0600 the alarm goes off. We are staying at Saint Malo which is 50 minute drive to Mont Saint-Michel. High tide is at 0833 and the advice is to get there 2 hours before high tide so that you can see the tide rushing in. I am so fascinated by the 15 metre tidal range. They say the water comes in at 30km per hour, as fast as a racehorse. We are at the end of the spring tides so we want to go today to see it as high as we can. So we choose the morning tide as, being winter, the afternoon highs are in the dark. We intend to get there about an hour before high tide and see what we can see.
Just getting light, quite mystical
Navigating with Google Maps again, we find our way out of Saint Malo, and get to St Michel about 0730. Oh woops……. Its still dark – like really dark! We came to a barrier arm which needed a code or credit card to go through, its pitch dark and we don’t really know what to do. We reverse back out and find there are many many car parks. Only 2 other cars, not many other silly buggers here in the dark! We didn’t realise that the whole of the town/village was actually out on the “Mount” we really thought there was a village on the mainland before the access to the mount. But NO, there is a hotel and a restaurant and this car park – this HUGE car park, numbered 1 – 14. Google says it is still 3.5 km to our destination of the tourist office. We start walking and can see the majestic Mount lit up in the distance, but we are actually heading the wrong way, we are just heading to the far end of the furthest car park! We re assess and follow some lights to the road and make our way. We do get to the causeway and by now it is getting light, we make it onto the bridge right on high tide, so we don’t get to see the racehorse rushing in. We never would have though as we mis-calculated the darkness.
Yesterday the water was meeting in the middleHere comes the sun
She is a beautiful site! We have had rain this morning and it is overcast, hence so dark so late, but still……WOW!! The end of the causeway was closed yesterday so we really are seeing her at her highest. A construction worker shows us the way in up a ramp, as the entrance was blocked by water, this is so cool! Legend says that the archangel Michael appeared to Aubert of Avranches in 708 and instructed him to build a church here. 1300 years ago! Then she was seized by Vikings, then, in the 10th century, the Benedictine Monks settled here and expanded the church. The English tried to capture her during the 100 years war and the abbey was closed in the 17th century and used as a prison until 1863, she has seen so much! But now she can rest as she has been declared a Historic Monument, since 1874.
We stayed on the Mount for about 2 hours, wandered around all the streets, went up and down many stairs, took many many photos but I feel they do not do her justice! This is a spectacular place and we are so thankful we got here!
40 minutes after high tide1 1/2 hours after high tide
We may not have seen the tide racing in, but in the 2 hours we were there we saw the evidence of the tide receding, it is quite a site to see
I have just finished a book called “All The Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr. Actually I didn’t read it as such, I had it read to me via Audible. I love reading on my Kindle, which is the perfect thing for traveling as you only take one small device and carry a whole library, but I also love using Audible when you need to be doing other things at the same time. So I have been raking leaves, mowing lawns, cooking etc listening to this wonderful story. It is set in France during WWII, about a blind girl who survives the bombing of her village of Saint Malo. So taken with this book, I wanted to see where Saint Malo was. It is on the coast of Brittany, only 4 hours drive from where we are staying. It is in the same area as another place we were advised to visit if possible, Mont Saint Michel. Great opportunity for an adventure, lets go.
2 hours later, totally flooded
These logs get a beating every high tide
We walked the 3 kms to the walled city from our Hotel. Beautiful walk along the beach just as the sun is starting to go down. The mandatory “beer on the beach” on the way. We are so taken with the huge houses built all along the waterfront. The beach is really deep and there is a wall which must be 3 metres high going up to the footpath. Infront of the wall in one area are tree trunks set in concrete, about the same height as the wall – interesting. So many people are out, its windy and only 9 deg but so gorgeous. Surfers are out, just crazy!
Hardy!Tree trunks lining the wall in places
We get to the old town and walk around part of the wall and explored as much as we could as it was dark by now. We will come back tomorrow and find the street which features in my book tomorrow. As we leave the old town we go to walk along the edge of the path but the water is splashing up a bit. Ok cool, don’t want to get wet so we will walk on the other side. As we get further along the waves and splashing up higher and higher. There is quite a crowd forming and the water is washing right across the road, the drains and gutters of the road can only just handle it. We keep walking and it really is getting bigger and bigger, as the wave comes up to the wall, the water flies right up in the air, sometimes up to 10m, it then goes back out and crashes into the next one coming up. Now we understand the reason for all the tree trunks! We meet a lovely Moroccan family twice as we made our way home, stopping to chat and compare our amazement of what we are seeing. There were so many people out, all in awe of the show. The road is getting covered with seaweed! We half expect to see a fish flapping around. We wonder how on earth did they build this wall in the first place with this tidal flow. There is a restaurant which is right on the wall and looking through from the road side we see the water foaming right up the windows! Wow how do they not break! This is quite amazing.
Well, we think our night will not get better than that! But wait – there’s more! We arrive back at our Hotel and they have 1 other couple at the bar so we order a drink. The couple happen to be related to the owner and are there on business for the night. 6 in the bar, 2 owners and 4 guests, and the bar gets closed to public – never been in a “lock-in” before! We have another drink. Then food arrives! Prawns, langoustines, fish, spring rolls, chips, and 6 plates! We are being included in with the family – this is amazing, such wonderful people. It didn’t matter that none of us were truly fluent in each others language, we still had a great laugh and a really fun night. We finally went up to bed thinking – did that really happen?
