Three taps on a phone could decide which Tulum pothole gets fixed first

A pin on the map, the word Bache, and a tap on save. That is the whole request Tulum Unido is making of residents who want the potholes in Tulum on the record.

The citizen group has launched Ubica tu bache, an interactive map built on Google Maps that collects reports of damaged streets across the municipality. Organizers say they will compile the markers and take them to the authorities responsible for repairs.

The timing matters. On October 20, Municipal President Diego Castañón Trejo announced an emergency patching campaign for streets damaged by the rains, and his administration has spent much of 2026 asking residents to report potholes through the Ayuntamiento's official pages. Ubica tu bache gathers those reports in one place, each with a location attached, where they can be counted.

How a report goes onto the Ubica tu bache map

The process has three steps. Residents open the map, place a marker on the damaged spot, type "Bache" as the label, and save it.

Tulum Unido asked for one thing above all: precision. Each location should be as exact as possible so the street can be identified, which, in practice, means placing the pin on the hole itself and excluding the surrounding block or neighborhood.

A record organizers can put on City Hall's desk

The group's argument is cumulative. The more reports the map gathers, Tulum Unido said, the more clearly it will show which zones bear the brunt of the damage, and the more orderly the information it can present to the authorities.

The organization describes the initiative as a call for citizen participation and as a way to follow up on repair requests after they are filed.

Tulum Unido went public in early July as a coalition of nearly 300 residents, business owners, professionals, merchants, and civil society representatives, including members of the Playas Libres movement. Its first action was a formal petition to the municipality on how commercial operating licenses are issued, as The Tulum Times reported when the movement launched. The pothole map takes the group from a document filed at City Hall to something residents can add to from their own street.

Potholes in Tulum after days of October rain

The call comes after days of persistent rain that, according to the initiative, opened dozens of potholes across the town. Organizers tie the damage to a lack of maintenance and point out that many streets have gone years without repair.

The weather has been steady. Around October 17, the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional forecast very heavy localized rain for northern and central Quintana Roo as cold front No. 2 interacted with a low-pressure trough over southeastern Mexico. Tulum's civil protection bulletin forecast a significant rise in the probability of rain and showers for that weekend.

Calle 8 in La Veleta shows how rain treats a street that was never fully paved. In early 2025, municipal workers graded it and covered it in black gravel over a tar base instead of paving it, and pooled water forms a seasonal lagoon where Calle 8 meets Calle 5. The Tulum Times reported on the street last year and warned that the cycle would repeat with the rains.

An emergency patching campaign announced October 20

Castañón Trejo met that Tuesday with Manuel Mauro Prieto, head of the Comisión de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado (CAPA) in Tulum, and municipal officials to review the progress of ongoing works and agree on measures to address rain damage to the streets. Part of that infrastructure work, by the municipality's account, needs favorable weather to be finished.

The mayor presented the patching as a holding measure.

"Once these rains pass, we will be able to keep moving forward on improving the roads. For our part, we are starting an emergency patching campaign to prevent accidents," Castañón Trejo said in remarks released by the municipality.

Audomaro Solís, director of Servicios Públicos, said municipal crews carry out patching, street cleaning, and tree pruning every day, with priority on the main roads.

That order of priority is where a neighborhood map can earn its keep. A pothole on a main avenue is seen by everyone who drives it. A hole on a side street in a residential colonia is seen mostly by the people who live there.

Every patching round this year has asked for locations

The municipality's own requests describe the information Ubica tu bache collects.

When the Ayuntamiento launched an emergency patching program using cold asphalt in February, an official invited residents to report the exact locations of potholes via the government's official pages. By February 28, Solís reported the program was more than 50 percent complete, with streets attended in Tumben Kaa, Ejido, and Centro, and crews moving on to Lakín, Guerra de Castas, and Villas Tulum. Points with heavy traffic and citizen reports came first.

In mid-March, after a second shipment of cold-patch material arrived, Castañón Trejo said the brigades would start where residents had already reported potholes, and asked people to write to the Ayuntamiento's official pages. In August, crews patched Calle Alfa in Centro and cleaned streets and parks in Palmas, both in response to neighbors' reports.

Reports sent that way reach the government one message at a time. A shared map lays them side by side, and a street with a dozen pins reads differently from a street with one.

The initiative sets no date for delivering its reports and names no office that will receive them. The mayor has tied the next stage of road improvements to the end of the rains. When that stage begins, Tulum Unido will have a list of locations to ask about, and the crews will have one to answer to.

Is there a pothole on your street that has outlasted more than one rainy season? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.