Did someone say "earthquake" ?

Well! It’s not every day you can say you survived one of the largest type earthquakes but today was that kind of day. Actually, Alex and I were on the bus and blissfully unaware of any quake activity even after we arrived in Palmares. We only felt some rough terrain but that is not unusual at all. Once we got off the bus, Alex was wondering why there were no taxis parked ANYWHERE. We did manage to hail one of the few we saw and started on our way to the Hogarcita. The taxi driver was listening to the radio and Alex knows enough Spanish to understand something about an earthquake and a tsunami. We are several hours from any water so we were not concerned. Once at the Hogarcita, we both noticed how agitated the Tias seemed. They could not get the gate unlocked. They were upset. Finally one of them explained that the Hogarcita had been shaking and rolling but nothing seemed broken. It is amazing how good our acting skills can be when we have no words…. We went inside through the driveway gate.
Los ninos were all outside and seemed to be happy enough. These are tough kids anyway so what is one more quake in their lives? Today all the children were home except for Escobar. He attends a separate school. I brought out the new crayons and coloring pages and coloring books I brought. The power was off but we were outside under the shelter so it did not matter. Two of the children were leaving today once their Italian adoptive parents arrived. They waited inside. All of a sudden Escobar came running into the yard, crying and obviously upset. We were able to figure out that something very scary had happened at his school. We are still not sure what it was, only that this little 6 or 7 year old guy wanted his papa and we were the only substitute for him. Remember that these are foster children and they have no parental contact. The other children immediately tried to comfort him. Alex held him. Finally he was calm enough to begin coloring. He moved between us, never getting very far away. He talked about it some more….we did not understand him. He talked, we soothed and held him. That is our memory of the great quake.

Later the power came back on but that made lunch late. The Tias had some trouble getting us a taxi to go back to the bus . The bus was a little late but not much. Many people had just stayed home when the quake occurred. We wondered how it was in Atenas and would we be able to get back. To our surprise, things were almost normal. The bus had to make one detour around some rock slides and some power crews were already setting new poles and line. We made it back about 1:45 instead on 1:00 PM.

Since we did not have time to eat lunch in Palmares, we walked to the local ex-pat café, Kay’s Gringos Postares. Both of us were, hot, tired and hungry. Kay is an American and serves American style food. No BLT ever tasted better. And she also sells cookie etc. We had magic cookie bars. What a nice treat after such an unusual day. The Gringos there were talking about how their homes swayed but no one reported any damage. Kay told us she thought her restaurant would crumble but all seemed fine. In a weird way, Alex and I almost felt cheated out of the experience. Both if us had felt small quakes but nothing near 7.6. One lady said she was from California and had been in the Northridge quake which was so much more devastating than this was here. We did not see any damage anywhere.

After the wonderful lunch (cost about $4.50), I walked home. Just in front of my casa, a small hole had opened up in the street and a small amount of water was pouring out. That was it and I am not even sure if that was from the quake or from some nearby construction.

I have to say that temperature wise it is actually cooler here than in Hernando County BUT the humidity is about 1000% and I am certain I am sweating off a few pounds. That's great but I am also having trouble getting cooled down today. I barely had time to email my family and assure them that I am alive and well. I made one quick post to Facebook as well. Funny thing, Alex had over 30 emails asking about her safety and I only had two..... OUCH! I haven't even heard from one of my sons. Thanks to those on Facebok who did inquire. It was nice to get to Su Espacio for my Spanish class and learn that my daughter had gotten in touch with them and asked about me.

Now about those classes... I barely have time to get home from Palmares before I need to be in class. Only Karina and I are in the class. We are both of the opinion that it is not very helpful and prevents us from having time to explore the town or meet people or spend time with our host families. Alex confirmed this as her experience so I plan to stop going after tomorrow. I can learn as much by playing the Spanish for Gringos CDs or actually taling to people I meet. And the children are happy to explain a Spanish word to me. Right now I have no time for anything but riding the bus and walking everywhere. Some of you know how much knee pain I was having before I left and it is not much better right now. I am 62, I am out of shape and overweight....all lessons not lost on me now. C'est la vie.....

Here are some photos I took from the bus today....enjoy!

All in all, it has been a pretty good day. Today's cold shower felt heavenly. I am sleepy and needing to rest. Tomorrow? Who know? Let the adventure continue....