An interesting fact came out about Saint Malo that night, they have conflict over their province. Some say it is in Brittany and some say it is in Normandy, and some say it is neither, in fact some say it is not even France – it is Saint Malo….full stop. So funny, What a great night!
It was a different sight here last night!
A bit on the slow side the next day but still able to get on bikes and explore. As we head out we check the information sign and while we are figuring out which way to go a lovely old French Monsieur stopped to see if we needed help. No English! He understood we were from Nouvelle Zealnde and when he saw the world cup shirt Chris had on he did an imitation of the haka! This made us all laugh and he seemed delighted! He pointed to the fort as if to say we should go there, up the Avenue John Kennedy. We said we would then we all shook hands and he headed off, but not before saying “vive le Rugby” – long live rugby!! friend for life! We have had some amazing interactions with some beautiful French people!
View from inside a bunkerLooking back towards Saint Malo
We found the Fort de la pointe de la Varde, so many remnants of the German defences during the war, it was so much top of my mind from reading my book. The book was so well written, I could picture this place in 1944.
Back into the old town and we found the address from my book – 4 Rue Vauborel! WOW. We walked right round the walls and around the outside. It was low tide now so we walked out to the Grand-Be. We knew That Mont Saint-Michel had a huge tidal range and should have known it would be similar down the coast at Saint Malo. 13.36m here, but unless you see it, it is hard to picture.
When in France……Eat Crepes!!
Alarm is set for 0600 tomorrow – we are off to Mont Saint-Michel in the morning!
So I am sitting here at the Gare or train station at Lebourne. I am 1.5 hours from home. I have just spent 2 nights with a dear friend Tricia and her husband Berjen, at their “home away from home” in Beaumont de Perigord. It is fascinating being here with lots of people around speaking French, people watching…… but I can’t eavesdrop on any conversations, it’s a true reminder that I am in fact, in France!
Just had a very interesting encounter with a young woman who was sitting beside me at the station, she was talking on her phone. When she hung up she jumped up and down and was clearly excited and started talking to me, telling me her obviously great news and all I could do was smile and say “I am sorry, I don’t speak French”. She didn’t get put off by my non-responsive response and explained some more, so, not to disappoint I said “yaaaa! So cool!!! ” she said “oui” then hugged me! Then offered me a cookie and then Bounced off – quite bizarre, but I feel very honoured to have been part of it! So cute!
Tricia and I, we met through a wonderful mutual friend, Karen, in 1992
The Dordogne is a beautiful area. The afternoon I arrived I went for a walk around the village of Beaumont. I don’t think I will ever tire of these beautiful villages with buildings dating back hundreds of years. The narrow streets and cobblestones, the ornate shutters on every window, the solid wooden doors with iron work or carvings, massive door handles and locks or tiny doors for the smaller people of the time. A lot of the villages in this region are Bastide villages, they all have a covered in central place in the square where villagers meet to socialise, dates back to medieval times 13th and 14th century, it’s so lovely.
Such a pretty village, Beaumont du Perigord
The next day Tricia took me for a tour around
the area, oh WOW, such a beautiful part of the world. A lot hillier than where
we are staying further north. Each village we went to was amazing and had its
own special magic.
Cadouin Abbey
First was Cadouin. A huge Abbey right in the middle of town. How and why they built the churches and Abbeys this size for the amount of people around is staggering. Impressive door-way, as they often are, sure makes a statement. We went inside and felt the peace. The floor in parts was pushed up as if an earthquake, this building would have seen a thing or two in its 900 years life!!!!!
Beaumont du Perigord
Next, Le Bugue, great little village on the river Vezere which comes off the Dordogne. There was a market just closing up in the square by the river when we arrived. Fresh fish, veg, cheese, meat, bread – oh boy! The French really know how to do their markets. You could go to a market every day of the week if you travelled just a few kilometres, there is always somewhere having a market – its great! Another really cute place. Tricia said each time we moved to the next one, “oh you will like the next one its beautiful” I was quietly thinking to myself that it doesn’t get any better than this!
Les Eyzies, the home of the Troglodyte
Our next place, Les Eyzies, was something else,
so different from anything I have seen so far, the terrain and rock formations
were indescribable. This was an area of the Troglodyte, the people before
people! How amazing is that. In March 1868, a geologist discovered the first
five skeletons of Cro-Magnons, the earliest known examples of Homo sapiens. People
would build houses into the rocks, and that was their homes. We walked along a
small road as far as we could to see the rocks right up close. They are all
different colours and completely over hanging the homes beneath, it’s a wonder
they never fall down.
the view from Chateau de Beynac
And then the jewel in the crown of our day, Beynac, with more of the quaint stone houses, shutters, iron railings, beautiful lamps, but this village is built as if a fortress, extending back and up a slope, up up up she goes to an awesome castle! We find the track and head up on foot. This would have been the main road up to the castle back in the day, narrow, winding and rough cobbles. Many houses on each side of the road, all so cute and very well maintained. Tricia said that these are mostly holiday rentals now days and being the off season would mostly be empty. We certainly felt that we had the place to ourselves! The view from up the top is outstanding. I can see 3 other chateaux, the beautiful Dordogne river winding past, green padlocks and the beautiful church belonging to the Castle. We look inside the castle, wow, you can just imagine the Knights coming in in their armour after battle. The kitchen table had slots at each end for them to put their swords safely into while having a meal, amazing!
