ved home this afternoon thinking I would have to paint something, instead it was all done, tools put away and furniture out. It has turned out really well and despite being the longest running show since Bonanza, it is still great. I tried out the deck chair to catch the last few rays. Almost as good as settling into the wicker chair / footstool with my library book in the sunshine with complete silence and two cats napping near my feet. Ambrosia. Reminded me of the quote I read (before I nodded off) in the book "the only symptom of empty nest syndrome is increased smiling" . One of my colleagues at work corrected the question when someone asked me if I would be suffering empty nest syndrome - "suffering is not the word you're looking for" she said, "you mean enjoying".I did a short search about Hurricane Dean as when I read the paper today there was a small article about Costa Maya and Mahajual where we visited in April. Here are a couple of the stories and some more links. The most amazing thing is that the one mile cruise ship pier has been reduced to rubble. Good thing we visited when we did.
From the AP wire serviceMust run and hit the hay so I'm ready for my LAST DAY before vacation. Yeehaw.
Dean became the third most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in
recorded history when it plowed into the Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday as a
ferocious Category 5 storm. It toppled trees, power lines and houses — but
spared glitzy resorts on the Mayan Riviera...
"It wasn’t minutes of terror. It was hours," said Catharine Morales, 30, a
native of Montreal who has lived in Majahual for a year. "The walls felt like
they were going to explode."
Morales weathered the storm in her new brick-walled house with her husband and
seven-month-old daughter, Luna. Dean blew out the windows and pulled pieces
from their roof.
But they fared better than most: Hundreds of homes in the Caribbean town of
Majahual collapsed as Dean crumpled steel girders, splintered wooden structures
and washed away about half of the immense concrete dock that transformed the
sleepy fishing village into Mexico’s second-busiest cruise ship destination.
The storm surge covered almost the entire town in waist-deep sea water, said
fishermen Jorge Gonzalez, 29. He found refuge in the back room of a beachfront
store whose steel security curtains were blown out, and had to help his dog
Camilo keep his head above the rising tide.
"There came a moment when I thought this was the end," Gonzalez said.
Hurricane knocks out Costa Maya for at least six months
News is starting to trickle out of Costa Maya, the fast-growing Mexican cruise
port walloped Tuesday by Hurricane Dean, and it's not good. After surveying the
damage, officials say the port could be out of action for at least six months,
maybe more.
Cesar Lizarraga, the area's director of sales and marketing, says in a
statement that about half of the port's infrastructure, including the cruise
ship pier, was damaged. Lizarraga didn't elaborate on the nature of the damage,
but says that "an early estimate indicates the port will remain closed for six
to eight months" for repairs. The cost, he added, will be in the millions.
Lizarraga says Costa Maya officials are currrently meeting with cruise lines
that use the port to discuss the future. But it could be some time before ships
return. In a hint of just how bad the damage is, Lizarraga mentioned "mid-2008"
as a timetable for when ships might be back to the sunny locale.
Carved out of the jungle along the Yucatan coast just six years ago, Costa Maya
has grown from nothing to become of the most visited ports in the Western
Caribbean. The man-made beach area offers bars, restaurants, shops and
entertainment, as well as excursions to nearby Mayan ruins.
http://www.blogsofwar.com/2007/08/23/damage-photos-costa-maya-mahahual-wiped-out-by-hurricane-dean/
http://blogs.usatoday.com/cruiselog/2007/08/hurricane-knock.html
http://www.cruise-addicts.com/index.php?news=1242
http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=2162
