February 13, 2016 - Tulum, Mexico

It was a little cloudy and windy this morning and we debated whether to go to the beach or not, but decided “what the heck?” So off we went.

It WAS windy – super windy. Lots of windsurfers were out and the waves were huge coming in to the shore.

We walked up the beach and back and spotted a group of girls doing an unsual handstand.

We decided to have lunch at Canek – a restaurant just south of La Zebra, a hotel, restaurant, and beach area where we normally use as our colectivo stop. This is La Zebra below.

As we were finishing our lunch, we noticed lots of “junk” in the air, floating into the restaurant. Just that quick, the workers all came running out and had everyone evacuate the restaurant – the roof had caught on fire!

The fire started at La Zebra and the wind quickly carried the embers south and some landed on the roof of our restaurant.

The water pressure in the hose was so poor, that buckets were the only way to get enough water up to the roof. Tobey jumped in and helped carry buckets of water in a fire brigade to get up on the roof to wet it down. Workers from the neighboring hotels and businesses came racing with fire extinguisher and buckets to help. Other workers were helping the people from the hotel gather their things and get out of their rooms with their clothes. Other workers were busy grabbing the propane tanks from the restaurants and racing them across the road so they wouldn’t explode from the fire or heat.

A hotel further north on the beach, Ana y Jose, sent their water truck down and they hooked up a generator and were able to help wet down the roof of Canek. A hole did burn through the roof of the restaurant, but the damage was pretty minimal compared to La Zebra.

At La Zebra, the flames jumped and spread from one palapa to another. It seemed to take forever before the fire department arrived and the wind never let up. Smoke blowing south on the road.

Below is a view of LaZebra from the road.



After the water truck from Ana y Jose arrived at Canek, Tobey and I went back beach-side to see La Zebra. It was amazing how quickly the destruction spread and wiped out so much of the property.
Workers were still carrying buckets of water and dumping them on the hot spots.



After the “bomberos” (firefighters) arrived, they were busy trying to put the remains of the fire out.

It appears that the restaurant and all the palapas were destroyed. Most of the people had their luggage on chairs on the beach and were waiting to find out their fate for the night. Later, several were being relocated to other hotels in the area.

We walked north up the beach until we could access the road and then walked close to a mile before we were able to catch a bus back to town. The buses and collectivos were only being allowed to go part way before they had to turn around because the road was closed. As we neared the end of the beach road, all other traffic was being divered back to town!

We got home after 4, and we both smelled like smoke and were thankful for our shower. The wind in town seems to be letting up and we pray that those out on the beach have a quiet and safe night. It was certainly an exciting day.