Last village for the day, Belves. We have come here to see where Tricia and Berjen used to come for holidays. Another village built onto a hill, so stunning to see, impressive Abbey at one end overlooking and protecting, even if just spiritually, the whole village (see to photo) Signs saying XIc ,11th century throughout the village. I am in awe of the age and the fact that this was right here 100’s of years ago, it never ceases to amaze me! It’s been an incredible day, thank you Tricia!
What a trip, a great catch up with an old friend, as well as the stunning Dordogne! There was so much fun and laughter of old times and new, many bottles of wine and loads of cheese, olives and pizza – yes pizza! The sun came out to show the place off at its best. AND I didn’t miss the train, or even get on the wrong train! Arrrrr, I DO love France!
We have been here for about 7 weeks now and we are loving every minute! We will be here for 11 weeks all together. This is a really cool house sit, very different from any we have done before. We are at a Chateau in the Loire valley, outside a small village near Chatellerault. We arrived by fast train, the TGV, it travels at about 300 km/hr, though you would never know when you are on it. We flew from Brazil to Portugal, then to Orly, got a bus into central Paris where we got the train south. It was a pretty long day all up, but worth the effort ––
We are now in Europe!!
The Farm House – its like our own little castle
We were picked up by the previous house sitters, who were leaving the next morning. The property has a main house, a gate house and a farm house, along with many other out buildings, an orangery, barns, workshops, garages, wells and caves. We are staying in the farm house. There was a meal waiting for us of traditional Confit de Canard – OMG SO GOOD!! and a very welcoming bed! Our first mission was to take Greg and Nam to the train station in Poitiers the next morning at 0600, they were heading back to Australia. This was no bother for us as our body clocks were so screwed up, we didn’t really know which was up or which was down. In reality it was a real baptism of fire! Driving on the wrong side of the road, in the dark, no idea north from south, jet lagged! HA! Thank you google maps! We drove back very slowly concentrating so hard on keeping to the correct side of the road. We made it in one piece and as the sun comes up we see the beautiful place we have landed ourselves in. WOW this is like a fairy tale, – it’s a castle! A real castle and so beautiful. The weather is great, blue sky and pleasantly warm. I think we are going to be very happy here.
Our hosts are amazing, we have been welcomed in as part of
the family. It is a privilege to be here and we feel so lucky to be able to
have this opportunity. We are living in rural France, just like a local and are
learning so much of the culture and lifestyle, the language and traditions. It
is truly amazing, almost too good to be true! We help out on the estate,
gardens, painting, collecting wood etc. It is a huge upkeep for a property this
size and we are so glad to be able to help out. Of course there is wine and
cheese to try on a fairly regular basis, all educational of course!
We were taken for a day at the local farmers market. A small town about 20kms from here has a huge market on the first Monday of the month. It was so much fun! Our lovely host took us which was great because he was able to explain a lot of things. I don’t think there is very much that you cannot get at this market! From pet rabbits to every variety of eating fowl, snails and eels to cakes and wine to lawn mowers and orchard trees. No beer tent like our markets in NZ – but a wine tent. The old boys there chatting, catching up with the last months gossip over a wee Rosé, this happens from 0630 by the way! The atmosphere is so friendly, everyone happy and glad to see everyone else. Crepes, cheese, garlic, sausages, everything you could imagine, its all here in abundance and so fresh and delicious. We got all sorts of wonderful things, 3 trips back to the car to unload! Then best of all back home to cook and sample our purchases for lunch. Our lunch menu today? Oysters, white wine and 1st cut of wine (yes it’s a thing, not quite a fruit juice, not quite wine, prob about 3%) Boudin noir (French Black Pudding – soft velvety texture, nothing like our black pudding) with corn, fresh soft goats cheese and to finish, a local delicacy, the Tourteau Fromagé Which is a cake made with cheese and has a blackened top – looks like it has been left in the oven for too long. Delicious! How lucky are we to experience this! We are really pinching ourselves.
The history here is staggering! Coming from New Zealand, we don’t have the everyday appreciation of the history that is here in Europe. When you can walk down a cobble street and know that it was here, in this actual spot, 600 or 800 or more years ago – blows my mind. I always wish we could snap our fingers and be back there then – just to have a look and see what life was really like at that moment. But we have the history books, and we have Google, and we still have the buildings and the cobble streets so we can imagine, we can picture in our minds the life here. The things we see on TV, the movies etc, the things we think are just made up for impact are actually normal life here and we are loving being part of it. Buy a baguette every day – yes its normal! EVERYONE does it, Eat cheese at every meal – yes its normal, Have to navigate narrow country roads with blind corners and only room for 1 vehicle – yes just a normal day! We are not on a movie set, this is real and that is why we love it! These experiences are why we travel.
So, each day when we can, we walk to our local village and
buy a baguette traditional. Chat to the lovely ladies at the wee café,
sometimes have a coffee, then stroll back. We have a bit of a French lesson
while there, it is hilarious, most people here do speak a bit of English and
between hand gestures and puzzled looks, we seem to get the point across. We were doing pretty well in Brazil with our
Portuguese, but French is eluding us a bit, the Portuguese has confused our mono-lingual
brains – but we keep trying! Our fridge always has at least 3 different types
of cheese and a typical lunch will be that beautifully fresh baguette, butter
and cheese. Sometimes a bit of pate but that’s it. So simple yet so
satisfyingly delicious. Our Friend Tricia, who lives in Holland, came to stay
for a night and we had this discussion… what is it about France that all you
need are the simple things? Is it because those simple things are so good? I
don’t know, but it is so true. Evening meals are simple too, no plate filled to
the brim of a multitude of flavours, just two things, two perfect things paired
together to be amazing. Often there is more than one course though.
