Tuesday, December 02, 2014

Cabo Mexico after category 3 hurricane

Odile playa grande

We returned to Cabo San Lucas, BCS, Mexico last night curious to see how there are recovering from category 3 hurricane Odile in mid September. There is a lot of recovery to go. Our home resort, Playa Grande, opened on October 20, 5 plus weeks later. And we knew some other resorts opened then or within a few weeks. But we were surprised on the drive from the airport, which is 20 miles away in San Jose, to see lots of dark buildings. Even some major resorts are not yet open - Palmilla, Dreams, Fiesta Americana, Westin, Sheraton; those are all big ones.

At Playa Grande our view will be greatly improved (we are staying at the resort next door this wee - Sandos Finisterra), because the palm trees lost all their fronds - all of them. Our view before was frustrating because our condo is right at the edge of the beach, but the palm trees cut the view to peek-a-boo. At least most of the trees survived. There is damage - one stairway to the beach is missing the last 10 steps. But the resort is set back from water’s edge, which reduced the damage.

Grand Solmar Resort is next to the rocks at the famed Fin de Tierra - “land’s end” - but they built it close to the water. It has concrete wall faced with stone on the water side. Most of the stone work is gone. And the concrete wall protecting one close building has a 40-foot gap. And more damage; when walking by barefoot on the sand watch out for rebar sticking our of the sand! But the resort is open.

Photo: The entrance to Playa Grande. The drop below the van on its side is 13 meters (40 feet). Credit shows in the photo.

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