WOW The Middle Of September And No Hurricanes!

[MEXICOWANDERER]

They form and then head out to sea. The Sierra Madre del Sur is dry and La presa del Infiernillo is really low. Eduardo says the rio Chucutitan is low. Good thing we bought a Honda powered pump to irrigate. Mangos require lots of water.

Wait and see how nine days of September followed by the 31 days of October plays out. Then it's supposed to be the end of hurricane season

[navegator]

I like "Tzinacan" in Nahuatl the god of the bat, I like bats they eat a lot of insects, we have a colony of Mexican free tail bats that roost in the church bell of San Jose just up the street and the church keeper will not let anyone disturb them or harm them, people are begining to be inteligent about the natural insect predators.

navegator

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I'll stick with four-hundred-rabbit

[navegator]

Actually some of the buildings in México city got pile driven suports, some only to the hard mud others further down to the rock, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, fine arts palace was left on a tonge of hard mudd from all the buildings arround it being pile driven, and started sinking lopsided, they have stabilized it today by injecting a concrete slurry on special hollow tubes.

A hotel on Paseo de la Reforma was actually lowerred on the piles while it was still open, the street in front had sunk to much for another step to be added, so the Engineers and the Architects that constructed it supported it with hydraulic jaks and sawed off the piles and lowered the building milimeter by milimiter, it took 5 years, my brother in law is one of the architects and I had the oportunity to go and see the operation, awsome is little to the enormity of the proyect.

There is a very old and excelent restaurant behind Palacio Nacional it is "Las Casuelas" good food fom many years, the other one is "El Caballo Ballo", I know how to get there but I could not tell you the address, started going many moons ago.

May the god of the underworld spare us from shaking we need to drink ower mescal in his honor.

navegator

[MEXICOWANDERER]

There is a hyper-expensive new skyscraper in San Francisco that is already sinking and cracking windows.

It takes a pile driver and tons of piles to make a stable foundation pier in alluvial soil. Piles in Mexico? Ummmm... good luck.

The city population has exploded since 1985. I don't even want to guess at the statistics of a major event.

But my visits to La Enchilada Grandote are limited to federal permits and turista grade stuff

The museum is worth three days and a set of patines (roller blades)

Xochimilco but not on a holiday or weekend.

Some of the gastronomical temples in Polanco

And an obligatory taxi ride past La Casa del Perros, with mandatory barking out of an open window. The last time I did it the taxi driver was so startled he started laughing until tears came and we almost hit another car.

Some of the comedores in centro are stand up and serve surprisingly good food at reasonable prices.

Look at Wikipedia
https://www.google.com/search?q=jose+luid+portillo+casa+de+perros&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b

for an explanation of The Dog House.

[navegator]

Mexico city ran out of flat land some time ago, so now they are building up, the ones that can and have the money and enough land tear down the old house and build an apartment building with under ground garages where of course when it rains they will flood.

Those that do not construct a new structure build an add on to the old structure witch may or may not be damaged by previous quakes or might not be structurally sound or built to support aditional wheight on the load carring walls or as some do not have "castillos" rebar cages encased in concrete to anchor the bricks at the corners, when the vibration starts the walls go down.

Many of the structures that fell in the last two quakes were add ons or new construction done with poor planing and had ground floor garages on columns that coud not support the wheight when the ground vibrated, the colums litteraly exploded and the four or five floors above came down.

Today the rich want to live on the hill sides of the "serros" hills or the "barrancas" canyons, they construct on concrete and rebar stillts that go up to 5 or 6 stories so that Mr. Money can have a house and a garden that is flat, there is one house with a putting green on a canyon 5 stories above the canyon floor.

When the next big one hits it will be pretty bad, the area in front of Acapulco has not moved, it is a subduction area that is where the quake of 57 took place, it will probably be 8.0 or higher, we will see what is left standing and that coupled with the ground liquification, it is going to be nasty.

