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January 26, 2003.
Montreal, Québec,
Canada is known for being in an earthquake-prone zone. It experienced innumerable
minor quakes during the decades when I lived there, but for some reason or other,
I never actually felt any of them. I was just told about them by friends or I
read about them in the newspapers the following day. Being
on the Pacific coastline, Puerto Vallarta and the Bay of Banderas are located
at the junction of a bunch of tectonic plates so this area is also are subject
to earthquakes. In October 1995, a rather strong quake caused the crown of the
Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe to fall off, as well as much other collateral
damage in this port. I wasn't here when it happened, I had gone up to Montreal
to celebrate my children's birthdays (yes, they're all Libras). Then,
last Tuesday night, as I was sitting at my computer translating more stuff for
this week's edition of the Tribune, I heard some strange tinkling sounds. Then
the house began to move… not violently, mind you, more like Jello being jiggled
around. That's when it dawned on me, what was happening. Wow! Exciting and scary
at the same time, it was. My neighbors ran out into the street. Dogs started barking.
Then the phone started ringing, my friends wanted to know if I had felt what they
had felt. Yes, indeed, I had - for the first time in my life. I know that this
is old hat for our Californian readers, but for yours truly, this was a first
that will never be forgotten. After all, first-time anythings never are, are they?
I'm just glad that it wasn't any stronger here than it was. The
next day, I turned on CNN EN ESPAÑOL to find out more about the event.
They had correspondents from the states of Colima (where the epicenter of the
quake was, 50 km. from the town of Manzanillo, some 4 hours south of here), Guerrero
and Michoacan reporting by phone, while they showed a map of Mexico on the screen.
They showed a red dot where they had decided to place the state of Colima, some
1000 miles NORTH of where it really is!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. Doesn't
anyone check those things on the No. 1 news network in the world? Since when did
the state of Colima move up to Sonora? What is it with those people? Once
again, we have to thank God for the fact that the earthquake was what seismologists
call "oscillatory" as opposed to those with up-and-down movements, the
ones that cause really bad damage. And personally, I thank Him for sparing Vallarta
from greater damage and pray for the families and friends of the 26 who perished
south of here, as well as the 160 or more who were wounded. Obviously,
our planet continues to evolve as it should, as does the rest of the infinite
universe I'm sure. Sometimes it even unfolds the way we hope it would… I
had a couple of days like that recently, where everything went so smoothly that
it turned me into a happy camper for many days that followed. This type of days
doesn't happen too often around here, or anywhere for that matter… As
our regular readers know, the lines to pay for cable service in this town were
horrific during the first days of the month. Well, the other day, as I was driving
to the Telcel offices to pay my December bill (late), I noticed that there was
no one in the Telecable offices. I parked my car, jumped out and ran in. There
was only one other couple there, from Vancouver, who were trying to explain to
the young lady behind the glass where it was that they lived, exactly. They didn't
speak much Spanish and she didn't speak much English, so I offered to help out.
It turned out that they wanted their cell phone reprogrammed so that they could
use it down here for the time of their stay. I offered to drive them to Telcel,
which I did, and we talked along the way (and yes, I did pay my cable bill for
the year and I did settle my cell phone account too!) This
couple has been coming down to Vallarta for nine years, but this will be the last
time for them. The town has become too expensive. They explained to me how it
was cheaper for them to go spend a few months in Hawaii or Bali then to come to
Vallarta and they asked me if the authorities were aware of what was happening…
I didn't have an answer for them. A couple of days later,
I was introduced to a lovely young man who is the food & beverages manager
at one of the biggest hotels in Cancun. Without mincing his words, he exclaimed
"I can't believe how expensive everything is here!" Enough said. The
gas delivery folks showed up at my house last week. Did I need a refill of my
stationary tank, they asked. How would I know? I always mean to check the gauge,
but I never do so I usually end up without gas… I told them they could go
check it out, which they did. The tank was near empty and they refilled it. Guess
what? In case you hadn't noticed, the cost of gas has gone up 19% since last June
(the last time I ran out of that really essential commodity). Other
good happenings: our friend Norma -the young lady who distributes those much sought-after
dehumidifier rods we all need so desperately during the rainy season- is back!
She took some time off, went to Mexico City, had a beautiful baby boy, and now
she's back. So if you need more of those quasi-miraculous little gizmos for your
cupboards, just give her a call at 223-1389. She's usually always there in the
mornings and when she's not, she's got an answering machine which she checks regularly,
and she's also bilingual. More good things: Thomas is
back at Ibiza so if you want to go say hi, and tell him that you're glad to see
him back at work after his hospital stay, I'm sure he'd recuperate even faster.
And besides, you can always have a great meal there while you're at it. My
friend David who is the Director of one of the local dailies wrote a delightful
article one day last week, telling the story of a co-worker who had received a
telephone bill charging him for 130 calls purportedly made to connect to the internet
…on October 25th, 2002. Now we all know that there was no electricity in
Vallarta that day because that was the day Hurricane Kenna "tickled"
us with that swipe of its tail that caused us so much damage. When this gentleman
tried to explain this to the TelMex company rep, he was basically told that her
computer records couldn't possibly be wrong, computers don't lie, etc. etc.…
The article is hilarious, except for the part about the poor gentleman's telephone
service having been cut off for non-payment. He's appealing the decision, but
he has to do it from someone else's phone. Talking about
Hurricane Kenna, the only way it affected me personally, but indirectly, was in
the fact that it totally destroyed the home of my (and my friend's) TV technician.
The poor man had just managed to get the parts he needed to fix my TV and that
of my friend when the hurricane washed away the entire building where his home
and shop were located. It also took the repair parts and all of the TV's the man
had to fix for his other clients. Neither my friend nor I have been able to contact
him since. Have a wonderful week, dear readers. The universe
is indeed unfolding as it should. Be good to each other. Hasta luego.pvmomto3@hotmail.com Archives
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