Result of a Cat 5 Hurricane

While we were in Mexico we traveled down to Majahual, Mexico where I had volunteered back in 2004. During the summer of 2007 Hurrican Dean hit Majahual with a direct hit. It was a category 5 hurricane. I really had no idea of the destruction that I would face. I neively thought that things would be back up and running. As John and I took a taxi to the place where we would be staying (one of the few up and running places) we passed by the GVI building where base camp was set up. I couldn't believe it and couldn't help the tears. GVI (Global Visions International) had to relocate to another sleepy fishing village up the coast. Here are some of my "before" and "after" pictures...

This is base camp back in 2004






Today...



This is of the upper balcony where we used to sit at night and play the guitar and talk about the day's dives...



In the evening we would teach the local villagers English... I always used to snag our only white board, what's a teacher without a white board??????



Here is is today... where are all the 30 foot palm trees??? I couldn't believe it...



This was our beach... gorgeous, green and lush... and this was probably the only day I ever wore anything other than shorts! You can see the balcony of our base camp behind me on the right.



This is the beach after...



Here are a couple of other shots.... there were miles of mangroves behind our base camp that serve as nurseries for all the teeny fish and those are destroyed. In fact when we drove into town (and before I had realized that a HURRICANE could do this) I asked John... "was there a fire? All the mangroves are dead."






Happily we were told that mangroves are pretty tough and within 5 years should be completely green and lush again!! Through talking to the locals we did find out that things are slowly starting to be rebuilt and businesses are slowly starting to come back.

The night before we left, John and I were walking down the road with the ocean on our right and the dead mangroves on our left... I happened to see, not far into the mangroves, a beautiful white crane that was intently focused on a fish not far away. It was startling so see something so slender,tall and elegant against a harsh background. Then I noticed something else. About 15 feet behind that crane, nesting in the dead sticks of the mangroves, were about a HUNDRED white cranes. It made me realize that life is resilent and that the beauty that once covered Majahual, is not too far off again in the future.