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In a Little Cafe on the Other Side of the Border, a Virtual Visitor's Blog on Cancun
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08/28/09
Island Sounds: Jimmy Cliff, The Harder They Come, the Harder They Fall
Filed under: Cancun Casa Blog, Island Sounds
Posted by: Dangers @ 9:24 pm

 For years, I’ve been addicted to reggae, especially live reggae, the insidious disease infected me at an early age while diving in the Bahamas and later in the formative years of Senor Frog’s in Cancun while the nightspot was still attached to it’s sister in the franchise world, Carlos & Charlies far from both their current locations in the Cancun hotel zone. It was in those years past that I was cutting my teeth on the “Legend” Bob Marley and the rest of the Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, and before them all, the Maytals.

 If there’s ever been a style of music that captures the Caribbean Sea and her island soul, reggae must be it, the descendant of Jamaican “ska” and evolving “skank” music, reggae seems to conjure up the soulful sounds of 500 years of post colonial exploration or exploitation, as one may have it. Just listening to reggae one gets the feel of palm breezes, the laid back beaches from Cancun, Mexico to Montego Bay, and the stirring sounds of the wild Caribbean night.

 So it’s with great pleasure, we bring to you our most recent addition to the Island Sounds collection, the King of Kingston, Jimmy Cliff, a legend in his own right, doing “The Harder They Come, the Harder They Fall” courtesy of YouTube member “Malchick76″ and http://www.soundboyamerica.com.

 The video is from the 1972 soundtrack of the film of the same name starring Jimmy Cliff. If you’re interested in this and more, including the sounds and life of Jimmy Cliff, we recommend the official Jimmy Cliff site http://www.jimmycliff.com/v-css/home/





 

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08/15/09
In the News: Cancun Beach Restoration Nears Start Up
Filed under: Cancun Casa Blog, Cancun Tourism, Cancun Beach Restoration 2009
Posted by: Dangers @ 11:33 pm

 In this Cancun Casa blog installment, we’ll seek to bring you up to date on the long awaited beach restoration project in Cancun, Isla Cozumel and Playa del Carmen.

  By all accounts the Cancun, Playa Del Carmen and Cozumel beach restoration project is about to get underway. Reports have indicated that ships specializing in sand mining from the ocean floor, additional ships fitted for creating breakwaters, and machinery to be utilized for beach restoration are on route to Cancun under the guidance of the winning bidder Mexican Dragodos and it’s corporate parent company Jan de Nul of Belgium.


(Jan de Nul’s Fillippo Brunelleschi in a previous project)

 The beach restoration project also includes selected beaches in Playa del Carmen and on Isla Cozumel, as well as Cancun, and is tentatively scheduled to begin the physical aspects of the work in late August in Playa and Cozumel with an early September start date anticipated for Cancun. It should be noted that the work and progress is going to be subject to weather conditions and while in the near future the local government is expected to announce a schedule of work areas and anticipated dates for beach replenishment work, these dates are subject to change and potential delay. It is believed at this time that the work in Cancun will start initially just south of Punta Cancun. 

 The source of the restoration sand is off shore of the Isla’s, Cozumel and Isla Mujeres, and on Cozumel has been the subject of severe consternation from locals along with environmentalists, as to the impact of the sand removal from the Caribbean Sea underwater sand banks near the islands. The most common complaints are damage to the marine life in the area and the potential destruction of a sand bank providing protection for part of the Cozumel coastline from sea, storm and tidal surges.

 The Mexican Environmental Agency, PROFEPA, will be responsible for approval of environmental permitting and oversight to protect potential damage to environmentally sensitive areas involved.

 Additionally, the beach project, delayed over a year already, includes a 10 year maintenance plan for continued restoration along with funding for addition and removal of geotubes and breakwaters as necessary. 

 Locally, the start of the project is highly anticipated and slated to be part of a widespread tourism campaign for the Fall of this year by the Mexican Tourism Board in hopes of luring back tourists who were dissuaded from visiting Cancun and other areas of Quintana Roo due to storm damaged beaches that left many resort hotels with little to no beachfront along a 12 kilometer stretch. The hotels, in some cases, left with only structural seawalls, protecting the resorts from storm surges. Cancun business owners have been complaining that other Caribbean Island destinations have been actively promoting their beaches and Cancun’s lack thereof in hopes of taking advantage of the disappearing beachfront locally. In an attempt to fight back, a few hotel owners using private funds established various sea buffers, breakwaters and provided their own sand replenishment. Most recently, the owners of the Gran Caribe Real and Royal Cancun were found in violation of existing environmental laws that forced cease and desist actions by Mexico’s PROFEPA requiring a partial beach closure and verbal jousting between the business owners, local officials, PROFEPA representatives and local citizenry, in the Cancun and International press, including an anonymous, alleged death threat, via phone, to the leading representative from PROFEPA.


