Hey Everyone 🙂

So this last couple of weeks have been pretty big for me as life improves, things begin to fall into place & there’s been an addition to the clan, but more on those later….

Lets start with the shocking events of Saturday nights earthquake.

I’d been invited to dinner at some friends, we were having smoked BBQ ribs & to say I was looking forward to that is something of an understatement, which probably lead to the bizarre twist of me being ready very early. I had time to kill then, so kicked back outside, lounging with my book & enjoying the early evening breeze. It was fast approaching 7pm & just about completely dark when I felt someone wiggle my chair from behind, which was odd because my lounger is set within palm pots & not accessible from the rear. A quick turn around confirmed the absence of any schoolboys having fun at my expense. I turned back & as I scanned the page for my place, “they” started to jiggle my chair again, only this time they were being far from subtle about it. I swung round quickly, determined to catch them in the act & saw my landlords two workmen standing 10m away & pointing at me & my chair. I was confused, my eyes were contradicting every message my mind sent, I had to get to the bottom of this, so feeling like Regan, I hauled myself out of the chair, which was now moving so much I expected Max Von Sydow to show up to exorcise its demon. I managed to get out of the chair, but immediately fell over. The ground had become a fluid membrane & everything was moving beneath it. The vibration intensified, things were falling over everywhere, people were screaming, 100’s of car alarms joined the cacophony, the power sputtered for a few seconds & then went out, completely.

The noise seemed to stop, or at least became distant, like the way one hears the sea in a shell on the beach. Its there, its loud, but it sounds so far away. The dark seemed to suck all the noise into its vacuum with only a few desperate voices calling out to each other across the void. One of those voices was in English, or at least it sounded like my name, which was quite surreal & unexpected. The light from my Kindle enabled me to find my neighbour who was calling me from the road outside & we were quickly joined by my landlord & his wife with a torch, relieved we had all got out. We stood there, huddled really & stared up at the buildings, knowing they were still moving because the dead lights were swinging erratically as we desperately scanned the skyline watching out for falling debris.

It had been nearly 90 seconds since it all started when it suddenly stopped.

The noise came back, people rushing around unsure what to do, not knowing if it was really over, or if this was only the beginning. My landlords wife, Anissa, was panicked. Her husband Pierre had spent a lot of time in Chile, so was quite used to regular tremors & set about getting us settled in their garden whilst Anissa fetched a bottle of Tequilla to toast our survival – She is Serbian, so I am at a loss to explain her choice of alcohol, but easily grasped the need to feel a life affirming burn as the liquid poured down our throats & warmth spread from the inside out. The power was still out, so no wifi & on checking our phones, no network coverage. It was now we raised the question of what next. If this had been the start, then the main shock could come at any time. Any weakening caused by the first could crumble in the wake of aftershocks. Did anyone know if these follow quickly, would there be many, what was going to happen next, was there anything we could do?? Idle hours spent watching Discovery channel had provided some basic info, though I had never before put them into context. I knew a “quake”, especially one as big as this one felt, would have a knock on effect. A tsunami was the most likely event to follow, but as we didn’t know where this one had started, we didn’t know if a wave would push away from us or be heading towards us as we pondered potential action. Ever ready Pierre found a battery radio & we heard over the emergency broadcast that the epi-centre was Colombia. This got updated quickly & it was soon confirmed it had started in Mantabi province, about 300 mile to the north. Much like counting the time between thunder & lightening, Tsunamis travel about 600mph, so we now had somewhere in the region of 20mins to get to high ground. The Tsunami potential alert had gone out over the radio, but the sirens hadn’t yet sounded. What should we do??!!

In a strange moment of calm & clarity I knew I did not have time to reach the safety of the mountain in-land. I didn’t know if there would be a wave, the only thought going around in my head was of the horror of the Boxing Day tragedy in Thailand. The panic, desperation & ultimate futility of trying to escape an unstoppable force did not seem like the best choice, but the only other choice didn’t offer much in the way of hope either. I enjoyed another Tequila, stiffened my upper lip & contemplated option 2.

Almost at once what seemed like dozens of cars sprang to life out in the street & it was clear people were starting to evacuate….& quickly! I had no vehicle, but thanks to countless Hollywood depictions, I knew the pointless danger associated with 100’s of panicked drivers all blocking the roads & decided it was on foot or not at all.

