As Hurricane Dean barrelled across the Caribbean in mid-August this year, Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, home to a string of internationally renowned resorts, braced itself for a repeat of the devastation Hurricane Wilma had wreaked in 2005.

With tourist hotspots such as Cancun, Cozumel and Playa del Carmen still struggling to recover from the damage Wilma had inflicted on the Yucatan's pristine tropical coastline and world-famous coral reefs, the threat of another, more intense storm threw the region, and its 100,000 visitors, into a panic.

Directly in Dean's path lay Tulum, the tranquil beach community popular for its laid back atmosphere and unspoilt coastline, spectacular Mayan ruins and arrestingly beautiful cenotes. Two hours south of Cancun on the Mayan Riviera, nestled in dense rainforest on the edge of the World Heritage biosphere reserve of Sian Ka'an, Tulum's understatement and focus on eco-tels and environmental sustainability attracts visitors who wish to avoid the glitzy, manufactured Americana of Cancun and Playa del Carmen. Tulum is one of the Yucatan's best kept secrets, as visits by celebrities seeking privacy, such as recent guest Sienna Miller, attest.

Residents and hoteliers in Tulum took a calm but efficient approach to the impending hurricane. Esteban Vizcarra, owner of Zulum Beach Club and Cabanas on Tulum Beach, said that with Dean still some 20 hours away, there was still no certainty where it would make landfall.

Mexico's mass butterfly migration

It’s one of nature’s miracles – every year, 250m butterflies migrate the 3,000 miles from Canada to Mexico

Background

• Ask our expert: Mexico's 'Day of the Dead' festival

• Grabbed by the Mariachis in Mexico City

• Los Cabos, Mexico: this year's star

Tourists were panicking, however: one Italian couple fled south, towards Mahahual, where the hurricane eventually hit. "They thought we were just taking the typically relaxed Mexican attitude. They ran right into it, and ended up going to Belize, and then finally Guatamala!"

In the end, Tulum was only brushed by the outer edge of the hurricane, and sustained only limited damage. The authorities nevertheless evacuated the area, along with the northern resorts, with local business owners and residents battening down the hatches to secure their properties as far as possible.

Or rather, opening up the hatches. Vizcarra explains: "In a Category 5 hurricane like Dean, you don't want to shut up all the buildings - you do that for a Category 3 but a 5 is too strong. So instead we took off all the doors and windows and cleared out everything possible, to let the storm pass through."

Zulum lost its beach bar to Dean's savage winds, while the spa at neighbouring Ana y Jose was completely destroyed. Tulum's low-rise beachfront hotels, almost exclusively in traditional cabana style with thatched palapa roofs built right on the talcum powder sand, are particularly vulnerable to the onslaught of sea-born hurricanes, and these smaller constructions jutting out from the palm cover the worst of it.

Six weeks after Dean, Ana y Jose's spa was being rebuilt with impressive speed, while plans for a new improved bar at Zulum were underway. Though minor building jobs such as these are dotted sparsely along Tulum's seemingly endless coastline, the initial clean up took just a week, leaving its beaches as immaculately beautiful as its reputation suggests.

"In fact the hurricane made a better beach!" said Vizcarra. "It is flatter than before, when it was quite sloping, so no problem for us."

To the hordes of mass tourism, Tulum is known primarily for its Mayan ruins, which, though small compared to sites such as Chichen Itza, are unparalleled in terms of location. Sitting on the edge of a rugged cliff with access to its very own sugar-sand beaches, the azure backdrop of the Caribbean ensures a healthy supply of visitors from the northern resorts.

The surrounding countryside is dotted with the cenotes for which the Yucatan is famous and which attract divers from all over the world. With mirror-like surfaces and otherworldly rock formations, it is easy to see why these breathtaking underwater caves were considered sacred by the Mayans.

Times recommends

• A career break to Timbuktu
• Canoe man and Bond boost Panama tourism
• Flybe extras that broke the bank