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Published: November 4th 2009
Tropical Storm Rick
A flattened tree in the car park outside my hotel room.I'm one of them people that buzzes off thunderstorms in Britain. There about as dramatic as our weather gets, apart from that bit of snow last New Year which caused central London to completely close down for a month. I always thought thunder and lightning were pretty entertaining, so when someone told me of a tropical storm brewing in the Pacific I was naively excited. That was untill the thing seemed to make landfall on the exact same street as my hotel. In hinesight it was entertaining, the thunder, lightning, intermittent breaks in the power supply. But when you have to barricade yourself inside your room using a desk and your 90kg rucksack, you can't help but think that things have gone a bit far. The door to my room was on the first floor, facing an open air balcony overlooking the car park and completly exposed to the elements. At around 3am it sounded like a few hundred people were relentlessy beating the crap out of every inch of the door and windows, and just when I thought things couldn't get any worse the hotel actually began to sway. The damage was pretty grim. Trees in the car park outside
Day of the Dead
A fraction of the madness. had been completly ripped out of the ground, and power lines littered the streets. Even the 50ft Starbucks sign was lying across the highway. However, to me the maddest thing was that by 3pm that afternoon everything was running again. Taxi drivers were driving through 3ft of water to get fares, and I don't think the buses even stopped. They get a hurricane or two every year apparently, so I guess their just used to it.
As intriguing as all this sounds, I wasn't really in the mood to take to many photos of the aftermath of a category 2 storm. The previous evening, just before Tropical Storm Rick hit, I'd checked my bank account to find around £2,000 had completly dissappeared. I was more concerned about that than I was about the storm for most of the night. I'd managed to get through to Halifax, who informed me that around £1,000 had gone to Amstad American Rail, and various other amounts had gone to hotels on Miami beach and a San Diego perfume shop to name a few. Not an easy thing to sort out in a flooded town without any electricity. Things seem to be looking up
El Catrina
It's traditional. Apparently... now as I've managed to get money here on an emergency card, but I wouldn't recommend the experience to anyone.
On a lighter note (sort of), yesterday was the Day of the Dead. This weird nationwide tradition is probably Mexico's most famous celebration, as thousands of people fill the streets of every town and city singing, dancing, drinking and dressing up as skeletons. The festivities started at around 7 as the Plaza Machado, a small square near the hotel, filled up with the hectic Latin carnival atmosphere I've grown used to over the past few months. A brass band headed the parade, playing as much upbeat Latin music as they can muster. Then came a group of Mexican dancers, in full Mariachi/zombie costume, followed by an undead drag queen in a wedding dress. Next in the convoy was a donkey drawn cart full of beer, with two council workers frantically trying to replenish the empty glasses of the crowd around the cart. Following the cart was another brass band and the cycle repeats again. By this point I had around 6p to spend, and as the only free drink around was beer I stayed pretty close to the donkey.
So, tomorrow it's off to Copper Canyon for some more weird adventures. I'm just hoping I haven't lost another two grand by the time I get there...
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Mum
non-member comment
Good to hear from you and to see that you are back on the road. It was probably best to leave out the details about the bed bugs. You know that you are unpacking in the garage when you come home. Hear from you soon? love Mum.