My house in Ciudad Satelite in on top of "tepetate" it is a type of rock, we need a big jack hammer to dig the trench for the new sewer line, the pick axe just bounses off with a few chips, we start feeling the 6.5 and up quakes as gentle motion, on the 7.2 my wife got uppset and told me to stop shaking the bed, I told her it is a "temblor" quake, we have a Swedish foam mattress that you can park a wine cup and jump nex to it and it does not spill, so quakes are neat in bed.

I will leave you now, the micro lion is roaring for its cat chaw.

Quédense con calma que la cosa es sacudida.

navegator

[MEXICOWANDERER]

And they rebuild on STILTS over the water.

We have had insane deluges (11" in 5 hours) as measured in a correctly placed NOAA approved rain gauge. So hard of rainfall it bounced back up to knee level making anything on or near the ground 100% masked like the rain was falling on water. So intense, birds drowned. A lone hen of mine drowned on a steep slope.

The water cascaded over fifty foot high cliffs imitating Niagara Falls. The sight was stunning.

No one lives on the flats in this region. The coast is a series of flats with rocky promontories. And the ancient indian tribes still live on the almost solid rock promontories as do the rest of us. Flood and earthquake resistant. Mex 200 gets blocked with rockfalls not massive mud slides. But on the flats, the pavement gets washed away or buried with sand and earth.

[Tequila]

as overall ocean temp rises, I would think some hurricanes will start tracking further north. JUts ifnished watching an episode of beach homeS on HDTV. Bad timing, they showed someone buying on on the beach in N Carolina. They should do some follow up on those shows, call it something like "Don't you feel stupid now"

[qtla9111]

People, get real. There are still thousands of misplaced U.S. citizens from disasters along the Gulf coast including families from Katrina. Take a look at New Orleans, it basically a ghost town. FEMA never came through for them, the promises were left unkept, and their insurance companies took them for a ride either up front on the policy or after the disaster.

I won't go on with the statistics and the stories you can look them up yourselves.

Never rely on the government for anything. The best lesson I have learned from my years living here is to be responsible for myself.

Funny someone mentioned the earthquake in Mexico City. The government owes no one a new house for a disaster caused by Mother Nature. Just like those living on coastal waters, to think someone owes you something for a decision you have made is way off course.

What Mexico should do is discourage people from moving to the Big Tamal as one day, who knows when, the really big one is coming.

Move away from coastal waters, it's not going to get better whether it was caused by man, nature or a combination of the two.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I'd like to think most folks that live or RV Mexico are "preppers". So they can offer newbies advice. A majority of newbies I talk to are eager to learn. And the seven-year-cull still seems to be valid. Either folks who spend seven years or seven seasons learn to adapt with a smile or the giant YARD SALE! ads go up in gringo newsletters. The family and I have gained washing machines to just about every other gizmo preying upon clearance moving back north sales. Brenda scored hundreds of dollars in exotic perfumes that were just given to her.

Prepping means keeping fuel and water topped off. Even though a northerner may dislike them beans and rice and pasta keeps for a long time. Brenda laughs until tears fall down her cheeks when I blow a wad of my monthly pension on an extravagant refrigerator, or new tires. "Well, it looks like this month it's going to be "Tortillas Salt And Musica". Dismissing the wisdom of Mexicanos is perhaps the biggest error a newbie can make. Sure, like with any culture there are blowhards, but the Mexicans dismiss them with a laugh. During one storm and aftermath neighbor Andrea marveled at the bounty of generator powered refrigeration. "This makes it seem like it never happened" she remarked.

All in all, a well disciplined RV'er can withstand a storm or other natural disaster with absolute minimum impact. They may be stuck for a week, but having lights and water plus snacks and other comforts is almost magic.

