After days of watching weather sites and waiting for the arrival of Hurricane Ida, the people of Cancun have breathed a sigh of relief as the Yucatan Peninsula was left virtually untouched by the storm. Hurricane Ida passed through the Yucatan channel on Sunday November 8, 2009, coming closest to Cancun around midday. While Friday and Saturday the city was drenched with rain and the streets were flooded, Sunday was a very quiet day. Very little rain and no wind to speak of. With a category 2 hurricane passing by, this was quite an odd phenomenon, one that meteorologists claim was the result of a very tightly wrapped weather system. Local authorities were prepared for the worst, refugee centers were ready for any evacuees and the civil protection agency was out in force, blocking access to the beach because of the high waves and encouraging people to stay home. If Hurricane Ida had been worse, the city was prepared to protect both the citizens of Cancun and the tourists in the area. Whatever the reason for the peace we are grateful that Ida did not exert her full force upon us.
Monday has dawned fresh and sunny, the heat is back and life returns to normal. Reports from the hotel zone indicate that the waves created by Ida have had a limited impact on the beach recovery project that started last week, taking some sand but not destroying the work completely. Tourists are relaxing on loungers and entertainment teams are rounding people up for tequila volleyball. Tour operations are running, bartenders are mixing and sun burns are in the making, all is well in our little corner of paradise. Hopefully this will be the end of the 2009 hurricane season and we won’t have to do a storm report until next year. Or the year after, that would be even better.