So to say we are loving France is somewhat of an understatement! Together with its beautiful countryside, wonderful people and stunning cuisine, we feel like we have died and gone to heaven! We are in a real life fairy tale, truly Amazing!
Keeping spirits up! Our dear friend Rhonda, heating up our Army Rations!
15 October 2017,
We still can the believe it how we ended up leaving. Chris’s brother Kevin and sister Maureen were starting to get very worried about us so contacted the Foreign Office in NZ. They were wonderful! They contacted the NZ Embassy in Washington DC, who also tried to contact us with no luck, so it got escalated up to the US State department, still no-one could reach us.
Collecting coconuts from the neighbours
Nearly our turn for the phone call to Washington
Day 15, we are getting the odd moment of signal on my cell phone. I managed to listen to my voice messages and found a message from Oliver from NZ Embassy in Washington. I had also received a txt from Leigh-Ann saying that Kevin was trying to get us evacuated. And that was it, no more signal! We went up to the square and got in the line for the sat phone and called Washington. During this call she took all our details and said she would email the State Department to say we were safe at the moment but quite keen to leave. I said I would ring them again at the same time the next day to find out any update. We are neighbours with the coordinator for the red cross so we talked to her, she talked to the comms guy and they arranged for us to come back in the morning to make this call from the Emergency Control Centre, on their Sat phone, no waiting in the queue. The fact that the State Department was involved, made us pretty special!!
So we called in the morning (Wednesday) to find they had been calling and txting, nothing getting through, desperately trying to let us know we had been booked on a flight that afternoon, get to San Juan by 1:15. It is currently 10:45! No, we cant make it! It is an hour ferry ride (even if one is leaving NOW) then another hour car ride to San Juan (we have heard that the publicos are not running) so no way we could make it. Got off the phone and told the Red Cross rep this and she said yes you can make it!! We will take you to the airport, there is a flight going to San Juan at noon, we will get you on that. So we called the embassy back and told them that we will do our best to make that flight, please don’t cancel us! And we did it! We raced home, packed our bags and shut the door. Hilda took us to the airport on Vieques, we were the only 2 on this special flight to San Juan.
Our beautiful island looked like it had been on fire, all the foliage was dead
Vieques airport was like a plane graveyard, planes had been tossed around like toys during the storm.
At San Juan we checked in with Tourism Puerto Rico who were accounting for all the passengers for the humanitarian flight, then lined up for 3 hours to get our boarding pass. There were families with small children there who were sleeping at the airport, who knows how long they had been there, they got on the flight too, we were so pleased. So off we go, we were heading to Newark! Where’s that? New Jersey, ok cool…………….. so……….where’s New Jersey?? No idea!
The flight was put on by United. The crew and Pilots were volunteers. We had the full service on the plane – luxury – real food! Our Steward really looked after us, we had a couple of glasses of wine with our dinner then our Stewardess brought us over a bottle of wine to take with us to the hotel! She said we needed it! Unbelievable! The crew were all so wonderful. There were a lot of people on that flight who, clearly, had never been on a plane before and there were many who needed assistance to get around. Everyone was so kind and patient. Red Cross were handing out food, soft toys and care packages of toiletries etc when we got off the plane. There were quite a few media interviewing people. We were booked into a hotel and transferred there.
Newark Airport on arrival
We weren’t sure what we were going to do with ourselves after this but we were now able to make contact with the outside world at last. It was 2am by now. We emailed Bob and Lou and they replied in the morning to come up to them. So we went back to the airport and went to the United desk. The night before, people on our flight were being ticketed to further destinations, we hardly really knew where we were, let alone that we could have gone further. (we possibly could have gotten all the way to NZ if we had known to ask) We were just so grateful at this point to be where we were. The lady at the counter started saying we were too late, we couldn’t go further on the government. We hadn’t expected that we would, we were happy to buy a ticket.
But then she had a rethink and said she would talk to here supervisor, next minute, we are on a flight to Portland! She said it wasn’t fair for us to be stranded in New Jersey, all the other passengers got to go where they needed to go, so we did too! So there we were heading north, Bob came and picked us up and we felt very safe! What a journey. We didn’t realise quite how much this event had affected us. We spent 10 days with Bob and Lou, that was probably 8 days longer than we thought we would stay. But we needed that down time to gather our thoughts and get over it, actually I don’t even know how to describe how I felt/feel. I didn’t appreciate how difficult it was. At the time it was just what was happening and you just had to get on with it. Though we were feeling very thankful and relieved to now be safe, I was filled with a great sense of guilt, we were able to leave, we had a place to go. The people of Vieques didn’t, we left a lot of good friends without being able to say goodbye, it felt like abandoning a sinking ship.
Our lovely neighbour Alberto would leave plantains at our door step at times – the only fresh food we had for a while!
We are so very grateful to Kevin and Maureen, for initiating the “extraction” and persevering to see it through. We are so very thankful to Hilda and the Red Cross on Vieques for having the belief that she could get us to that flight on time! Oliver, then Angela at the NZ Embassy in Washington DC and Daniel from the US State Department, didn’t give up trying to contact us and communicated together to make it happen. Kevin said Alexandria and the team at The Foreign Office at home were great to deal with, so professional and caring. We are so thankful to Jae and the team at the Emergency Control Centre, who were so patient and accommodating of our need to make more than our 1 minute calls. A huge thank you to the crew air-side and on the ground of United Airlines, they ROCK!!
