From Ak’Bol to Caribbean Villas, Ambergris Caye coast nearly stripped of piers

The “honeymoon cabin” survived. Ak’Bol Yoga Resort’s palapa just behind it, did not. All that is left is part of the pier.

What’s up dock?

This morning I found the owners of Ak’Bol Yoga Retreat down shore, retrieving canvas curtains and polls from their lovely palapa studio. Which no longer exists. Later some friends told me that the top to the gazebo that once crowned our own dock was down shore and intact on a beach.

“It still has its light fixture.”

A dive shop owner told me he was able to find his compressors underwater and about half of his 60 air tanks.

Everywhere you looked today, people were off in search of their docks, their gear, some remnant of their life that blew away in the Category 1 hurricane Earl last night.

Curiously, the Catch of the Day boat survived intact on its elevated perch while all around it, devastation reined.

The winds blew from north to south, stripping the shore of almost everything. What is left is badly damaged.

Among the casualties are Ak’Bol which the owners will rebuild after the hurricane season ends in November; the Palapa Bar on Boca del Rio; Fido’s dock which was home berth for the YOLO excursion boat; both water taxi piers were badly damaged; Ramon’s Resort dock; Ecologic Tours; the pier leading out to the Tackle Box restaurant; the water slide El Diablo at Caribbean Villas and so much more. Add the gas station dock to the list.

The Dive Bar lost its almost brand new dock but the restaurant only looks devastated. Tuua says he’ll have the bar and kitchen up and running by tomorrow lunch — two days at the outside.

One dive shop owner says not a single dive shop over the water survived. Many lost tanks. All three shops with air compressors lost their equipment, making future dives difficult for a while.

Everywhere, vast swatches of vegetation were stripped away, too.

My beautiful walk north through the lovingly landscaped properties north of the bridge have almost all been stripped of landscaping, replaced by remnants of docks from up shore, like carelessly scattered piles of kindling.

More storms are on the way. A turtle nest on this beach may have survived the hurricane. Neighbors are watching anxiously over the next few days as the birthing of hundreds of babies is about to begin.

These photos are from Ak’Bol south all the way to Caribbean Villas. I took the photos north of the bridge. Rose Alcantara took the ones south. They show just a small portion of the devastation that has best this island.

Even more tragic, we’d only just begun to recover from a horrific downtown fire that leveled almost a whole city block and left 66 people homeless.

The island is filled with resilient people but it will be a long time before things are normal here.

Images from Ak’Bol through the Tres Cocos neighborhood:

Images from Boca del Rio to Caribbean Villas by Rose Alcantara: