After Wilma, Is Mexico Ready For Some Fun?

The Royal Resort's Club International remained open during the hurricane and while its beach was initially churned up, it also gained 16 feet of sand. (Royal Resorts)

I arrived at the downtown pier on a ferry that takes about 35 minutes from Playa del Carmen and was surprised to see that the downtown looks absolutely normal, the restaurants lively, men with guitars serenading for tips, carriages pulled by horses lining the beach. Just outside of downtown, the Cozumel Country Club Golf Course designed by Jack Nicklaus looks perfect, and the few golfers on the links had no wait times.

In other areas outside the downtown, though, the scars left by the devastating storm are clear.

The piers that used to receive cruise ship passengers are tangled and smashed. Passengers for now come to the island by tender, and a number of ferryboats have been pressed into service for that purpose. The shopping area at the Carnival pier has reopened, but the shopping center at a second international cruise ship pier, Punta Langosta, remains in a state of collapse. But that has made downtown merchants happy, because passengers who want to shop and eat now take a taxi downtown.

All 800 rooms in small downtown hotels have reopened, but the hurricane took a heavy toll on major waterfront hotels. As of early this month, only about 450 rooms out of 3,200 usually available were open. Marrufo said that by Jan. 27, at least 1,300 rooms will be ready. Nonetheless, tourism officials don't expect to see prices slashed to woo back tourists.

"We have to keep our standards and our values. We have to be the same or better to get tourists to return," said Juan Carlos Villanueva of the tourism board. "If we lower rates during the high season, imagine what tour operators will try to get during the low season," added Marrufo. "I can hear them now, saying, 'Give me a $19.99 room.' Rather than lower rates, we need to put everything into order and make it appealing."

Cozumel is known for its snorkeling and diving, rather than beaches, and shallow, close-in reefs have been damaged. Farther out, where the water is deeper, the reefs are "fine," Marrufo said. In fact, he added, "In some cases, sand has moved from the bottom of the reef and opened up caves, making the reefs more interesting."

Most hotels have kept employees on during the cleanup phase, and the city government has managed not to lay off any of its workers. Next year, if the tourists don't return quickly enough in sufficiently large numbers to revive the economy, the state and federal government will provide loans to keep workers in their jobs, Marrufo says.

That evening, on my return to Playa del Carmen, the ferry company played a video showing scenes of the areas' underwater beauty. The words echoed the pride I'd heard other Mexicans express about their efforts to recover from devastating loss:

"We have proved we retain the unbreakable spirit of our ancestors to face adversity and keep on going. We are Cozumel, and we are still here."