Well... the beaches are anyway.We were sitting at Zicatella Beach just above the surf line ... actually we were laying on lounge chairs... having agua frutas (pineapple & papaya) and watching the surfers when an ATV came up and 2 guys starting putting up red flags along the beach every couple of hundred feet. They came over and told us that all the beaches on the Pacific coast of Mexico are now closed for swimming, wading, and boating because of tsunami warnings. Sounds like waves here are expected in the next few hours but should only be a
foot or so above normal. All the restaurants and beach palapas starting taking in their chairs and umbrellas and moving everything in. Since it was nearly 2 in the afternoon here we decided it may be time to get off the sand for the day anyway. We are back in our hotel room a good 30 feet above sea level and no one seems to be in a panic except for the surfers. They all started calling taxis and putting their boards on top of vehicles and heading out. Not sure which direction they went but it is now a ghost town in Surf City so the waves must be good somewhere else. We are fine and only a few hundred yards from steps 
leading up the hill to the major part of old town so if we needed to we could get out and up to higher ground pretty quickly. Guess we may start taking the little tremors we have been feeling a little more seriously now.There is something very different about this Oaxaca part of Mexico. Turns out that African slaves were brought in more than 500 years ago to work the sugar cane and other crops. Their culture has really colored the music, food and atitudes along this part of the coast. No maraiachi here ... lots of congo drums and carribean/african influence. We are really enjoying the mix. Evening music in the streets has been great. We have decided to not waste our last days sitting on buses trying to get back to Puerto Vallarta. After some complicated math (duh) we realized that we would only save a few dollars by bus when you add hotel rooms and taxis in the towns where we need to break up the trip so tomorrow we head to the airport and fly to Mexico City and then connect to Puerto Vallarta. We will get in late so will spend one night in PV in old town and then head back up north to Guayabitos where we started and spend our last few days there soaking up the last of Mexico.
The Washington Post
ReplyDeleteSunday, February 28, 2010; 12:50 AM
SANTIAGO, CHILE -- One of the most powerful earthquakes on record jolted central Chile on Saturday, smashing homes and bridges and unleashing tsunami waves that coursed across the Pacific, prompting alerts in Hawaii and dozens of countries. More than 300 people have died in the coastal South American nation.
Waves generated by the 8.8-magnitude quake started to smack Hawaiian beaches about noon local time, but they were smaller than the six-foot monsters scientists had feared. The water surged more than three feet in Kahului Bay in Maui before the tsunami warning was canceled in the early afternoon, officials said.
Hawaiian residents had awakened at dawn to the blast of emergency sirens. Police closed roads and roped off coastal areas, and thousands of people were evacuated. But there were no reports of flooding or damage, and by Saturday evening, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had lifted its warning for the entire Pacific except for Russia and Japan.