Hello Everyone! I had one of the crazier experiences of my life recently. I was in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, when Hurricane Odile made landfall. It was the strongest hurricane ever recorded to hit Baja California, and the eye passed right over my hotel. With sustained winds at 125 MPH, it was classified as a category III hurricane. I have never seen nature exert power like that. It was phenomenal. You can read about my experiences, see some of my pictures and watch a few of the videos I took below if you want. I was very lucky to make it out when I did, the people that got stuck behind with no power and no water. Said it was starting to get like Lord of the Flies in certain places down there. Please pay attention to the end of the blog, you'll see a website with the most recent updates from the region. They said it was the worst electrical disaster to hit Mexico, ever. But apparently, water and power are back online now and the Cabo airport is up and running. Feel free to read my story, or just skim through the pictures. I put an link at the end with the most recent Cabo updates if you are interested in reading more about how they are recovering. I am very impressed that they've recovered so quickly.
Check out the crazy conditions in this first video that was taken just after the eye passed over...
It all started out as peaches and cream. I was lucky enough to have my girlfriend take me to Cabo for an amazing weekend at the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at in my life. It was incredible. The weather was perfect and the surf was awesome. We were seeing clean, aqua-blue waves with 20' faces rolling in. I went bodysurfing and ended up puking on the beach after being out there for 20 minutes (the previous night may have contributed to that a little bit). But it was gnarly, nonetheless. We heard that a hurricane was going to hit, but nobody was making a big deal about it. After all, Hurricane Norbert "hit" the week before and there was no damage at all. Nobody that I talked to had any idea what was in store for us.
On Sunday, we left the hotel to go to the airport. When we got to the airport, we found that EVERY flight that afternoon was cancelled except for Shannon's flight on Virgin. Thank goodness she made it out of there on that last flight. That allowed me relax for the rest of the adventure. I only had to worry about myself, which was nice. The airport was creepily deserted though. I went out to buy a beer and there was no one at the bar. Weird. I went to the hotel next to the airport and the lobby was full of people that were in the same predicament as me, trying to get rooms. There were no rooms. I took a 30 minute cab ride into town to find a hotel that could put me up for the night. I found a place for $40 US and considered myself very lucky to have a bed. Not as nice as Las Ventanas, but it would do. I went to the Oxxo (Mexican 7-11) and got a couple of beers to hunker down with for the night. When the wind started to pick up, I climbed up a ladder onto the roof of the hotel to shoot this video:
I thought it would be cool to send this video to some friends and family, but whilst I was trying to send it out via the hotel's wi-fi, the power cut out. Nobody ever got that video. This is the first time I'm showing it to anyone other than Shannon.
I went back to the roof later that night and nearly got blown off by the strong gusts. The wind and rain were getting intense at that point and I figured it was time to get off. I got back to the room and was happy to be alive. I took this picture at around 10pm.
Things started to calm down shortly after that. I thought that the hurricane was dying down, but it was actually just the eye of the hurricane passing over...
Using my false sense of security as a cozy blanket, I tried to get some sleep. I had a feeling it was going to be a long day and knew I should get a little rest.
Later that night, I woke up to crazy loud noises from outside. I heard banging, screeching and tearing noises coming from my back window. I was totally disoriented. I had no idea where I was at first. It was pitch black in my room. No power. I went outside and saw things flying across the street. Metal signs were sparking as they skipped across the street. It was gnarly. I knew I had to get some video and I was stoked that I could finally put my new waterproof phone to good use. Here's a video of me walking outside my hotel room into the street just after the eye of the hurricane had finished passing over my hotel:
My room was flooded, but luckily I had passed out with my bags still on my bed, so they stayed dry. I slept with the bags by my side and set my alarm for 8am so that I could get to the airport to catch the next flight out. I had no idea how bad things were going to be...
When I woke up, I went outside to see people looting the Oxxo next to my hotel. I din't like seeing people looting and gave some of them the stink eye as they were coming out of the store. I didn't dare say anything confrontational however, and only took one photo. I felt like this situation could get very bad very fast.
This was the store outside my hotel, and the first looting I had ever seen in person
I was initially put off by the looting. The free-for-all mentality bothered me, but I later realized that these people were going to be without power and water for a long time. I don't fault anyone for getting supplies for their families. But some people were definitely taking advantage. Some guys were loading wheelbarrows and shopping carts full of beer. It was a very strange atmosphere. Almost everything that was being looted that morning was junk food and beer. Most of the people were just standing there watching the looting, and only a small percentage of people were actually going into the stores and grabbing stuff. But everyone seemed in pretty good spirits at this point. This was definitely the "happy phase" of the hurricane and looting. People were happy to be alive and supplies were still abundant.