We left so many dear friends on Vieques, we feel so sad that we didn’t get to say good bye, but these are forever friends, we will always stay in touch. We survived a cat 5 hurricane, the most devastating storm (at the time) on record.!!
WOW!!
This blog is dedicated to our dear friend Rhonda who lost her short battle with cancer a little over a year following the hurricane. Vieques will not be the same without her beautiful smile and infectious love of life! Rest now beautiful, always in our hearts xx
We can now see the lighthouse from our home in Bravos
Maria
Email written0930 19 September 2019. We have been told the power will go off at 6 tonight , but it just went off for 5 minutes. So I thought I better get this out before it goes again. We are picking 6pm optimistic!We are ready for this! but it will be different to the last one. We were so lucky with the change of course with Irma, I don’t think so this time. For one thing all the models are agreeing with her course, unlike Irma. The National guard have arrived on the island, so hopefully no trouble here. Huge trouble on Tortola following Irma. Tempers are flaring here, everyone is very stressed and angry.Just to remind you, our house is concrete and very solid, flat roof and louver windows. It is very strong. If we have to we will move downstairs to the BnB as it has less windows and exposure to the weather. OK the power has been off and on a couple of times so will send this now. I have my cell phone but keeping it charged is a problem. They are thinking of cutting the water off at some point today as well. We have enough drinking water for about 8 days!
This email never got sent
The most terrifying night of my life!
The power has been off since mid-morning ad Rhonda arrived about 12, it is starting to get quite windy. It increases all day and by about 1930 it feels about the same as Irma. It is dark now, and we all decide that we should go to bed – maybe we can sleep through the worst of it – they said pre-dawn will be the worst.
We all did sleep, but the noise of the wind woke me after a couple of hours and I couldn’t lie there anymore. It is pitch black, Rhonda is asleep and so is Chris. I can’t see anything out the windows it’s too dark. The noise is getting louder and the windows are getting silted up on the outside. Water is starting to come in under the door at the back and the front porch. I am checking the windows constantly trying to see what’s going on outside. I can see blue and red flashing glows out there, the National Guard are patrolling, this is quite comforting. Checking checking, round and round the house, what can I do?
It is quieter and safest in the bunk room, we have pushed the 2 bunks up against the inside wall, furthest away from the 1 window in that room. A light out the back keeps coming on – we have no power! There must be someone out there! It is so dark outside but then the light comes on I can see that it is like looking through mist, its like the light is shining from under a blanket. I dismiss this thought but it keeps happening so I wake Chris up, terrified that someone is out there and needs help. Turns out to be a battery powered security light I didn’t even know we had.
1am, 2am, 3am, still awake, I try to rest, must have fallen asleep for a few minutes, I woke to Rhonda screaming, I jumped off the bunk into ankle deep water, my heart is racing and I am shaking, I get to Rhonda and she is OK just got a fright wit all the water. its 3:30am, we try bailing the water into the shower, more coming in than we can keep up with, the water from the front is meeting the water from the back! The noise now is deafening, I want to look out the windows, but Rhonda yells, keep away from the windows! She is right, they are buckling under the pressure and look like they will blow in and any moment. Roaring bangs and crashes outside, sounds like cars colliding, if you were outside now you probably wouldn’t survive.
Chris is up now and we are all bailing – this is useless, but we have to do something! It is like it is raining inside the house, water is coming in horizontally through every louver window gap, everything is soaked. The mud is coming in with the water, this is so frightening!
5am we give up, Rhonda and I go to the bunk room and huddle up in the corner praying the windows stay intact and the roof stays on. If that happened, we would just have to stay covered as much as we can and ride it out, we realise now that there would be nowhere to go, and no safe way to get there, its all for one at this stage. Chris lies on the couch, safe from the front doors at least, I must have drifted off.
Before
6am its just getting light, the wind seems to be dying down a bit, it is still raining. I try to see out the window through the mud caked on the glass. It looks like a war zone, Pam and Kim’s roof terrace has gone, I can see our gate down the driveway, roofing iron everywhere. As it gets lighter and the wind gets less we can open the doors and start sweeping the water and mud out. Rhonda’s car is written off, looks like it has been in a high speed collision. The roof of the yellow house flew into the car and ended up in the orange houses yard. Trees, branches, fences, power poles, all down, we now have a full view of the Atlantic Ocean. Its hard to comprehend what I am seeing.
Iron gate, no windage, unbelievable
This branch fell away from the housePam and Kim’s roof deck – goneRhonda’s car saved the bottom level of the house from flying iron
It was terrifying during the hurricane and then the aftermath was as bad. So many people lost everything. We can’t believe no-one was killed (during the storm on Vieques anyway) People are amazingly though, and so resilient. The community really did come together and help each other. We would meet at the square everyday to talk with people. This was the only way we have communication. At this stage we had no idea about anywhere else, not even the other side of our little island. The roads were blocked, the power was off, no phone coverage.
2 minute phone call on Mayors Sat phone
Army ration packs
The municipality were great and did everything that they could given their limited resources. By day 7 they were giving out Military ration packs of food and bottled water to everyone and holding a meeting at 2pm everyday to advise of the situation. Day 8 they offered a 2 minute satellite call for everyone. I took that opportunity to call Mum to get the word out that we were ok. I lined up for 2 hours but it was worth it.