Navegator gives an excellent perception of things as a resident Mexicano would have to endure them. Lean over and give your RV a kiss 🙂

[navegator]

Mexico has had a lot of hurricanes make land and the population knows that the government response can be no where to be seen, there are folks that lost thire dweling in Mexico City from the last earthquakes and are still living in tents on public parks, so when a hurricane hits well you need to read the weather signs, the hurricane hunters do help by tracking the depressions and today the government does open shelters and gives advisories, and I have been in a hurricane in Isla de Mujeres in the late 70's and travelled in Southern Veracruz and Campeche a day after a hurricane, been in a lot of real big quakes, in Mexico City when the angel in Paseo de la Reforma was on the ground in bits and pieces, the Northridge in Los Angeles, the last two in México, in México you better be ready to go it alone you can not count on anyone from the government at all, in the last quakes the ones that helped more believe it or not were the narcos, they offered more help with food and shelter to the population than the politicos.

navegator

[MEXICOWANDERER]

In 1988 after being thrashed by hurricane Gilberto in Yucatan, the marinas showed up in the morning with a DUKW like amphibious vehicle and asked both rigs if there were any "herridos" (injured) then tossed a 2 Kg sack of generic black beans to both of us. There was still more than a foot deep of water, and at dawn with a pair of binoculars I saw from 20' distance a 2 to 3 foot Fer de Lance swimming. Their coloration looks like a rattlesnake minus the rattles. This occurred in the outskirts of Escarcega. We rode to town in the other fellow's older Jeep and across from the gasolinera a woman snagged the four of and marched us into her restaurant. She was desperate to use up all the perishables and we had a fine breakfast of quail, scrambled eggs, venison, and rice. While we were eating she pointed to her eye then left to snag more customers. This still brings a smile to my face.

I had been parked near Xcalak, and when I had awoken to a blood red sky I visited my mile distant neighbor with a satellite dish and the Weather Channel tropical update made waking up with morning coffee totally unnecessary.

Today in tourist boondock areas a policia municipal is very likely to circulate tapping a buzzer noise on his siren to get people to listen up.

At least one gasolinera in a large town will have a diesel generator but long long lines and a threat of water contamination makes fueling up risky after a major storm.

Before a storm tap your credit card for a wad of extra cash. I've seen it where the internet was agonizingly slow and ATMs swear up and down you are bankrupt.

Keep your wits about you during hurricane season and in low lying areas have a route picked out where you can climb at least 80 feet above high tide, or like from Tenacatita to Barra de Navidad you can get a few miles inland. Mex 80 seems to close with the first rockfall and it's a stretch to make the city of Colima.

We have had the fringe of a category III hurricane hit us here. One or two Class II, and I and innumerable tropical storms. Barn burner hurricane eyes suck down seventy degree air from the stratosphere but after the storm passes the hot sun turns the air sauna-like. Remember that four or five showers a day will flush off body oil that acts sorta like insulation. This is when coconut water is a lot tastier than just about anything else.

I hope this continues to be a mild season, fingers crossed for the kids.

[Talleyho69]

Ah, but it's Mexico! Why would you expect to not have to make a decision on your own?

Worse yet, expect someone else to make the decision for you and then take care of you???

[navegator]

There are some folks in evacuation areas that either do not have the means to evacuate or they go into a state of mental disconect from fear and do not react or do not understand the danger, unfortunatly as rocmoc states pople are waiting for someone "with autority" be it via a cmmunications device or Law Enforcement to tell them what to do and were to go, it seems that the more gadgets they use the less they use the brains and I will leave it at that!

navegator

[Talleyho69]

I agree that so many people don't understand natural disasters, Mother Nature being upset, climate change, whatever.

In February, in the middle of the dry season here, little fires started. It's natural, it's nature. One of the condo complexes, Casa que ve al Mar, which is largely weekly rentals, had a very small, very slow moving, natural burn happening within sight of them. Friends told us that the majority of the visitors decided that until they were "evacuated" they had nothing to worry about.

Sorry, but what happened to taking care of yourself and making your own decisions, like when you were a kid? It's interesting.

Who is going to "evacuate" them, and to where?