InPuertoMorelos.com

On Wednesday, October 7, 2020, at about 3 am EST the outer bands of Hurricane Delta started to strike our little village. By 4 am we were feeling the full force of the Category 3 hurricane with estimated maximum winds of 110 mph (177 km/hour). The winds roared from the northwest with amazing strength until 5:15 am when everything stopped. We were in the eye of the storm. It was amazing. There was no wind, no rain. Everything was silent and dark. We, like so many others in Puerto Morelos, ran out of our homes to check for damage to our casa, some kids even ran out to play! The eye lasted until about 6:00 am and then the back half of the storm slammed into us. The wind had switched direction, now coming from the southeast, and was stronger than ever. This lasted until about 8:30 am. Then the rain stopped. The wind remained strong, but manageable for the rest of the day.

Puerto Morelos was very lucky. Although we did take a direct hit, the storm dropped from a Category 4 to a Category 3 just before striking us, causing much less damage than we feared.

At 9:00 am we headed outside to check over our house, Casa de los Viajeros, which many of you know from having stayed with us. We had a few downed roof tiles, but all was well.

Then we headed down to the beach. The wind was still so strong that we had trouble standing, but the beach itself looked beautiful. Mother Nature had done a wonderful job of tidying up. There were a few downed palm trees, but no serious damage to any of the homes or businesses on the beach.

We walked downtown. We were the only people on the street. Rojo Gomez was covered in leaves and tree branches and there were a few downed trees and broken telephone poles, but the homes and businesses looked dry and tight.

We headed to the main town square, which is currently under construction. The businesses around the square were all in good shape with the exception of a few lost awnings and signs.

Unfortunately, the main dock did not fare as well. The end of the dock had been damaged when we were hit by Tropical Storm Gamma on October 3, 2020, but it suffered much more damage from its dance with Delta.

The little shops in the Mayan Handicraft centre suffered a lot of damage to their roofs as you can see in the photo at the top of this post. Unfortunately, St. Joseph (the stained glass window at the church) took some damage as well.

The most damage was to our electric infrastructure. Over 376,396 people lost power during the storm. We were without power for over 30 hours. Several electrical poles on the main road into town toppled, and made it impassible. As we write this now, many people in Puerto Morelos still do not have electricity, but it is returning quickly. Ours came back earlier today. The 4g network was also being powered by a generator, so it was spotty at best.

However, in the usual Puerto Morelos style, everyone stepped up. When we didn’t have power or Internet, the good folks at Casa Toucan, shared their generator and Wi-Fi with everyone in town. They set up power bars on the street for people to recharge and unlocked their Wi-Fi. Neighbours hit the streets, helping to clear downed trees that blocked the roads and picking up signs that had blown off businesses.

Even our local Chedraui was open regular hours this morning, just 24 hours after the storm passed.

So as we all work together to finish the cleanup, we can assure you that all is well in Puerto Morelos and we look forward to seeing you soon!

If you would like to help with Hurricane Delta Relief you can contact mexiCAN Compassion Project, they are helping to rebuild homes that suffered damage. And if you would like to help with the animals that were injured during Delta you can contact Dr. Valeria Suarez.

So long Hurricane Delta, so long Tropical Storm Gamma. Let us get back to our hammocks!

Effective today, (Monday, September 7, 2020) Puerto Morelos moves from orange to yellow on the stoplight system.

What does this mean to you? Get ready to book your vacation!

Quintana Roo has been working very hard to stop the spread of Covid-19. Case numbers are posted at noon daily (local time) here on twitter. Puerto Morelos did not take the situation lightly. We began our lockdown in mid-March. Then in mid-June, we went from red on Mexico’s four stoplight system to orange. This opened us up to 30 percent. You can read more about that here.

Now we are moving from orange to yellow. Below is a list of what will be open and to what capacity. The best news is that our beach is now open to 60%.

As for hours, we don’t know how late businesses will be allowed to be open. Currently, shops and restaurants are required to be closed by 9 pm or 10 pm. Hours are determined by the local government and not the state. Bars are still not allowed to open. If you do want to order a drink in a restaurant, you must also order food.

So here is what you need to know: (English below)

ESSENTIAL SERVICES: 100% OPEN

• Police and Justice system
• Legislative activities
• Hospitals and medical services
• Retail food (Food markets, supermarkets, convenience stores, groceries, tortillerías, etc.)
• Banks and financial institutions
• Fishing and agriculture
• Laundries
• Water purifiers

80% OPEN
• Sales of appliances and computers

75% OPEN
• Administrative, professional and technicians

70% OPEN
• Gymnasiums and sports clubs (Outdoor areas 100%. Closed spaces 50%)

OPENING AT 60%
• Hotels, restaurants, historic sites, theme parks, golf courses, and travel services
• Beaches and public parks
• Religious services
• Theaters and cinemas
• Malls and department stores
• Manufacturing
• Real estate
• Hairdressers and beauty salons

NOT OPEN
• Schools
• Bars, nightclubs, discos, entertainment venues, etc.

GROUND TRANSPORTATION
Private vehicles: Max 4 people/car
Taxis: Max 3 people/car (including the driver)
Public transport: 50% capacity

You can read a more detailed description of what is to open here.

Despite these openings, you still must practice social distancing, wear a mask in public, have your temperature checked, and use hand gel when you enter any business. These precautions have become so normal for us now, we really don’t find they impact our daily lives here in Puerto Morelos.

So to all those people who have been emailing us and asking if they should make plans to visit Puerto Morelos this winter… This is one very positive step towards reopening. We look forward to seeing all of you behind your masks this winter.

For more information on vacation rentals, please visit our new website www.vacationrentalspm.com and we will see you soon.

We get questions all the time asking where a specific vacation rental is in Puerto Morelos. When we first came here in 2001, the town only consisted of two districts, the Port and La Colonia. Years later Villas Uno was added and later Villas Dos. In the last five years or so, many more neighbourhoods have sprung up. We created this map because we haven’t been able to find this information anywhere else, and we discovered that there were many more districts than what we thought there were.

Now we don’t claim to be cartographers, but this map will give you a very good idea of where things are in town. So the next time you plan to visit Puerto Morelos, you will have a better idea of where to stay.

With the growth of these new areas came the growth in vacation rentals that are available. If you book a place, it’s important to know where it is. A lot of places advertise their place as being “5 minutes from the beach” regardless of how far they are from it.

For example, we got an email in February (our highest of high seasons) from a woman who had rented a place in Bucaneros asking us to help her find new accommodations because she felt like she was too isolated. Bucaneros is a gated community on the highway almost 6 km (3.7 miles) from the town square. The district has no restaurants, no shops, no public transportation, and not an easy walk into town. You need either a car or a taxi to get anywhere. Now that may be a nice place to live, but may not be what you are looking for as a tourist.

To give you an idea of distances, we have created the following chart with distances from the main town square to all of the neighbourhoods on our map. We picked the closest point and the furthest point that you could possibly in these areas. For example, if you are staying on the beachside you could be steps from the main town square or you could be 1.2 km away. If you were staying in Villas La Playa the closest you are to the square, or the beach for that matter is 3.7 km or as much as 4.6 km away.

All the neighbourhoods are accessible by car and taxi. Most are accessible on foot or by bike, but we don’t recommend biking or walking on the busy Highway 307. Some areas are accessible by collectivo (city buses) which run a limited route around town.

So next time you are looking at a vacation rental in Puerto Morelos, make sure you ask which neighbourhood it is in and find out if that area meets your needs. We want everyone to have a wonderful stay in Puerto Morelos.