Unlike Irma, it continued to rain and was overcast for 3 days, everything was so wet and could not get dry. It was incredible to see the destruction nature can cause. The trees which were still standing had no foliage and even worse – no bark!
We
had decided by now that we should try to leave but we were hearing that San
Juan airport was still not functional except for the military. So there was no
point in us going to the main land to then camp out at the airport for days, we
were safer where we were.
Roofing iron everywhereTop story of La Lan Chita on the road
We were quite worried about the crime which was increasing every day. Chris rigged up some traps around our house with our neighbour and devised a signal system if people were on the property. Chris had a picaxe on his side of the bed. It was so dark! A few homes had generators so had power but they were running out of fuel and the lines for the gas stations (on the days that fuel did come across on the ferry) were 5 hours long! There was a curfew in place from 6pm to 5am, this was policed by the National Guard who had come across to the island the day before Maria. We heard that someone had stolen the generator from the morgue at the hospital! At the end of day 4 the water stopped and that was it for 3 days. They got it going again for 1 day but they tried to steel the diesel that was running the generator which was running the pump, couldn’t get it so sabotaged the water system! No water again for another 3 days. You know, we had no power for 10 days following Irma and we were getting really grumpy with it. BUT this time, with no water! no power was easy!! It is the water which is critical and communication, that is essential also, we can live without power. Funny how it is all relative. We were collecting water from the roof to use to flush the toilet and try to hand wash clothes, we were showering in the driveway with the hose from the roof water. We are using paper plates so don’t have to do dishes.
Again the garbage has not been collected, lots of rotten food and everything is so wet, perfect breeding ground for flies and mosquitos, they are rampant, it is hideous. A doctor has said that there will disease outbreaks soon. And again we are struggling with the heat, no power, no water, no ice! We heard that they used all the spare parts to fix the power after Irma, so no way to fix the power this time and Vieques is feeling like the “forgotten Island” sitting at the bottom of the “help” list.(Vieques was still running on generators 12 months later!)
Sound traps around the house
Trying to get coolSo many lost so much
We remained on Vieques for 16 days post-Maria. We were evacuated by the US State Department together with the NZ Embassy in Washington. Its a great story of relief and sadness, of nations pulling together and people helping people. To be published soon!
Written September 2017. We survived! Friday 0630, about 48 hours after She started. We have no power so no internet and no news of the outside world. We have no idea how the rest of the islands got on or where she is up to now. We did hear that they were expecting land fall in the states at the weekend?? Today it is so hard to believe that this ever happened. Calm sea and no wind! She came and went! And it wasn’t nearly as bad as we were expecting!
There is not too much structural damage as far as we can see, mostly trees down and powerlines. The word on the street is that the hurricane hit Tortola and bounced north, so her path changed at the last minute before it got to us so that is why we were so well off. So we didn’t end up with the full force – thank goodness! As I said, it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be, but it was still quite frightening at times.
Our local little sunset bar “Al’s” has been damaged. They lost all the roofing material and some Windows. They have a lot of water inside, a big clean up for them. Not sure when they will be open again. The supermarket was open yesterday! But the ferries are not running so they will run out of food pretty soon. Kim called in yesterday to see if we were ok. He took us in his car to the ice plant and we bought a couple of bags of ice. We stocked up on food and meals before the hurricane but with no power the fridge is now warm. The freezer is a bit cooler and we have put one bag in each of the freezers, so at least it can act a bit like a fridge. We loaded the downstairs one with stuff we would need later and haven’t opened it so it will be staying a bit more ” frozen” but the one upstairs is all defrosted. So we are eating our way through the freezer. It is working really well, we will have enough food for the next 3/4 days providing we can keep it relatively cool. We have no idea how long the power will be off. Some say 3 weeks and some think it will be back on fairly quickly.
The Ice plant. It was closed down one day because a fight broke out in the line, tempers are frayed!
No electricity. It is always surprising how much we rely on power! We are quite lost without the internet. I hate not being able to talk to the girls on a regular basis and I know Mum has been very worried, we still have use of our cell phone, but there is only limited credit so we are being careful. The phone and laptops will run out of powers soon and then we won’t even be able to send a txt. Hopefully power will be restored sooner rather than later. And gee we miss the fans! It is so hot sleeping without the fan going. There doesn’t seem to be much wind at the moment either. It is so calm just now which is making sleeping almost impossible. We did hear, before the power went off, that there is another tropical storm coming right behind Irma (Jose). There is no sign of it just now though. So we are fine! We survived! We will just carry on with our usual routine as much as we can. Hop on our bikes this morning and go walk the dogs, keep eating the freezer empty!
Cash only on the island at the moment, no power – no EFTPOS/Credit card machines, no ATM! So the bank gets robbed! We were lucky, we had cash – stashed in the freezer – its defrosted now though LOL!
Day 5. Still no power. Every day we have been hunting for ice and WiFi! Tsunami bar has a huge generator so here we sit! We are ok, getting quite frustrated with lack of information but that is really minimal to what other islands have had to deal with. Jose is tracking a long way from us now, so is not a threat!
Got to be in quick for a spot!
Day 7 now with no power. We have managed perfectly with our food provisions and haven’t had to throw much out. We have come to the end of our fresh food and will be starting on the canned goods. The supermarket has been open right through so we can buy more. Having said that though it has been pretty slim pickings in there, no fresh milk or bread, eggs, fresh produce. We have had some great support from the friends and neighbours. We have been driven up to the ice plant a couple of times and our lovely neighbour Alberto, has dropped us in a bag of ice twice now,!! So we have been able to keep things cool enough not to spoil. Everyone is in the same boat. Some homes have generators but not many. Everyone is looking to keep food cool and are coming to the end of what they have in stock. The ferry service started again a couple of days ago so things are looking up, the supermarket is slowly being restocked.
