Hurricane Ernesto has come ashore on Mexico’s Caribbean coast near the border with Belize, after hundreds of tourists left beach resorts and fishermen abandoned low-lying villages to avoid the threat.

Forecasters say Ernesto has become a hurricane off the coast of Honduras and is heading toward the Yucatan Peninsula.

Tourists fleeing Hurricane Rina crowded Cancun’s airport even as the cyclone lost some of its punch on a course for Mexico’s resort-studded Caribbean coast.

Mexican authorities set up emergency shelters and cruise ships shifted course as Hurricane Rina strengthened off the Caribbean coast today, following a projected track through Cancun and the resort-filled Mayan Riviera, Mexico’s most popular tourist destination.