A few minutes later the phone network came back & switching on data I mailed my mother to say I was fine, not to worry & to not over react to any BBC news reports. I didn’t want that to be a final communication, if it came to it I would make a phone call, but for now, reassurance felt like the important thing. With connection to the outside world restored, we all set about confirming fact – it gave us something to busy ourselves with while we waited for what might be the inevitable. As the minutes ticked by it became clear we had been far more fortunate than many others. The death toll was rising, reports of wide scale collapse across the country, military & emergency teams were dispatched to the scenes of greatest destruction. Reports were coming in of looting, panicked people running amok, lashing out at attempts to contain them & all the while a wave loomed out there in the dark, rushing towards land, ready to obliterate anything in its path. We waited.

After about an hour, the second bottle of Tequila now history, someone came up from the beach claiming the sea had receded so far he could no longer see it. We went down to the beach, a morbid fascination to witness the birth of our own demise, but as we walked the 50m, holding hands in hopeful unity, solidarity in the face of inevitability & security in the comfort of a shared experience, the lights came back on.

The sea was eerily flat, but still there. A glossy black expanse that seemed no more threatening than the solid sand upon which we stood, staring out to the horizon, eyes squinting to picture a rising wall of water, but there was nothing.

The news came in shortly after that, the warnings had been down graded, a wave was still possible, though unlikely to exceed 0.3m, much lower than the road on which I now stood. Crisis over!

We stayed out, going around the town, meeting up with others, checking on friends & neighbours, all sharing in the relief that it appeared to be over, with everyone surviving unscathed. There were something like 400 aftershocks that night, though probably as a result of the Tequila, I slept soundly throughout even though some were as high as 5 or 6. They are still going on & whether its psychosomatic or not, every time I sit in my chair, I feel it tremble & rock ever so slightly.

The death toll continues to rise & every news report shows new scenes of devastation. Many places are without water & electricity, people sleeping on the streets by the side of the rubble that was once their home. Their possessions gone, their lives safe, but their life destroyed.

Ive watched news coverage of disasters before, detached from the impact by being on the other side of the world, but this was close, very close & whilst I still feel the goldfish bowl sensation, for the first time I’m inside looking out & it’s a very different view…….

Now on to better news!!

On Wednesday 6^th April at 12.14am, my little sister gave birth to a beautiful 8lb baby girl, so now Sian & Warren are the proud parents of Emily Geraghty, Charlie has a sister & I am now an uncle as well as a godfather – Congratulations to all of us! 🙂

This great news kind of overshadowed the previous days event – I got to move into my new house & it is wonderful! Its not so big, but then neither am I & it has all I need to live happily & comfortable for the time it takes me to build my own. Its only a short stroll to anything & just a few steps to the beach, which just about makes it perfect! It even has an office, in which I am now typing this update, but will be quickly transformed into a second bedroom over this coming weekend as I eagerly await the arrival of Jeff, my first visitor & as such, the inaugural guinea pig for anyone else planning on coming over – I may well ask him to contribute a few lines for the next blog…….

Last Wednesday, the 13^th, I got an email from my solicitor, he had been issued the documentation that registers me as an official land owner! Yahaaay! I asked him to email me a copy, but as there were 20 or so double sided pages, he wasn’t able to copy them – except in very large firms, no one here has secretaries or support staff, so they do all their own typing etc. I couldn’t quite believe there was only the one copy & that that wasn’t digital – where was the fault tolerance??!! So, after some back n forth, he would put them in the post to my new address. After lunch he sent another email, he’d decided to send it by courier as that was both faster, safer & as such would arrive that afternoon. Of course it never showed. The following day still nothing, so using the tracking number, I tried to locate it. Invalid reference was not the result I was hoping for, so a little panicky I set about trying to discover what had happened.