WiFi!
We still don’t know the extent of the devastation on our neighbouring islands and USA main land. No power, no internet! Everyone is heading to the Tsunami Bar, the one spot to re charge their devices and get contact with the outside world. We saw a clip of when Irma hit Florida, it looked terrible! We are all so incredible thankful for what we DIDN’T get. We do have a battery powered radio, but it is ALL in Spanish- not much use to us who can only say hello and goodbye, and 2 beers please!
Petrol is like gold! People are starting to run out of fuel but they did send a couple of tankers on a special ferry 2 days ago. But it’s amazing, the 3 gas stations seem to take turns at running out of fuel and not being able to run their generators. The queues for petrol must be 40 – 50 cars long.
The rubbish is collecting on the streets, the garbage truck hasn’t been for 2 weeks now, but I think that is probably just a Vieques problem rather than hurricane fall out. But there seems to be so much of it around. I imagine there has been a lot of spoilt food around. It is great to be able to be in contact again, even though it is in small snippets, compulsory trip to the pub each afternoon! Oh well……..
It is very dark! No lights around us. It gets dark about 7 / 7:30, we are powering through the candles but usually go to bed not long after dark. Oh boy we just can’t wait to get the fans going again, it has been very still for the last few days and the humidity is probably still 100%.
Electricity is restored 10 days post Irma. Just in time for the information to come through that another category 5 hurricane is heading our way – Maria. She will be here in 3 days. Easy! We have done this before, we know the drill, water, food, candles, grab bag etc etc. How bad can it be?? Look at Irma – We’ve got this!!! WRONG!
Part 3 – the most terrifying night on my life – next week!
Chris and I spent 2017 house sitting, 5 months in Puerto Rico and
5 months in South East Asia. House sitting exposes you to many wonderful
experiences, the people, the food, cultures, language etc etc Weather is one we
don’t think of so much. We have never felt so hot in Puerto Rico for example
and later this year we will possibly have snow as we are currently in Europe.
It is all part of the experience of traveling around our amazing planet and you
have to embrace all of the above. But, we have experienced a severe weather
episode, not 1 but 2 hurricanes back to back – Irma and Maria, September 2017 –
Puerto Rico. So while we get ourselves settled into life in France, I would
like to share our Hurricane story. Pre Irma, Post Irma and Pre Maria, Post
Maria then Our Evacuation, I hope you enjoy our story.
Pre-Irma
La Chiva, Vieques
Vieques, beautiful Island to the East of Puerto Rico Main Island.
34km X 5km.
Written early September 2017. We are good, getting our heads around preparation for Hurricane Irma who is destined to cross our path in a couple of days. The Island is in preparation mode, the ferry service is being suspended on Tuesday and all the ferries will be taken around to San Juan for safe keeping, the airport will probably close as well. We don’t really know what we are in for. We are being advised by locals to be prepared, get food provisions in and collect/buy lots of water. The power will more than likely be turned off, before it gets cut off by the weather – this is less damaging to the system apparently. The supermarkets get stocked up on a Tuesday and often by Monday it is slim pickings in there anyway, so with this mass “buy lots of food” there will be nothing on the shelves. Also heard though, that they start giving frozen/refrigerated stuff away, like ice cream etc, if it looks like the power will go out. Happy days!!
We may get a bit of water in through our back door so we are going
to make some sand bags up and Chris is going to dig a trench in preparation.
At the moment they don’t know for sure if it will hit us directly.
Some of the predicted paths show her coming right at us, some have her
tracking North. Even if she tracks north, we will still get some impact being
on the fringes. We will be ok here. we are in a really solid house.
We know enough people here now too that if it is total devastation, we
have places to go and people to take us there. We are certainly not
alone.
We have a water collection drum from the roof for the garden, so
that will be great. We have stocked up the freezer. We have gas cooking
both upstairs and downstairs in the apartment. Our gas tanks are a bit
exposed, if they blow away we have the downstairs ones as back up, we have
loads of candles and vodka! We think we are ready. So funny though, we
are off to the beach today! hard to believe what is coming.
Facebook post:
So we are in the path of hurricane Irma. She will hit in about 18 hours. Cat 5, record wind speed recorded with Jose right up Irma’s bum. 185 mph winds gusting to 225. We are well prepared – as much as hurricane virgins can be! Got the food, water, candles, torches, grab bag for evacuation. Our house is very secure, the power will be turned off, maybe even as soon as tonight. I will try to keep updated here for as long as I can. Xxx
During. This Hurricane was predicted as cat5, and they said it is the biggest in the area ever. So we were very concerned, in fact we are really scared. We have done lot of prep, we had several days to get prepared, so we feel we were in a good place. The wind started at 4am and got stronger and stronger. At times the wind is gusting so strong it makes us hold our breath… stop…. And wait… BREATH!! but it really isn’t as bad as we thought it would be. We have no power, so no news on what is actually happening out there. We have lots of food, we even have a roast chicken cooking, bottle of wine, candle light – its only 3:30 pm!! Giving us something to do to keep our minds off the howling wind outside. We cooked the roast in the oven downstairs as it has a manual temp dial. The one upstairs is all electric controls. We can manually light the hob, but not the oven. So Chris is the brave one! Up and down, in the rain, trying to stay on his feet, carrying trays of roast dinner! Late afternoon, she was getting a bit less intensity, or maybe we were just getting used the sound of the wind. We have been watching the palm trees and they are now blowing in the opposite direction – she must be passing! Blowing East, then North then West. When she swung around to the north we got water in the front doors and were on mop up duty for about an hour then she swung to the west and hammered the other side. We knew then that she was on her way! It was really fascinating seeing the change of wind direction as she progressed.
