My pics at Webshots

[gsage]

Our stay from Nov 12 to Nov 19 was very enjoyable.  Workers were working very hard to restore the resort.  Only hotel that was open was the Maya.  Only about 150 people there this week - started picking up when we were leaving.

http://community.webshots.com/slideshow?ID=510579902&key=hhfexR

cheers

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[Jim]

   WOW!  Thanks for the pics.  Especially those taken at 5AM.  It's a sure bet I'll never see the beach at that hour of the morning.
Jim

[blacker]

   Thanks sooo much for the pics, although waiting for the next two months will be hell on earth !

I'm glad to see that the foliage is starting to come back in the jungle areas.  Hopefully it will be close to normal in mid January !

The beach as well doesn't look as devastated as we were fearing.

Thanks again !

[lordfox]

Wow, thanks, great pictures. I wonder what the vegetation is going to look like dec. 9. With the warm weather, I expect it to grow pretty fast - although those plants are used to it and may not hurry up. They are mexican after all :-) (Maybe we should start tipping them  ).

The sun really rises early, I thought it'd be an hour later. When does the discoteca close? 3am? Oh boy...

[MikeOKC]

Thanks for the beautiful pictures.

MikeOKC

[johnnylaser]

thanks for the pics.  even after the hurricane, the Maya is a beautiful place.

[Ducky77Jen]

 
Thanks for the beautiful pics. Definitely looking forward to my trip coming up not soon enough.

How was the ocean water? Warm enough to swim in?

Where was the reef you attempted to snorkel off? Did you take any off-resort trips?

When I went a few years ago with my family, we went to Xel -Ha.
I'm all about the snorkeling..so wondering if anyone knows where to try..or where not to..due to damage to reefs? 

 
 

[gsage]

Hi Ducky,

Yeah, the ocean is like bath water....although doesn't taste good I found out after nearly hurling many times getting mouth fulls while snorkeling.

Not sure where our snorkel excursion was...it was before Playa, about 10 minutes South of the resort.  The reef was damaged pretty bad and just a few fish to see.  The guide held up a dead fish to show everyone...wee!...good experience, but dissapointed in what we saw.  Don't recommend it.  Went back to our travel guide and gave them crap for recommending it to us.

We wanted to go to Xel-Ha, but it was closed.  Not sure when it is going to open.

As far as other snorkeling...I heard that Cozumel has awesome snorkeling.  A little farther away, but probably where you'll want to go.  Verify with your travel guide though.  They "usually" know what is good and bad.  Make sure to wear sunscreen on the back....I thought being overcast I would be alright...wrong!  Got a good burn on the shoulder blades around my lifejacket.

cheers

[CoralReef]

The reef between the Paraiso complex and PDC sounds like Playa Maroma's Paradise Reef. It is about 10 minutes south of Playa Paraiso. It was beautiful and healthy when we were there a few years ago. I'm sad to hear that it was so badly damaged.

Cozumel usually does have great snorkeling, but I heard that their reefs were hit very, very hard by Wilma. Not sure what conditions you'll find there now.