Mexico - January 2003
Kate, Tom, Carol and Jerry
Carol and I joined Kate and Tom in Dallas then we flew to Guadalajara and hired a cab for the long ride to the coast. On the way, we passed through the town of Colima where both Kate and Carol have many happy memories as teenagers. We did a bit of sightseeing in Colima and I cashed a travelers check only three days before the earth quake, (terremoto) but more about that later.
This was our destination, the little town of Barra de Navidad, Jalisco on the Pacific coast.
|
We liked our rental house. I was on our porch. The living room was to my left and Kate & Tom's bedroom was beyond that. |
 |
 |
 We had a nice lawn with the beach beyond. Palms provided some welcome shade. |
A happy scene of the lagoon and the town of Barra de Navidad We hired a boat
from this dock to take us to a restaurant and a sightseeing trip past a rookery
and Gran Bahia Resort.
|
Gran Bahia Resort
|
 |
 |
Large yacht with helicopter at Gran Bahia. |
|
Who would believe that such a large bird as these Brown Pelicans could land on a tree branch and roost for the night? The next day we went with a Realtor to look at beach lots. This one captured Kate's fancy.
|
 |
 |
A huge expanse of beach. This view looking toward Gran Bahia. |
| Carol and Kate at the Gran Bahia golf course "watering hole". The beach lot Kate was looking at was located about 1/4 mile behind them. |  |
 |
We enjoyed a nice dinner complete with liqueurs and Cuban cigars with Margarita and Tonio Moran and Doña Toya. |
| Tonio Moran and a tarantula friend. |  |
 |
The quake struck Jan. 21 at 8:06PM with a force of 7.8.  |
| Searching through the rubble for survivors. The city of Colima was the hardest hit. |  |
 |
The four of us were in our living room and Carol was reading aloud the Parker
Shotgun mystery story when the quake struck.
The house shook for perhaps 20 seconds, items were falling over in the kitchen
and we heard the walls cracking.
Then the power went out while we were grabbing our shoes and running for the
door.
Out in the street, a resident said she wished she knew if the ocean was all right. This comment related to a big quake some years ago when the ocean was reported to have receded some 300 meters then came flooding ashore. I had a flashlight so I walked the 50 yards down to the beach to inspect the ocean. It seemed to be just where it was the day before and all appeared OK for the moment. What I did not know at the time was the location of the quake. Was it just a moderate quake nearby or a much stronger quake out under the ocean that might have a tsunami headed our way :-(
Not wanting to go back indoors for awhile, we sat by the swimming pool, which Carol called "the seismology station", to see if there would be after shocks. The original quake had shaken some of the water out of the pool and the waves still had not receded. Eventually, we did go back into the house to try and get some sleep.
The next day Tom gravely inspected our rental house. We were some 60 miles away
from Colima in Barra de Navidad but even so, this 12" thick concrete wall
of our living room was cracked. In the afternoon of the day after the quake,
there were a couple of aftershocks. We caught a midnight taxi and a bus back
to Guadalajara and flew home. Some vacations are more memorable than others.
