Well, I am back in Denver..And since this was the 2nd time through this rodeo for me, having had this happen during a SingleDivers trip when Hurricane Dean occured.
All I can say is that the one thing with this storm unlike Dean, is that it came out of nowhere, grew fast, and looks to be dying just as quick.
I arrived on Sunday. Weather was beautiful. Since the group wasn't arriving till Wednesday/Thursday, I took Monday as a chance to do an Island tour on Harley's with San Dollar Sports. It was me and two locals as tour guides around the island. Weather was perfect and I got back to Casa Del Mar Monday afternoon. I grabbed my scuba gear and headed over to the shop.
At that point they had gone out on Monday and said it was about 60/40 that they would go out on Tuesday. I did a shore dive to check out my weights and gear. Cleaned up and headed down to Margaritaville to watch the World Series & Monday Night Football.
Casa Del Mar was very quiet this week as was much of the island outside of the cruise ships. I think there were 8 people staying at the hotel.
Tuesday morning I headed over to the dive shop at about 8:00am. At this point they have closed the port outside of the Ferrys. They were hoping for an update at 10:30. I went back over at 10:00 and conditions had worsened and they were getting ready to pull boats. So the earliest diving would resume would be Friday and told even then it was 50/50. I collected my dive gear and headed back to my room.
So I started checking flights just in case. Still could get the Continental flight out of Cozumel. But I didn't book it and started watching online as the forecast worsened. By 1pm, we were looking at a potential Cat 3 Hurricane with two of the models showing a direct hit on Cozumel. Others showed it hugging the coastline, crossing the Yucatan Penninsula around Puero Morales. Then the hotel passed out a sheet showing that the island was under a hurricane warning and that we had to evacuate the hotel ASAP.
Now I am scrambling to find a flight out of Cancun. No flights to the US, but a flight to Mexico City comes up, I book it. Sandy, the manager of Casa Del Mar, sets up a room for me over in Playa Del Carmen it was at Paraiso Azul, the home of Yukatek divers. So all of us remaining at the hotel go back to our rooms, pack up, and catch the next ferry out (4pm). The dive shop manager met us at the pier and let us to the hotel. Porters took our bags, up 7 blocks, and left 4. They earned their money. In addition to the hotel, the Yukatek mgr also arranged my shuttle to the airport Wednesday am. Rained most of the night.
Early Wednesday morning I take the shuttle to the airport. Flew Aero Mexico to Mexico City, American Airlines to Dallas and Frontier airlines back to Denver, where they were getting 6-12 inches of snow! Got home at 10 pm last night.
As of Thursday morning, it looks like the storm will die in a hurry the way it started. I am hearing max winds at landfall of maybe 65 MPH. Would still close the port, but everyone should be ok.
Lessons learned..
1) Cash is King...From the porters that hauled bags through Playa Del Carmen, to the hotel in Playa, to cab drivers, to the porter that saved me getting from Aero Mexico to American Airlines in Mexico City, having cash to cover all of this was huge. I know there are people who are uncomfortable carrying large sums of cash, but having a couple hundred in smalll bills really came in handy in this circumstance.
2) Skype - On my printed travel docs, it only had 1-800 numbers. Good in the USA, not good international. But works great with skype. I had both my laptop and my Iphone has skype on it and it saved me when trying to make last minute arrangements.
3) When I booked my trip with my Dive Shop's travel agent & Apple Vacations, they booked the trip insurance too. What I am finding is that in these type of circumstances, the insurance is pretty much worthless. The agent said they couldn't find me any flights, and that I should find out where the local hurricane shelter was and head there. I suspect I'm going to be on the hook for the $1,000 it cost me to get out. It sounds like I am going to get a full credit towards a week at Casa Del Mar next year and maybe some credit on my airfare.
Good luck to those that residents on the island. Hopefully it dies down as much as it appears on the latest forecast from wunderground.com
Heading to Coz on Sunday--we were sweating. Will flights resume today do we think?