The house across from us has lost their veranda roof, it is still just hanging there from one corner, very lucky it didn’t go flying. There is no one home which is just as well, one of the uprights went through a window and they will have a lot of weather in there being on the west side.
So that was a Cat 5 hurricane – or was it? We didn’t know it at the time but there was worse to come, and…… is it the hurricane or the aftermath that is more dangerous?
This part of
Brazil (South) seems to be built on solid bed rock. We saw this up in Rio also
with the incredible rock formations, huge and so steep and high. The sugar loaf
and the Christ Statue are examples of this terrain. It is said that Brazilians
love the beach so being on or as near to the beach is most important to them.
So the Favelas (slums) are all built up the hills. All built on these steep sided
cliffs. They have the most amazing views. Its funny how the rich don’t want the
view, just to be by the beach, or down beside the coast.
Florianopolis
is no different. It is incredibly steep. The homes are built perched on the
sides of cliffs is seems – not so many Favelas here, mostly just normal
housing. The driveways are so steep I just don’t know how they manage it every
day. But I guess it is just what you get used to. In some places the footpath
is laid around boulder formations, fences are built around the rock, it is so
hard and solid, nothing will move it. It is good that there are no earthquakes
here. There is a really steep hill between us here in Lagoa and the west side
of the island and the city, we have to go over this road in the bus. I have to
shut my eyes, the bus drivers are so fast, it honestly is like a roller coaster
ride.
Learning Portuguese
has been fun! We both admit that languages are not our strong suit, we struggled
in Puerto Rico with Spanish, but to be honest I think we were a little shy to
try. But that experience has given us confidence to try harder this time, and
we did, with great success. The people were so accommodating to let us try,
which made a big difference.
When I lived
in Scotland (a long time ago) there was a “thing” called Munro Bagging. A Munro is a mountain in Scotland which is
more than 914.4 metres (3000 feet) It was a challenge to “Bag” as many as you
could. Well we thought it would be fun to try “beach Bagging” here – There are
42! We bagged 8 ☹ but not a bad effort given the weather was cold and
wet for 75% of the 3 ½ weeks we were here.
Cerveja! Brazilians love their Cerveja. Just happen to be in Floripa for a Beer festival. We have to go! So up and over the dreaded hill with the crazy bus driver we go. 14 different breweries and about the same in food trucks. Live music and a great atmosphere. All beers 300ml for $R10. First beer truck we go to is a lovely young Brazilian woman who guessed that we were Australian. On more conversation she knew we were kiwis and it turned out that she had been there and was an avid supporter of the All Blacks. She is going to get a tattoo on her forearm of the all blacks so that when she puts her arms up in the haka stance, you will be able to see it. This woman was a dream come true for your average kiwi bloke as not only did she love NZ and followed the All Blacks, but she knew her beer! Rye beer, the rye brings the hops out – so she said! We walked away with a new friend, hugs all round – you just wouldn’t read about it!
Live music at the beer fest. 5 gorgeous young Brazilian girls with big guitars and long hair come on stage and start rocking ACDC! Complete with blond chick in school boy outfit. They were amazing! The lead guitarist was so talented, they rocked the house for 2 hours. Singing all ACDC songs in English of course, but then the lead singer would talk to the crowd – in Portuguese! Just felt wrong somehow – but I guess its actually not, its quite normal, its her country and they speak Portuguese!
Brazil? AMAZING! We will definitely come back here, It is a massive country, so much to explore, we want to see more!
I was asked
today by our lovely house owners, what do we appreciate most so far? Well
that’s a big question. This is a wonderful place and it put Chris and I into a
serious discussion on what IS actually what we like the most?? We are loving so
many things about Floripa! But the best thing we have found are the people. We
cycled south yesterday to a point on the map where we thought would be the
closest point across the dunes to the beach. We got it a bit wrong but kept
exploring. We locked our bikes up and walked towards the dunes. Hello, a man
walking toward us with a New Zealand Beanie on. So we stopped him and had a
chat. He has been to NZ, did some surfing in Raglan and also had been in
Australia. So he told us where his house was and suggested we should get
together for a BBQ. We agreed that we would go and knock on his door some time.
He said he loves his country and loved NZ but it showed him how much he has
here in Floripa and just LOVES that a Kiwis are here and enjoying it. We parted
and carried on our walk. When we returned we had a note attached to our bikes
with phone number and have since been in touch and WILL go and have a beer next
week!
Porto de Lagoa
Every day we
have another example of the friendliness of the Brazilian people – too much to
write, as it will bore you to tears, but I just want to stress just how awesome
this has been. We make friends everywhere we go, people just want to talk and
they do not get cranky if we don’t understand each other at first, in fact I
think they enjoy the challenge and love trying to speak in English. Everyone is
interested too, they want to engage and have a chat and they go out of their
way to help. The security guards at the apartment, the supermarket checkout, the
restaurants, the passers by, the guy in the bus line, WOW great people. AND big
hugs when we said good bye! Maravilhosa Brazil!!
Kiwis Do Fly 