So with the construction of the second floor of Casa Gracon ready to be completed in early November I thought it would be great to head off to Barra around Christmas. After all it seems silly to have a beautiful place in paradise and only use it a couple weeks of the year. Of course this thought striking me in September meant that our place was already booked through Christmas. No problem, undeterred I set about convincing Marla that we should go the week before Christmas break and invite some friends for a kid free pre-holiday holiday. Seriously, that just sounds good doesn't it!Long Story Short, with varying degrees of convincing My wife and I, along with three other couples booked our flights and began dreaming of sun, sand and lots of margaritas. Then came the text from my friend on the evening of October 22nd.
I must admit this raised my anxiety level a bit , however, after a bit of google searching, a glass of wine and an episode of Ray Donovan I went to bed secure in the knowledge that my "Ya, but what are the chances..." approach would once again serve me well. I mean have you seen the size of the Pacific Ocean and the miles and miles of coast line in Mexico.
Friday morning brought the renewed optimism that a good night sleep often does and I grabbed my iPad at breakfast secure in the knowledge that I would find out the storm had changed course and moved out to sea or had blown itself out. Nice bowl of Corn Pops, a cup of coffee and ....
Now I am not sure if you can make it out but where the red shading meets the coastline, in the lower right corner, it say Barra de Navidad. That is the village that our place is in and the red zone is referred to in the article that accompanied the picture as the "Destruction Zone". Ya, not the words you want to hear when it refers to the location of your investment property!
I am not going to recap the entire event as it is all over the internet but suffice it to say I did a lot of storm tracking that day. A interesting thing, however, I found myself a lot less concerned for our property and our investment than I was for the people, the town and the surrounding area. After all, this was not our home and we were safe and secure thousands of miles away. I found myself recounting conversations I had with locals during our last visit and how they seemed so happy that the tourists and development were returning to the area after Huricane Jova in 2011. My overriding emotion was sadness for these people who have put so much work into rebuilding and were beginning to see progress only to be hit again. I was afraid this may be a devastating blow for this village we love so much.
Over the next few days as we watched events unfold and witnessed the clean up and incredible spirit of the Mexican people we were truly thankful the damage was far less than was expected and it reminded us why we love the place so much. The people are amazing! They welcome you in, share what they have and pitch in when needed. The speed of the cleanup and how quickly people returned to their daily lives was truly amazing.
The following link has some video and pictures of the Hurricane and the immediate aftermath. There are some great shots of the storm and even better one's of shops cleaning up and open for the business the very next day.
Hurricane Patricia Hits Barra
As for our own situation, we were very lucky that our place was under construction and the workers took time to secure our property and board up windows. This despite the fact that their own houses were under threat. Construction, resumed a couple days after the storm and we feel truly fortunate to be able to go ahead with our holiday and spend a bit of the holiday season in this amazing place with very special people.
