Note to Cancun Vacationers

My condolences to family and friends of the 3 Canadians and 2 Mexican workers killed in Sunday's tragedy at the Grand Riviera Hotel in Playa Del Carmen.

20101115:

To future Cancun vacationers:

Cancun is still safe, because the recent natural disaster on last Sunday, November 14, 2010 is a rare occurence.

Even so, please use Google Map to check out the location of your hotel in Cancun to ensure it isn't built on or to close to a swamp.

A good example is the Hotel Grand Riviera in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. The green area northeast of the hotel is such a swamp, and swamp gas is the attributed cause of the explosion.


View Larger Map

I'm still wondering if the owners of the Hotel Grand Riviera considered the dangers of swamp gas during the planning process. You'd think their sense of smell - the tourists who stayed at Grand Riviera had complained of it but downplayed it - would have at least clued them in.

With the hurricane of 2005 having devastated the area, the mangrove swamp ecosystem would have produced enough sour gas (methane and water vapour) from decaying vegetation as a result of renewing the local ecology.

In the following quote, a traveller describes the mangrove swamp ecosystem in detail: The "swamp-like sulfur smell" mentioned by some, comes from the Mangrove, the aquatic forest ecosystem, vital to the life of the coast, reef, and food chain to most of the wildlife you see along the coast of Riviera Maya and at GP (Grand Palladium Resort) itself. Referred to by some guests as "the jungle", mangrove is made up of over two dozen varieties of tropical maritime trees or shrubs that send out many prop roots and form dense tangled, low canopy growth, most observable from the covered walkways throughout GP. In 2005 Hurricanes Emily and Wilma damaged much of the mangrove in the immediate area of GP. The sulfur-like swamp smell (often referred to as sewage smell) experienced by some, is the result of the natural restoration process of the mangrove. — http://www.palladiumaddict.net/mexico-mayan-riviera/?c=frequently-asked-questions