SANTO DOMINGO.- “The ocean glows a milky turquoise. Tiny waves lap at the powder-beige sand, in no rush to reach the line of postcard-perfect palm trees,” reads today’s Associated Press’ report on the woes of the country’s most ambitious luxury resort, Cap Cana.

It says that hundreds of luxury villas “are positioned to take in the view, “but but there are no guests, no roofs either.”

The news service describes “neatly tied bundles of red tiles” stacked outside the half-built luxury dwelling, where “the wind slams doors and rustles the yellowed newspaper taped to the windows.”

Cap Cana resort sent 500 workers packing last month after a $250 million loan with a major financial bank that filed for Chapter 11 protection (bankruptcy) had fell through.

Work ni the Dominican east development site, including four luxury hotels, three golf courses and a mega-yacht marina, “is a victim of the global financial crisis that has hit the Caribbean's tourism industry especially hard,” the AP said, adding that “talks to re-negotiate a $100 million short-term loan collapsed last week, and more layoffs are expected.”

Cap Cana president Ricardo Hazoury said the project “has been affected by the economic tsunami that has paralyzed the global financial markets," which the AP also blames for the halt in construction at the Ritz-Carlton Molasses Reef resort in secluded West Caicos, “where 60 Chinese workers revolted last month to demand back wages.”

It also reoprts that it's unclear when construction will resume at other hotel, marinas and condominium projects around the Caribbean, which also fell victim of the global crisis.