El Faro

Chili and I have been hiking up to El Faro light house a couple of times a week lately. Overall, it's a great hike, all 505 feet of it. It starts out as a rough trail then halfway up it is concrete stairs. The downside is right at the head of the trail is a waste water treatment plant, but within 5 minutes of the onset of the hike, you are on the other side of the hill from it. You get some great views throughout the entire hike! El Faro is the second naturally highest lighthouse in the world and the highest WORKING lighthouse (Gibraltor is the highest, but it's now a bed and breakfast) It was completed in 1879. The lamp had been handcrafted in Paris, France, and it was a big oil lamp with mirrors to enhance the light. Supposedly, since the light was static, in the distance it was often mistaken as a star. By 1905 this lamp was converted to a revolving lamp which is still in use today.

Pescadores

Fishing with our good friends, Bobby and Melinda McKissack of New Braunfels! We went after marlin, but we only caught mahi-mahi. (Not like that's a bad thing, that's our favorite fish!) It was a beautiful day, and we saw a pod of dolphins that numbered in the hundreds. They put on quite a show for us!

Dia de los Muertos

We had a rather cool look at some local culture last night. Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is celebrated here October 31 through November 2. The deal is, the spirits of the dead come back to earth once a year to spend time with their family. Normally, November 1 is set aside for remembrance of deceased infants and children, often referred to as angelitos (little angels), and those who have died as adults are honored November 2. Altars are placed with pictures of the deceased and also the four elements of nature are involved; earth, wind, water, and fire. Earth is represented by food, usually something the deceased liked, wind by a moving object, like tissue paper, water by a liquid, which can be water itself, although we also saw wine, beer, and tequila. The last is fire shown with candles. Each lit candle is for an individual soul, with an extra one for a forgotten soul. It sounds a bit morbid, but it is the exact opposite, it is very celebratory. Family members also gather at the cemetery for gravesite reunions. They also take this time to clean up around the gravesites, polish the headstones, etc. Last night we went to Plaza Machado for the holiday. Families had set up altars around the Plaza and after sunset there was a small parade. The parade consisted of someone dressed as La Muerte--Death, a couple of small brass bands, dancers, and two donkeys pulling carts with free Pacifico beer that was being handed out to the couple of hundred people that follow the parade. The parade route winded around the El Centro area and ended back at the Plaza, passing many altars familes had set up. There were fireworks being set off the entire time. It was quite an experience!

Storm debris

Mexico-in-English: Veracruz

I thought I would add this link, she has listed on her site several blogs about Mexico written in english. There is some really interesting reading!

Mexico-in-English: Veracruz

Live beach cam in Mazatlan

http://www.innatmazatlan.com.mx/campage.html

This is a really cool cam, you can control it from your own computer!

Viva Mazatlan!!

Overall, Mazatlan weathered Lane very well. The reports that I am hearing, thus far, say the eye passed about 10 miles north of the city. The infrastructure held up great, utilities were good. We even saw buses running at the height of the storm. Personally, we never lost electricity. We have heard from all parts of the city, some lost power, some had flickers, some never lost. There is water damage in places, wind damage, etc, but in other parts, almost nothing. There are exceptions, for example, the little town of Barron was completely overtaken by the Presidio River. There is certainly alot to cleanup and we will be busy over the next few days!

The road to Barron

Chili surveying the hurricane damage.

Presidio River - Villa Union

Here are a couple of views of the Presidio River at Villa Union. They were taken about 2 pm today. I really have no idea when the river crests, or if it already has.

Estrella del Mar- Post Lane

Estrella was not bad off at all, considering. Lots of new water hazards! I could not get a clear picture, but where the Presidio River was entering the ocean was an amazing sight! The high and fast waters of the Presdio hitting the after hurricane ocean made for some massive crashes!

More from Lane

Oooooohhhh...........THAT Lane.

Here are a few pictures from the aftermath of Lane that we have seen, thus far. We were lucky, just a little leakage in the casa, not much. We are hearing of some rather bad flooding on other parts of the city, though. We wish everyone the best of luck for tonight!

Lane??.....Lane who??

Lane really changed his mind. He was planning on being a low category 2 at the most and was making a visit to the Baja. Nope, 36 hours after that prediction, he is here in Mazatlan........as a high category 3. It is about 10:30 local time and the eye is supposed to make landfall around 12 noon. It is now projected to land somewhere between us and a place 50 miles north of here. We'll see what happens! So far, we have had high winds and LOTS of rain. We drove around about an hour ago. Large number of trees down, signs,debris, etc. Camaron Sabalo was flooded, but not too terribly bad yet. I took a few pictures of the ocean from the Malecon in front of Valentino's. The photos do not really do the waves justice, they are impressive! It was pouring rain and the visibility was low, so the pictures are not very good. After the storm passes, if possible, I'll mosey around and get some more.

Mazatlan Cathedral Pictures

Hurricane John

John came and went with minimal effects here. It started with heavy winds and a torrential downpour about 9:30 pm Thursday (Aug. 31). That lasted about an hour and the streets and canals flooded extremely quickly. We were at the Purple Onion when it started and 15 minutes into it, decided to head home. Good thing we did, because even then, we ran into water above the wheel wells of the truck in several places. After a couple of minor detours, the USS Ford got us home. Luckily, that seems to have been the worst of it. We are still having bands of rain, albeit nothing major, even through this morning. Suprisingly enough though, we never lost electricity. In my limited experience thus far in Mazatlan I had come up with this calculation ; 30 minutes of thunderstorm activity is equal to 4 hours of power outage. Not so this time around!

I went out yesterday and took some pictures from the Malecon of the waves. They were not large, but very rough!

Mazatlan Pics