Turns out the number was valid, but the tracking process assumes you know more information, without which the return is invalid. The address was in fact only used in order to establish what area of the country I was in & the documents were sent to a courier depot 1hr1/2 away in Libertad – of course they were, why wouldn’t they be & what kind of idiot was I, expecting them to be delivered to my address. So, having got my fluent Spanish speaking landlord to call the depot the next morning, we confirmed it had arrived the afternoon before & was waiting for me to collect. Friday I set off, more than a little anxious as I was unsure of how the process would work, I had a reference number, but no other details on how one was supposed to retrieve a parcel. I arrived at the bus terminal & caught a cab to the depot, which was closed. I walked around to the other side & found a van pulled up to the kerb, mountains of boxes & packages stacked up on the pavement & a mass of people jostling at the doors to the truck. I fought my way through, gave my reference number to the guy pulling boxes off the truck & as he promptly put it in his pocket, I readied myself for a wait. After a while another truck appeared & a different guy started to load the piles of boxes into his truck. It seems that the pile on the left was headed to somewhere, with the left for somewhere else, but how they knew, I know not. If there was a system, it remains shrouded in mystery because as far as I could make out, a box came out of truck A, if none of the crowd claimed it, it went via the pavement onto truck B & no one seemed to be taking any notes of what was where. After a while the guy Id given my number to appeared & confirmed he’d checked the whole truck & my package wasn’t there, so I should come back tomorrow & try again. Oh no no no no sir! “My package was delivered yesterday & your colleague confirmed its presence inside”, says I. “hmmn, ok, I will go & look”, says he. “Nope, its not here, come back tomorrow”. I believe my face translated what my mind was thinking, which went something along the lines of…I am not leaving here without my package, it IS here, your mate confirmed it & if you wont go & look for it, I will do so myself & I will be neither gentle nor considerate about it. I actually said something along the lines of please look one more time & luckily with the insistent encouragement of my expression, he managed to find the package.

Finally, success, I own land & I can prove it!!

Later that night I was invited back to the local community dinner held at the coffee shop/yoga dojo/vegetarian restaurant, which as a special treat for me, was cooking chicken – my heart swelled, a tear squeezed from my eye & my mouth began to salivate. It was lemony, it was juicy & it was delicious! One of the other guests had even made a cheesecake, which turned a lovely meal into a wonderful feast 🙂

These community dinners are a broad ranging affair, we had attendees from Israel, Croatia, Iran, California, Utah, Colorado, Canada, Austria, Ecuador & UK, so its also very lively with engaging & diverse conversation. Some were leaving the next week, others like myself had things to celebrate, so we all headed down to Montanita afterwards to carry on the party. It was unusually quiet in town, so we made for our favourite bar, Holaola, which literally means “hello wave”, but is widely used to cover everything from spiritual awakening, to general greetings between like-minded souls. It was pretty quiet in there too, but as we were in a group & we knew all the staff there, it was easy to have a good time. The dj even played the occasional good track in between the standard reggaeton & euro-trance. 😉 After a little while, a red carpet gets laid across the middle of the floor & whispers begin that there will be a pageant. Now Ive not been to many pageants, so Im not really sure how they are supposed to go, but I felt sure something interesting was about to happen. All I did know was that around 30 girls had headed behind the privacy of a hastily slung curtain/sheet/towel & the excitement was building.

The music stopped, the lights flashed, the curtain twitched then dropped & the pageant was under way. In procession, all 30 girls sashayed for the length of the carpet, turned around with varying success, before heading back to the curtain. No one had announced anything, no one introduced anyone & none of the girls had numbers or any way to differentiate between them. Their clothing was likely from their own wardrobe & mostly consisted of a hot pants & t shirt combo. Their make up was on the thick side & many were clearly nervous as they waited in line for their turn. Stretching, practice twirls & eyes closed, mentally girding their loins for what may be their first public appearance. 30mins in & they were all back behind the curtain & the dj started once again. Maybe that was it?! We of course were left a lil dumbfounded as to what had just happened, entertaining as it was, we really weren’t sure what we’d just seen, so conversation turned to what next. I won the guessing game as the curtain once again opened to reveal all 30, this time in swim wear 😀 They did the same walk & 30 mins later they were all back behind the curtain. 10 mins after that they all walked out the front door & onto a waiting coach. Ok, there is no front door, the place has no walls, but the point is they just left, no thank you’s, no presentations, no explanation, nothing. On reflection I think it could have been my first flash-mob, but Ill probably never know for sure. I love that odd stuff like that just happens & everyone carries on regardless!

So that’s about it for this edition, next time I will have tales of Jeffs visit – we are planning on a trip! Further news on cutting down my jungle to see what the land beneath it holds & hopefully no more excitement from Mother Earth pushing back. Till then, thank you for all your messages of concern for my safety, even Stevie who called me at 6am Sunday morning was appreciated – I know you care & I love you all the more for it!

Thanks also to all of you leaving message/comments on the blog 😀 I have to moderate them, so don’t be concerned if they don’t appear immediately…..say what you like, moderation doesnt include editing, though my opinion is final 😉

S x