Cancun rebuilt, reborn, after Hurricane Wilma

Put the Copper Canyon on the list too, although it's familiar and an easier-to-remember name. Five times the size of the Grand Canyon, this region in northern Mexico is scheduled for high budget visitors looking for what developers call grand tourism category rooms, boutique cabins and luxury tents.

Low environmental impact is also what the planners stress, preserving the traditions of the Tarahumara Indians and a wide variety of ecosystems and microclimates.

The nearby Sea of Cortez will add 28 marinas, each attached to a quaint little town and each just 120 nautical miles from the other, all in a day's range, Fonatur's McCarthy said.

Six towns already exist -- the other 22 will be new creations, providing economic opportunities for local people all along the Baja Peninsula. How soon can you go, either on your yacht or by land?

This is a 14-year project and the master plan calls for completion in 2025, but 10 marinas and five communities will be looking for visitors by the close of 2006.

Costa Maya is the eastern project, south of Cancun and Riviera Maya, one of the largest reserves in the world, McCarthy said, and this master plan calls for preserving 85 percent of the land available, including mangrove swamps, marshes and coastal lagoons in the jungle.

Lots are available now in Litibu, on the west coast of the country, 30 minutes from Puerta Vallarta. Look for 4,100 lodging units, 2,280 hotel rooms, 910 homes, 18 holes of golf, beach clubs, shopping and entertainment here.

Master plans for Loreto as the capital of the Sea of Cortez project, also include Napolo with high-income hotels, villas, spa, golf and residential, and Puerto Escondido converting a city into a marina with every house accessed through water channels.

Los Cabos ties in to this massive Sea of Cortez development, which McCarthy calls his Fonatur's most important tourism project in 20 years. Familiar to cruise ship passengers, Cabo San Lucas is here, as is San Jose del Cabo.

The new master plan calls for ecological preservation to be 42.11 percent of the Los Cabos project while still providing lots of golf and nautical tourism.

And what of the next storm? As insurance, officials have devoted millions to increase the once-shallow shore by up to 45 feet. Stationed in the ocean since January, ships with long mechanical arms are scooping sand from the sea's bottom and shooting the granules - snow blower style - to the shore. If hit again, everyone agrees there will be damage. But, planners are hopeful the wider shore will mitigate the kind inflicted by Hurricane Wilma.

"When you build a destination or resort or a town on the Atlantic, Pacific or Caribbean," McCarthy says, "expect a hurricane to hit sooner or later."

Expect, but just keep on planning.

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