Sunday, October 23, 2022
Hurricane Roslyn came through here last night, the edge of it swiping PV and the coast of Nayarit; my first hurricane. I woke up around 3:30 a.m. to a loud bang (thunder?), and wind blowing in through my window. After closing a window in the living room and wiping up the floor where rain was pouring in, Rob and I bumped into each other – he had woken up too. We looked at his phone for a live radar view of the storm. We were right in the middle of it, the red blobs bobbing about right over and near the blue dot that was “us”, i.e., San Pancho. Amazingly, the electricity was still working, but it would not be for long. Outside in our dirt road, there was a huge puddle, and the rain kept falling. I went back to bed and tried to sleep, but could “see” each lightning strike over my eyes and then couldn’t help waiting for the thunder bangs and rolls that inevitably followed. Sleep was not to be for me, a life-long insomniac.
At 7:30 a.m. we were in the green zone on the radar, and it was just raining; no more lighting. The house was pitch dark – the lights out, but it would be light outside
in a half hour. I slowly found my way into the pitch-black bathroom. Here in Mexico you’re not supposed to flush toilet paper since the pipes can’t handle it, so I fumbled to find the little swinging top on our trash can – hope I got it in the right place!
Soon after we went to get my car, which we had parked at higher ground since our street is at sea level, worrying about flooding. But it wasn’t bad out – huge puddles and a couple inches of rain in parts of the street; that’s all. Then we walked to the beach to see what things were like there. Huge piles of branches and debris lined the shore as far as you could see, but all buildings were intact except a couple makeshift shacks on the beach that had been wrecked; the pieces covered in junk and palm fronds. The waves were huge and dark with sand, amazing to see; no surfers today! A couple of them showed up, watched the waves for a while and left. The usual section of sand seperating the ocean from the lagoon was completely gone, and dark, sand-filled ocean waves were 
pouring into the lagoon. I worried a bit about the herons trying to fish – what do fish do when there’s a hurricane? On the way back I stopped to help one of the restaurants pick up the debris where the tables usually were.
Apparently this is one of the biggest hurricanes they’ve had in years – they do have others that don’t quite reach here or are smaller. As I write this it’s just after noon and the sun is back out, the electricity is working and we have Internet… so this one’s over. Hmmm… will there be more?
