Intrepid Travelers are back - Tropical Storm Bill Under Our Belt

Fisherman coming in from bailing - another fisherman is inside the blue boat bailing water

We are back from our travels safe and sound although we have now experienced our first Tropical Storm which actually happened to be on hubby's life list.  We landed in Cancun on Friday afternoon and by the time we got to the hotel it was quite cloudy but calm.  We ventured out for a fantastic first night meal of tacos and shrimp and wandered out to the beach to see fishermen trying to take those boats that could be beached out of the water and hotels tucking away all their seafront tables and chairs.  The concierge at our small Mexican hotel mentioned that bad weather was coming.  We weren't exactly sure what that meant as the forecast on all the weather channels indicated possible thunderstorms with a few millimetres of rain - no mention of a storm approaching.  Obviously the locals are much more in tune with their own weather.

Fishermen inspecting their boat during the storm

Saturday morning hubby looked out our patio to the water and told me it was raining.  Disappointing for our first day in Playa Del Carmen but I said no problem, we will just go for a walk in the rain on the beach.  He then told me to come have a look as the rain was coming down in sheets and the wind was blowing about 70-80 km an hour.  Yikes - we get a lot of rain on Vancouver Island but I have never ever seen so much rain come down in buckets like that.  At the time the news was calling it an unnamed Tropical wave as apparently it was a group of "unorganized" thunderstorms.  We never saw lightening or heard thunder - just high high wind and unbelievable rain.  We spent a couple of hours in the hotel room and then ventured out.  Mexicans are an extremely hardy people - the only things closed were beachfront.  Two blocks inland all stores and restaurants with any sort of overhead cover were open for business.  We ran in the rain with my little umbrella until the wind inverted it then dived into a tourist shop and invested in two rain ponchos.  There were very few tourists out but we were all sporting the same attire.  

The beach in front of the hotel

At that point we  decided to take a break from the madness and have a couple of beers and chips with guacamole with other tourists trying to stay out of the rain.  We encountered lots of amazing guacamole this trip - I think the avocados taste better there as they have not been picked too early and transported thousands of miles before they make to the table.  When we got back to the hotel we got our bathing suits and water shoes on and donned our new rain ponchos and took these pictures.  Fortunately the wind wasn't crazy - this storm consisted mainly of the rain.  We were never in danger or we wouldn't have been out walking the beach - although we were the only ones out there.  The storm dumped about two feet of seaweed on the beach which will take them weeks to clean up.  After that we only ventured out for another tasty Mexican dinner, once again getting completely soaked despite the rain ponchos in the process.

5th Avenue Playa Del Carmen - our sanctuary during dinner

View to the sea from our room during the storm.

 The next morning was much worse, with the rain coming down even harder and the wind speed about 90 km-100 km per hour.  We were afraid to leave the hotel - I was extremely thankful for our included continental breakfast which they delivered right on time even in the storm.  By 11 am it was obvious the drain on our 3rd floor balcony was plugged as the water was creeping up to our balcony door level.  The wind had taken out one of the thatched roofs on a room across from us and torn a lot of thatch off other roofs which was flying around landing in the water and clogging the drain.

 Hubby went out and he uncovered the drain so our room wouldn't flood. Our room was protected from the wind fortunately with the other side taking the brunt of it.  We then went down to the lobby - suddenly realizing the street in front of the seaside hotel was one of the lowest and now was under a foot of water.

Flooded street in front of the hotel

Blogger won't let me upload any more pictures today so my next post will show the end of the storm. Don't let these pictures worry you  - we had five good days on our trip and our holiday was not ruined plus we can now say we've been through a tropical storm!