27

This is the newly restored Royal Sands beach. It is SPECTACULAR! It is expansive and has plenty of room for everyone. I’m so happy that I was wrong about how long the pipes would be on this beach. Last Sunday they were all over the place and this Sunday………….GONE!

The Royals must have some serious pull with somebody to have those pipes moved down beach so quickly. I’ve been a guest at the Royal Sands since one month after it opened and I have stayed there many times over the years and I must admit to be a real Fan Boy of the Royal Resorts. They get it and they do it right. I’m sure all you owners of weeks at this fine time share will enjoy your upcoming vacations even more than before.

Looking north towards the Royal Sands Phase II

We also took some photographs  today (Sunday Dec. 27)  from the Tri-Royals (Royal Mayan, Royal Caribbean, & the Royal Islander). Then we walked north on the beach about 1 km. until we reached the fence that closed the beach for the restoration work. That fence was located at the Marriott Casa Magna Hotel. The actual work had progressed up to the Golden Parnassus.

This is the view from the Royal Mayan deck looking north towards the approaching equipment down the beach, lots of exposed rocks but still a small beach. Today the water was very calm and some swimmers could access the water and have fun in it. You can see the dredger off shore unloading it’s sand.

Some views of the Tri-Royals beaches

The dredger Kaishuu and it’s tender, unloading  sand from Cozumel

Approaching the fence closing off the beach for safety reasons

CancunTom pointing at the approaching beach monsters

Looking over the fence with a 150 mm telephoto lens

Closeup of Tom’s hat………:)


Category: Beach Restoration, CANCUN, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, MEXICO, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Moreles, Riviera Maya, Travel, Trip Reports, Tulum  | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  | 4 Comments
We wish you a Veeeerrrry Merry Christmas Author: CancunTom Dec 24

We wish you all good health and good times and hope that you have a very Happy Holiday Season. We really appreciate that you have stopped by and especially for leaving a comment. Please keep us bookmarked and subscribe to our RSS feed by clicking the Orange RSS icon to the left. We plan to keep you up to date on the happenings in Cancun, Isla Mujeres, Puerto Moreles, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Adventuras, Akumal, and Tulum as well as other places we have visited throughout Mexico.

Here is out Caribbean Christmas photo for 2009:

Scuba Santa


Category: Akumal, CANCUN, Christmas, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, MEXICO, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Moreles, Riviera Maya, Travel, Trip Reports, Tulum  | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  | 2 Comments
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