I saw that sign blow over the night before. Very loud when it hit the asphalt, throwing up sparks on impact.
At first I thought I would just grab a cab to the airport. Well, that was impossible. There were NO cabs. Only trucks could drive anywhere, and even THEY were getting stuck.
I started out on my long journey to the airport. It turned into a 3 hour trek through several pop-up rivers, sections of mud, downed power lines and generalized destruction. These pictures are from my walk to the airport that morning. Even though there was much destruction in town, I still figured the airport would be OK. I mean, it's an airport, right? They should be used to this kind of stuff here.
Power lines were down everywhere
Some businesses had completely collapsed
At times it was difficult to even walk down the street. Driving was near impossible.
This was an impromptu river that was completely blocking the road
This is a guy who got stuck trying to cross the impromptu river in his SUV. His friend was trying to hook up a chain to his car while he was feverishly spinning his back wheels for some unknown reason.
Another business destroyed
No guarantees on getting gas
Stuck truck, businesses down
Look closely: another Oxxo being looted
Upside down tree
Finally made it to the airport: "oh shit"
Control tower looks great. Not.
This is the airport
So much for sturdy airport construction
Airport Oxxo was already cleaned out by noon on Monday
As you can see, things at the airport weren't looking so hot. But I still figured that my best bet to get back home was to stay near the airport. The roads were definitely a no-go, and getting gas was looking to be impossible. I went back to the airport hotel and it started to feel like we were in a refugee camp. The building had sustained quite a bit of damage. Multiple windows had been blown out and several rooms and floors were soaked. There was no running water and the electricity only came on when they ran the generator twice a day (once for lunch and once for dinner). It wasn't a comfortable place. If you wanted to use the toilet, you would have to take a trash can to the pool and fill it up with pool water to flush the toilet. That was much better than the alternative. Trust me.
All the people there were at least happy to be safe. Many had harrowing escape stories from their hotels. A bunch of people had to wade through chest deep water with their bags on their heads to escape from their hotel. They knew that things at the hotel were going to get bad fast, so they took a chance and got out of there. They were troopers. Here's a picture of that super cool group, I met them at airport hotel bar:
This is part of the sweet group I called my family at the airport hotel bar (notice: full bar!)
This was the bar an hour later... supplies were going fast
We had posted up in the airport hotel bar, but nobody had caught onto the fact that we had a fully stocked bar yet. Then it started, a few people started taking shots of liquor and more people started coming into the bar area. My "fam" and I were getting concerned that people were on the verge of getting a little too out of control in this fragile situation. Just in time, the 2 hotel employees came in and pulled all the booze that was left off of the shelves. That was a good move.
I have to take a moment to recognize those two airport hotel employees. They were amazing. They never stopped. It was chaos and they were constantly in high demand under impossible circumstances, yet they were totally keeping their cool and trying to help us as best as they could. I never saw them stop working the entire time I was there. Very impressive.
All of the sudden, we saw people carrying cases of water and beer over to the hotel. We thought that some supply truck had come or something. Nope. One of the hotel "guests" had found the storage door to the back room at the airport Oxxo and kicked it down. It was another free-for-all of beer, junk food, water and cigs. Perfect hurricane supplies.
Some people pulled up with trucks and cars to load up with loot
Bringing back "supplies"
People were relatively happy at the hotel at this point. We were all OK. Nobody was injured and we had plenty of junk food and beer. Life was good. I asked the hospital employees if anyone was sick or injured and they said no. I asked them to let me know if anyone came in with any injuries, and told them that I would be happy to help. An hour later, they told me about a 91-year-old female that was upstairs with a wound. I went up to find her in bed with a pressure ulcer on her left hip. She had been trying to sleep on the floor of the airport for the entire night before in the "emergency shelter" where about 50 people were holed up (without beds). I went to find the first aid kit for the hospital, and it was pathetic. Only a small roll of gauze and a tiny bottle of disinfectant. There was no tape. It's tough to make bandages without tape.
