Living at Lake Chapala in Mexico

Friday afternoon I went to San Juan Cosalá for the first time since the storm. It was incredible to see the progress made there in just 10 days.

If I'd not seen so many photos and had a good idea of the numbers of workers and equipment working there, I'd be saying, "Well, really, it didn't seem that bad." I KNOW it was THAT bad, I'm that impressed with the speed with which folks are getting back up and going.

All the way out to San Juan (six miles), we met some of the dump trucks still hauling loads of soil and rock out of the area. If you sit long the highway for an hour or two, even in Ajijic, you'll see these trucks going by every few minutes?the full trucks heading east to the by pass road and the empty trucks heading back to SJC for another load.

Long before we say any devastation, we saw effects of the storm?piles of soil, rocks and piping (water supply pipes) has been dumped along the highway where ever there was a barren low lying space to put it. By the way, we aren't just talking fist size rocks?these started there and went up in size to rocks that were 3-4 feet across. I suppose the front end loaders could't pick up the larger ones that are still here in there in SJC's "new" landscape.

On the mountain side of the highway, near the restaurants on the curve just east of SJC is a major and welcome effect of the storm?a tent city. It's where the law enforcement officers are still living. There were approximately 20 popup tents lined up on that space. Down significantly from the number that was there before the civil defense and protection folks pulled up stakes and went on a couple of days ago.

The dust wasn't as bad as I expected in SJC, but the area between the highway and the damaged homes was as freshly scraped and slicked up clean and neat as my dad when he left the barber shop.

A few homes that still have seas of mud in their back courtyards are still being discovered?we spotted some of those with mounds of mud?in wheelbarrow sized bites?out front, waiting for a front end loader to appear to load it up into a truck.

A supply truck was refueling a small piece of equipment that had been hard at work all day, clearing and reshaping the arroyo that flows under the highway?near the SJC nursery so many from Ajijic visit. In fact while we were stopped for me to take photos, Lorraine found and bought a rose?red and white candy stripe?for her garden.

A worker pushed and pulled a hand pump to transfer fuel to the tank of the bobcat (Is that the right name for those machines?) The driver of the equipment insisted I take his photo, saying, in English, "What about ME lady, I've been working hard all day, all week."

I wonder what they are going to do with that arroyo (and others). On the North side of the highway, the ravine now looks like the Grand Canyon?15-20 feet wide and 15-18 feet deep. On the South side of the highway, the arroyo is just as it was before the storm?the soil barely disturbed. Evidently the drainage tubes running under the highway were quickly blocked with mud, rock, debris and trees, forcing the water to the left and right until it was deep enough to flow over the road.

This is undoubtedly why the nursery and other properties on the south side of the highway shows little damage while the ones on the north side of the road obviously were full of water and mud.

Will they enlarge these tubes under the road? That will send more water down through town to the lake, more quickly. How will they do that?they'll have to close the highway, at least for a time.

In the new issue of the Guadalajara Reporter, Allyn Hunt offers sage advice?Don't live within 15 meters (50 feet) of ANY arroyo. It just takes a minute or two to see the wisdom of that advice in SJC this week.

Not all of the effects of the storm were on the mountain side of the highway. We spotted a roadside restaurant on the lake side of the highway. The picture we're posting of the bathrooms (the doors are gone with the storm) shows a mud line almost to the top of the toilet tanks.

The cleanup of the Raquet continues. The road scrapers and front end loaders and dump trucks are making wonderful progress on the street that leads to the entrance of the Club area. We didn't try to go into the Raquet, we'll let them clean up there, and then report what a wonderful job they've done.