IS THE WATER SAFE TO DRINK?

All the water used for the resort comes from one pipe in the ground located inland near highway 307. The water used for the lagoons and streams is recycled salt water from the huge air-conditioning system.

The water used at the resort is not salt water but it is not fresh water either. It is a combination of the two as the pipe is fed by an underground cave system that blankets the Yucatan.

The water is piped to the osmosis facility where it is then run through seven filters. 40% of the water is rejected. The good water is then run through a machine that analyzes its mineral, chlorine and salt content before heading to one of two treatment machines.

Water used for swimming pools and grounds watering is filtered, analyzed and treated once.

Water for general hotel use is filtered, analyzed and treated twice. This is the water that runs out of your room taps and shower. It is also in the toilet and used for cleaning as well.

Water is also sent to an on-site bottling facility where the hotel bottles its own water. This water is treated a third time and bottled in a restricted zone in a refrigerated room closed to all except the two employees that do the bottling. The water is inspected three times a day by hotel inspectors as well as systematic checks by the government. A date stamp is placed on every bottle with the bottling date.

Hot water is heated in a special facility built for this task only. Water heated here is delivered to all sources including rooms, as they require it.

All waste is pumped into giant holding tanks located next to the employees village then shipped offsite for disposal. No waste is pumped into the ocean. [Cancun hotels used to pump their waste directly into the ocean but that practice has long been stopped.]

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

The most important room in the entire complex is the Electrical Control Room. Without power a resort comes to a standstill [happens frequently to Cuban hotels]. Not relying on the Mexico power grid the resort has eight backup generators ready to go when they are needed. These generators can produce enough electricity to run the entire complex.

In the advent of an emergency there is enough fuel on-sight to power the generators for 4 days, but usually in an emergency [like hurricane] they don't run all the generators, [just enough for necessary operations] so this can be extend to 10 days.

The resort uses 3.8 megawatts of electricity a day in low-season and 5 megawatts in high. This is more than many villages in Mexico use.

THE LAUNDRY MAT

As you can imagine a resort the size of the Palladium has one big laundry mat. In fact there are two. The main facility handles all the resorts laundry needs, everything except staff uniforms.

The main laundry facility contains 11 huge washing machines and 8 large dryers. The facility operates 24 hours a day seven days a week. It is very hot inside this building. The resort washes 5000 kilos of towels a day. The linens are moved about the resort in trucks.

There is also a repair station for mending ripped items.

Staff uniforms are cleaned at the laundry service located in the Staff Village. Employees living in the village have their own clothing washed at this facility as well. New employees are fitted for their uniforms here and there are seamstresses and a repair station for mending and fitting uniforms.

THE STAFF VILLAGE  [Poblado de Apoyo]

Many of the employees working at the resort live in the Staff Village, which is located across the highway from the resort. There is an underground tunnel that staff walks through to get from the village to work. Staff are not allowed on the resort out of uniform and must enter the resort grounds via the tunnel, which is manned by security. Staff are not allowed to carry backpacks into the resort. All gifts given to employees must be accompanied by a note from the giver. The employee must produce the note in order to remove the gift from the resort.

There are 239 units available to employees. The units range in size from an upper manager's two bedroom - living room - two bathrooms and a kitchen down to two bunk-beds and a bathroom for line-workers.

The buildings are co-ed but rooms are not. Men with men and women with women [women get the top floor of a building]. The village manager is adamant about this. And yes, there are frequent love affairs, scandals and even marriages amongst employees. Because of the segregation policy, married couples cannot live together [except upper management]. The primary reason for this is that all apartments are shared and you cannot have a married couple sharing a unit with other men or women.

There is a restaurant [not free] and a store located in the village.

Football [soccer] is the big thing and there is a resort league with 18 teams that vi for the resort trophy.

Human Resources have their offices located in the village. Theirs is the constant struggle to find employees in a job rich environment. Some recruited for employment only speak Mayan with rudimental Spanish and must take Spanish courses. The resort offers both Spanish and English courses to staff twice a day.

Human Resources also oversee employee problems [such as room mate troubles].

Staff is allowed one meal per shift at the staff restaurants located at the resort. A question often asked is; "does a resort give the left-over food to the staff to eat?" The answer is, yes and no. By and large the food offered to vacationing tourists is not food traditional to Mexicans or Latin Americans. So yes, some food from the hotel's buffets is used in the staff buffets but most of the food for the staff is cooked specifically for them.

Line-workers, grounds workers and basically everyone under management is given perks to subsidies wages. Visiting tourists often lament on the low wages paid to hotel staff however if you take into consideration that an employee has a place to stay, free food and laundry, a base salary [some get tips], then match this against a person the same age and skill set, working for a hotel under the same conditions in Banff Canada or Florida, then work in the cost of living for that particular geographic area and you will see that hotel employees make the same low wages everywhere. But there is money to be made and you will generally find that the older staff members have figured that out and know where the money is at the hotels. The right person can make a decent living in Mexico.

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