I decided to make a mission to the airport to get some supplies from all of the First Aid kits they must have there. NONE. I went to every terminal and talked to everyone I could find. Nobody knew of any first aid supplies. It was crazy. All the people at the airport were telling me that they had no idea what was going on. Nobody had any radios, no phones, essentially no communication at all. It was really weird. There was absolutely no activity at the airport. In the US, they would have been working non-stop to get that airport running again. But here in Cabo, the airport was like a ghost town. I finally found an ambulance driver and he said that he would bring some supplies to the hotel for me. I met him at the front of the hotel, and he gave me a roll of tape and some gauze. I was so happy to get that tape. It wasn't a lot, but at least I could make some bandages. I tended to the lady upstairs and then helped with a couple of other random wounds. Nothing too serious. We were lucky.
I met a couple of contractor guys who were in Cabo for a fishing trip. One of the guys was the only one who could figure out how to start the hotel generator. We were pretty happy to have him around. They told me about a vacant room that had been evacuated the night before after its windows had blown out. It had one bed that was still relatively dry and they told me that I should grab it before someone else did. Here's a pic of the room:
My secret room in the Best Western
This is what my secret room looked like BEFORE the hurricane (taken from BestWestern website)
Well, I set the room up and thought of it as Plan B. I still didn't have a Plan A, but I was holding out. It didn't feel right for me to take a bed when there were couples and families that would be sleeping in chairs. I searched the parking lot for unlocked cars that I could potentially crash in. I finally found a Best Western van that had the front windshield partially smashed in. It's door was unlocked and there was a broom inside that I was able to sweep all the glass off of the passenger seat. It was a perfect Plan C. I went back to the hotel and told my "fam" about the vacant room that was set up, and offered it over to them. The older couple declined, but one of the younger couples took me up on the offer and later said that they slept really well that night. That made me happy.
I got off to a rough start int he van. At first, the airport employees came knocking on the window and one of them started telling me I couldn't sleep there. Then the other guy recognized me as "el doctor" and then they said it was ok. I told them that they knew where to find me now in case there was an emergency, and they wished me well. I really like those guys. About 30 minutes later, a group of people started partying outside my van. They were drinking wine and liquor from the Oxxo and were talking so loud that I couldn't get to sleep. It was especially hard for me, because I just wanted to go out and party with them! But, I kept thinking to myself that I had to be responsible. I knew that a hangover would be a terrible way to start out the next day and I potentially had a lot of people counting on me. I rolled back and forth on the passenger seat of that van for about an hour, listening to their drunken conversations, wondering how much longer they could possibly stay awake. So ironic that i was the sober one...
Then it started to rain. Thank you Odile! They went back inside and I could finally put a concerted effort into going to sleep.
The rest of the night, I enjoyed a cramped, fitful, but dry sleep :)
The next morning, I woke up to the sound of a plane. I couldn't believe my ears given the state of things at the airport, but apparently they had just landed a military plane. People from the hotel were already lining up at the main airport gates. I crawled out of the van, said goodbye to the hotel employees, and headed to the airport...
Early crew lining up at around 8am
They made us stand in 2 lines at first: one for Mexico city and one for Tijuana. The group was split pretty evenly. About an hour later, they said that anyone flying on Alaska Airlines should get in a separate line and that line was going to Mazatlan and then Alaska was going to arrange a flight from there to LA. I was flying American, so I initially passed. Fast-forward another hour, and that was the only line that had moved. An Alaska Airlines guy came back out and said they were looking for one single person that wanted to go to Mazatlan. I looked around and everyone else was in couples or groups. I just decided to go for it. My crew was happy for me and gave me a round of applause as I was walking towards the gates. I was sad to say goodbye to them, but I figured almost anywhere else was better than that particular airport parking lot at that particular time. I walked right onto the tarmac and right onto the first plane to leave Cabo. I was so stoked. It was a Federale plane to boot, which made the trip that much sweeter. Here's a pic of our private plane:
Our private jet
Some not-so-lucky planes on the runway
We got to Mazatlan and sure enough, Alaska Airlines sent a plane to get us. We had to wait a few hours, but they totally took care of us (see below). It was amazing. I didn't have to pay anything to get out of Cabo. Later in the week, the US sent finally some military planes down to get US citizens out of there. The US government charged each person $570 to get out! Crazy. Next time I have the choice, I'm flying Alaska!!!
So happy to be in Mazatlan!!!
Alaska Airlines ROCKS
We arrived in LA around 10pm. I drove up to Ventura that night and got home just after midnight Wednesday. I was exhausted.
We arrived in LA around 10pm. I drove up to Ventura that night and got home just after midnight Wednesday. I was exhausted.