(Cancun Southern Beaches After Post Wilma Restoration)

 It was back in 1988 when Hurricane Gilberto hit Cancun that the resort city’s beaches were first diminished, later storms, particularly Hurricane Wilma in October of 2005, laid further waste to an extensive stretch of Cancun’s southern beaches. A short lived beach replenishment project followed where long term maintenance was advised but declined by officials due to cost. However, despite what appeared to be a successful restoration, subsequent tropical storms soon reaped havoc on the southern beaches once again setting up the need for the current project and long term maintenance plan. Government attempts at artificial breakwaters, primarily geotubes, were instituted with limited to no success in the interim.

 Of note, beach restoration has already been predominantly completed at Isla Mujeres famed Playa Nortes though from my understanding there is some work continuing and it was performed by a different contractor.
 
 As it stands, the beach restoration project is now imminent and about to begin in Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Cozumel despite the tropical storm season, commonly known as hurricane season also being underway. Future visitors to the region in the later half of 2009 and into the future should find that Cancun, once again, if all goes as planned, will most certainly be returning to her place as the dominant beach destination of the Caribbean.

 Here at Cancun Casa, we’ll continue to bring you the updates on the beach restoration project as available so don’t forget to bookmark us and stop on back…

 Dangers…

3 comments
Vive Mexico: Cancun and Quintana Roo
Filed under: Cancun Casa Blog, Cancun Tourism
Posted by: Dangers @ 11:33 am

 This one’s courtesy of the folks at Mexico’s Tourism arm and is presented courtesy of Visit Mexico, YouTube and YouTube member lanikalugu. The video and accompanying music is a beautiful promotional video of Cancun and Quintana Roo, Mexico.

 Presented for your enjoyment… Cancun awaits you.


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Cancun Casa’s Tropical Weather Update, Take the Weather With You
Filed under: Cancun Casa Blog, Cancun Tourism
Posted by: Dangers @ 11:30 am

 Just when everyone thought that this tropical weather season was going to be an idyllic balmy version of Caribbean sea breezes and wavering island palm trees, the weather gods decided to make up for lost time, delivering a series of storms that had the folks at the National Hurricane Center churning out storm reports in a rapid fire approach. The NHC was so busy they had four storms tracking at the same time in the North Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, one headed for the Caribbean, the now downgraded but still feisty Tropical Depression Ana, that became the first named tropical storm of the season. We also saw two minor disturbances turn into rainmakers in Invest 90 and Invest 91 in the Gulf of Mexico, just off the coast of Florida with Invest 90 surprising everyone by turning into Tropical Storm Claudette and threatening the Florida panhandle.

 And, then there is our second named storm of the season, now duly noted as Hurricane Bill, a category one, North Atlantic  hurricane that the professionals are predicting will continue a curvatured northern track out at sea somewhere between Bermuda and the US coastal Carolina’s as the storm builds to potentially a category three hurricane or greater.

 Currently, the remnants of tropical depression Ana are moving on Puerto Rico with a further breakdown in strength predicted as she crosses over land. Most storm trackers believe that Ana is on her way out as a major storm and the likelihood of regeneration as a tropical storm or stronger highly unlikely. Ana was the one storm that had perked up the eyes and ears of those with interest in the Mexican Caribbean as at least one major tracking scenario had her heading for the Northern Yucatan. Thus far, what’s left of the storm appears that it will have little to no impact on Cancun, the Yucatan or Mexico, we do however advise monitoring the situation, the weather business when it comes to tropical storms being something always subject to change, so take the weather with you, whether it’s via television, internet or newspaper.

 Hurricane Bill as we stated earlier currently looks to be a completely North Atlantic event based on the weather tracking but warrants a watch until the storms position and movement prove the forecasting experts correct. Hurricane Bill is currently out in the vast North Atlantic and is predicted to be a category three hurricane by Wednesday.

 Tropical Storm Claudette, since downgraded, made landfall early this morning at Santa Rosa Island just off western Florida’s Panhandle with sustained winds near 50 mph but has dissipated since making landfall becoming a heavy rainmaker. Invest 91 attempting to tag along with TS Claudette appears to have settled down into just a rainmaker.

 We would remind our readers that we are currently in the heart of the hurricane season and those in the Gulf, Caribbean or North Atlantic areas effected or those with travel plans to or from these regions over the next few months need to keep abreast of the tropical weather situations. Here at Cancun Casa, we’ll try and keep you informed and up to date particularly to situations along the Yucatan and Mexican Caribbean, especially Cancun, but we highly recommend visiting the major weather sites, particularly, NHC:Tropical Storms and the folks at the Weather Underground, below,..and of course checking back in with us.

Dangers…

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