We didn't think much of it at the moment, as we were about to head for dinner. And as we strolled back from dinner we chatted with the other couples that we should check the forecast, noting that the hotel staff was busy taking in all the pool chairs. And umbrellas. And everything else that was physically moveable. Hmm. As soon as we got the kids to bed and popped the laptop open we quickly got scared. Very quickly. We saw words like "potentially catastrophic" and "on track to be a category 5". We came up to speed on all things hurricane and waited anxiously through the night for the NOAA reports and projections. We packed and planned and, frankly, panicked. Nicole didn't sleep, I managed to convince myself that I needed rest for whatever came the next day and managed three hours or so. We were about as scared as you can get without completely losing it.
I'll speed up, otherwise this will be the longest blog post ever. In the AM we huddled with friends. We tried to get a taxi driver to take us all to Guadalajara. Couldn't make it happen. We heard all the highways were shutting down at 1PM. We kept watching the NOAA updates. Hurricane Patricia, category 5. Off the scale. Winds >200 mph. Lowest air pressure ever recorded. Potential for massive storm surge. Catastrophic flooding. We were just about out of options, we were hunkering down at our hotel. Our friends did manage a supply run to Walmart to grab as much food and water as we could. One thing that I hope sticks with me is the hotel staff. It seemed like they were all there, no grim faces, just going way, way above and beyond. I felt really guilty about that, why weren't they taking care of business with their families? We heard that some of their families joined us in the hotel ballroom that day, but I didn't see any evidence of that.
We made a last ditch taxi ride a couple of kilometers inland to check out another evacuation spot, but the director there recommended we stay at the hotel as in his opinion it was safer and better equipped. So we hunkered with about 700 new friends in the ballroom. There was three days of food and drink stocked, but people were not exactly conserving food when meals were served. Our amazing families had been busy all day making calls, arranging rental cars, alternate flights, notifying the State Department of exactly where we were. We continued devouring and dissecting every NOAA update. The projections were getting a bit better for us, moving from around 60% chance of hurricane strength winds to about 50% to about 40%. As the eye got closer to land it became clear that the forecasted path would hold and the eye would pass to our East. Our biggest potential threat to life, storm surge, seemed unlikely to put water in our ballroom haven. That is probably the mental fear image which will stick with me - picturing water coming into the ballroom. The afternoon wore on, our worst fears subsided, we started breathing a bit easier. By mid-evening the big danger had passed and we were released back to our rooms. We heard lots of rain through the night. But when we woke up Saturday morning we were unbelievably relieved to find that there was no damage, no flooding. Puerto Vallarta was completely spared. The airport was up and running. We caught our normal scheduled flight home. 48 hours after the nightmare began we were at home in our beds. In the end we were incredibly lucky. I read a few news reports afterward that talked about how the storm turned out to be all bark and no bite. If the eye had hit a population center or resort area the news would have been very different. Thank God.
Ok. Back to those first six days. Amazing. In the shuttle service from home to the airport we reflected that this was our first trip with no stroller and no car seats. And it did feel like the trip was a turning point. The kids played in the pool for hours without fighting or being bored, they (mostly) loved playing on the beach and Lily even hopped on a boogie board for a few little waves. She got to snorkel, go zip lining and ride a donkey on a day trip to Las Caletas while the twins rode on a stand up paddle board with Nicole and me. Paul had a monkey on his head. Nicole and I got to boogie board in nice size waves. Lots of frozen margaritas and daiquiris and kiddie cocktails to keep cool in the constant 90+ damp heat. Paul got quite a tan. Elise and I got a bit burnt. We had a great time. We'd do it again. Next time we'll just keep a close eye on tropical storm activity and have a backup plan ready to put into action.
Most of October was great weather for biking the kids to and from school.
Lily having the time of her life zip-lining with her friends.
