September 19th Earthquake

I’ve never been in an earthquake before. So I didn’t know what to expect. September 19, 2022 everything changed.

Mexico has a rich history of earthquakes. The whole western side is sitting on a fault line, the San Andreas Fault actually. Even from our mountain home on Lake Chapala, we can feel tremors from earthquakes. Our threat isn’t very serious, usually limited to small cracks in some walls, very easy to mend.

On September 19th, 2022 my wife and I were traveling to Manzanillo, Colima with our friend Susan. We were heading there with another car, our friend Ana her family. This was to be our first Mexican beach trip since moving down here.

There was excitement in the air, days before we were to leave. Turns out Ana’s family had been going to this small beach town for many years. They once owned a duplex one block from the Pacific Ocean, two homes attached with a built-in pool in the backyard. Later they sold the houses but still came down to rent for a week. I don’t know why they chose to do that but I could definitely understand why they loved it there after walking over to the beach. Heck, the movie “Ten” with Bo Derek was filmed there in 1979.

This was to be our first long distance road trip. I must admit I was a bit nervous about the idea. Traveling in another country can always invite risk, any country.

Carrie and I loaded up the car and drove over to our friend, Susan’s house. She was ready with luggage at the door. I threw her bags in the back of the car and we were off. Susan and Carrie chatted with anticipation about the beach trip that lay before us.

Things started out a bit rocky (pun intended) when I got confused over the directions to the beach. Carrie, for years now, has always been the driver, I the navigator. So of course I would have my phone out with a map app providing the directions to our beach house.

“Carrie, you need to go straight.” Susan said urgently. Carrie already had the turn signal on based on my directions and the map app.

“Susan, my phone says we need to go this way. We have to decide now. We are coming to the intersection.” I said. I wanted so much to follow Susan. But I have a close relationship with Google Maps and I couldn’t stand down. We turned.

Susan became quiet in the back seat. I could feel her frustration. She had been to the beach before. Of course she is going to know how to get there. I scanned my phone, my directions. According to it, we were going the right way. Carrie, sensing a sudden lift in the tension, tried to make light conversation. We were on our way to the highway that would take us to the beach. Or were we?

When we had been driving east for fifteen minutes (the beach is west of us), I called out the next turn we were to take. This was the crucial turn that would save five minutes of time. However, the exit was closed.

“Oh no!” I gasped. My phone was recalculating…

Next exit was another 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) away. Boy oh boy, I really blew it this time. I made a few attempts at apologizing and causing such a delay on our travel day to the beach. The mistake cost us nearly an hour delay.

Sometime later on the trip, perhaps halfway, we were going around the massive Volcan de Colima. The mood had lighten and we were getting excited for the beach.

Then it happened.

All at once all three of our phones went off. Texts and WhatsApp messages were flying in, all three phones, all at once.

“What the heck?” Susan said.

We began reading the messages. Apparently there was a large earthquake in Mexico.

“Where?” I asked.

“You won’t believe this, but the epicenter is in Manzanillo and that’s right where we’re heading.”
“How bad is it?” Carrie asked.

“They’re saying a magnitude of 7.7. It struck at 1:05pm local time.” Susan said anxiously as she was scanning her phone apps for more information.

“What are we going to do?” Carrie wanted to know and so did we. We traveled a little further while checking more messages on our phones. We had friends and family who were very concerned, none of which were pleased to hear we were driving right towards it.

We ended up stopped in bumper to bumper traffic on a long extension bridge. I did not like our situation at all and as the driver, Carrie was really uneasy. The bridge was quite high over a tropical jungle. We turned around and headed for home.

We stopped for gas some time later and decided to reach out to Ana. She was driving the other car. When she answered, she simply said that her family is going to the beach and the earthquake is not stopping them. She hung up. We looked at each other, not sure what to do next. Finally, we agreed that we needed the beach trip and turned back around. Beach or bust!

A little while later we had returned to the bridge only to find out there were many more cars now waiting in line. No new internet queries were revealing much. A guy in the car behind us got out of his car and began walking forward. He was gone almost an hour before returning with news. Apparently some extremely large boulders had broken loose and fell onto the highway. No injuries reported but automobiles were dodging some pretty dangerous conditions.

Eventually we began moving. And some time later we passed by where the boulders had been removed. According to early calculations we would have been right here when they came down. Now, I didn’t feel like such a schmuck after all. Probably too early to suggest Hero status.

Soon we were on our way and making good speed. We put another call out to Ana and she too was making good progress. The highway turned into a roller coaster dropping dramatic altitude as we plunged from mountain height to beach level against an azure ocean and sunny sky.

Remarkably, we had added 1.5 hours to the drive and yet we got to the beach house only ten minutes after Ana and her family. Cars were unpacked as the beachcombers moved into their weeklong getaway. In long term tradition, Ana’s mother (age 85) approaches the pool when she arrives. She turns around and does a backflip into the pool. Music starts up and food and drink gather on the outdoor table. Susan, Carrie and I are on one side of the duplex and the Ana on the other side. I bring over my famous buffalo chicken dip with scoopable chips. They are a hit. We entertain until the sun goes down and everyone retires. On our side, we start up a rousing game of cards. Soon everyone tires and we move to our bedrooms.

It’s now 1am in the morning and our bed has suddenly moved a full foot to the right from a fantastic earthquake aftershock. I awake abruptly and realize that for the first time I have experienced it. It was very intense. I fall back asleep and Carrie stays up all night for fear that a Tsunami may arrive and we are after all only a block from the ocean. Despite her desperate and determined intentions to leave at a moment’s notice and save all of us, it never arrives and there are no more aftershocks.

The next day I’m talking to Ana. And she says, “Mike, you know that Mexico has an annual Earthquake Preparation Day. It helps us all better prepare for potential disaster.”

“Interesting.” I say.

“Guess what day we selected for the annual event?” She asks me.

“I don’t know, what day?”

“September 19th. And that’s because two or our largest earthquakes ever have landed on September 19th. Now we can count three.” She says gleaming.

“That’s amazing!” I’m surprised to learn this.

“And guess what else?” She doesn’t wait for my response. “We Mexicans are so good at earthquake preparation that we use actual earthquakes while going through our operations. How’s that for how cool it is to be Mexican?”

“I am completely speechless. I want to be Mexican.”

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