Caribe Blu Trip Report & Photos

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Bicster

Bicster

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Location
Houston, TX
Day 1 -

The weather is beautiful here. Wilma has done a tremendous amount of damage to the island, and there are crews working all over the place. The lobby of Caribe Blu is all open-air for the moment. We're on the 4th floor, and there are a few others staying on the 3rd floor, but the rest of the hotel appears to be vacant. The downstairs rooms were completely blown out by the hurricane. But the Wi-Fi works, and the water looks perfect.

We'll get wet tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some photos RiotNrrd took of the hotel for you guys...

Caribe Blu Photo Gallery

We'll keep updating the gallery as time/bandwidth/laptop juice permit.
 
wow...

Thanks a lot for posting the photos. The hotel looks as far along with repairs as I expected, but I'd be lying if I said I thought it looked "good". I'll be fine staying there as my expectations are realistic, but I think my wife and kids are going to less than pleased, and they'll probably blame me for the condition of the hotel grounds. I hope no one takes this the wrong way as I'm not complaining about Caribe Blu, the effort the owners have made in repairing the property, or even the general condition of Cozumel itself.

I have a couple of questions, if you don't mind. Is the restaurant above the dive shop operating? Do the rooms have TV's and are they working? (for the kids). Who are you diving with and where are you meeting the boat in the morning?

Thanks again,
Bruce
 
Bicster:
Day 1 -

The weather is beautiful here. Wilma has done a tremendous amount of damage to the island, and there are crews working all over the place. The lobby of Caribe Blu is all open-air for the moment. We're on the 4th floor, and there are a few others staying on the 3rd floor, but the rest of the hotel appears to be vacant. The downstairs rooms were completely blown out by the hurricane. But the Wi-Fi works, and the water looks perfect.

We'll get wet tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some photos RiotNrrd took of the hotel for you guys...

Caribe Blu Photo Gallery

We'll keep updating the gallery as time/bandwidth/laptop juice permit.
Click to expand...

Wow, that place got hammered. Thanks for the pics if you take any more please post them I've been dying to see the progress they've been making. I'll hopefully be going to the El Cozumeleno soon (they open in February) Thanks for the update keep em coming.
 
We'll take some more pics. We didn't have much daylight yesterday.

There are no TV's--but the wall brackets are there. The A/C systems look new. On the 3rd floor are window units and the 4th floor has mini-split systems. 401 has no telephone, and the phone in 402 is not working. Otherwise, those two rooms are great. No complaints so far.

We were supposed to take a Nitrox class yesterday evening at Blue Angel, but nobody was there and the hotel was unable to reach anyone.

I don't know where we'll be entering the boats yet. Our first dive is in an hour. The dive shop/restaurant is just opening now.
 
Wow, the pool area is much worse than I had imagined! Oh well, don't need a pool with all that ocean there anyway. I'm heading down in the morning and will be staying with you guys at Caribe Blu and (hopefully) diving with Blue Angel. Glad to know wi fi is working. My first dive of the trip is Tuesday (also my birthday!). See you manana!

Maxwell from Austin
 
We did four dives today and had a great time. We left from the Caleta marina... Blu Angel paid for taxi service to/from the marina.

The street lights aren't working tonight for some reason. We also didn't have any hot water today... there was plenty yesterday. At the end of the day, I didn't care -- we're happy to be here. I'll update the thread when I post more photos.
 
Bicster,

Thanks for the pics, and looking forward to the report. My wife and I, and our friends stayed in 401 & 402 pre-Wilma. What a change!

Here's my "before" next your "after".
 
There are crews outside right now working their butts off. The chainsaws and hammers started at about 7 am this morning. The roof on the coffee shop is almost completely thatched now. They started work on that yesterday. This morning it looks like they're getting ready to install new patio/balcony doors on the rooms beneath us.

The diving has been pretty amazing for us - new divers and all. Having fewer people on the boats has been a plus. We've gone on 8 dives since we arrived, so we're taking it easy today and just doing two. Tomorrow we're diving some cenotes with Pro-Tec.

I'll see about uploading some more pics in a moment. RiotNrrd is shooting in RAW format, so it takes some time to adjust the photos and convert them to JPEG, especially the underwater ones!
 
Thanks for the update. To be honest, the first photos had me thinking that I should look for another place to stay, but I think I can wait at least another week before I need to think about it again.

Bicster:
I'll see about uploading some more pics in a moment. RiotNrrd is shooting in RAW format, so it takes some time to adjust the photos and convert them to JPEG, especially the underwater ones!
Click to expand...
I shoot RAW underwater as well. The after dive processing is kind of a pain, but you definitely get more control over the image and usually a better quality result. I still shoot mostly JPEG above water.
 
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