Costa Rica. Tuesday 8th, January 2009. Early Afternoon.
I was checking out stuff on reddit and then I felt quite a shake. An earthquake. As I said, I was high. Good weed, the kind you smoke on a small minimalistic pipe, because it's expensive and you really don't need too much of it anyway. A very nice high, mind you. I was quite a few tokes into the substance when the Earth began it's dance. An earthquake. Or tremor, to avoid sensationalism.
It felt like a wave. Like surfing on a thick ocean, riding my house. I never went outdoors, so that might have contributed to that feeling. Sometimes it shook and shimmied, quite fiercely.
Unidentified objects began to crick and crack form all corners of the house. So I stood up from my chair and headed for the doorway. This is a tremor safety thing, stand below the doorway... It's all the security information I can come up with in our present conundrum, so I oblige.
I never actually got under it, or really a distance you might call close, because as I walked towards it the ground started to wobble. Like a massive, tectonic plate sized bowl of jello. And it felt nice, sometimes abrupt because of the force but always circular, always flowing in it's motion. It was the feeling you get when at the beach, when big and fast waves are coming in and you try to resist them, to face the ocean and endure it's elemental strength. You feel puny, an insignificant opponent. "Négligeable" as french scientist say. You voluntarily take on a force that is so vast and ample that it overwhelms your brain's sense of scale, and for a moment you step out of your homo-centrist (ego, is you will) point of view and realize the little chimp you truly are in the middle of a lava surfing vast mass of land. It's just a glimpse of it all, but damn science and nature are fascinating! No wonder my brain overflows whenever I try to reconcile my human sense of scale to space masses and sizes. And before I know it, it's all over. It has stopped just as it started.
It did lasted quite a while. I mean maybe not even a minute. But 45 seconds of a furious massive beast, shaking under your being, tend to have a somewhat longer lasting feeling. It's quite a rush in a way, when you are not taken over by fear and are actually open to new interpretations, extraordinary or fantastic experiences start to make sense. Although I wouldn't really endorse the scientific use of those alleged "45 seconds" mentioned above.
Ring.Ring. More like a beep nowadays, one that always disrupts my peace. This time, my aunt calls me and I'm still high, this is quite a few minutes after the main seismic event. Normally I don't answer calls with numbers that I don't recognize or come up as "Private". Now, given the circumstances, I thought it could have been a worried family member.... and in this extraordinary situation... it is only decent to... answer the phone..... So I do.
We start to talk and all of the sudden this would be annoying, avoided, family call has become a very enjoyable conversation and we are cracking jokes and laughing about the fumblin' and stumblin' she went through on her seismic misadventures. It was fun. Everybody's ok. She is after all kinda cool, my aunt. Go figure.
Of course after a while I do get curious and turn on the TV. Actually, it was on, I just didn't noticed. I just changed the channel to the local news stations to get some hard facts.
BUMMER. TOTAL bummer. Houses and buildings with significant damage, very very few with structural damage. Scattered shards of glass on the floor and people with their hands fixed on their love-handles shaking their heads. That's sad man. Oh! 13:19 was the official time, 6,3 degrees on the Richter scale. It did feel like quite a shake.
Oh man! They were in the middle of the live news show when it happened! Hahaha! The old, fat lady really kept her cool. Respect lady, well done. The little guy next to her was clearly wetting himself. He wanted frantically to run away, poor guy. He gave his best and at least stayed in the place.. twitching and making funny faces.
Oh crap! there were some foreign students hiking on the volcano. That's mean... I think they said north-americans. I hope they're ok. I mean if I was a student in another country, studying an active volcano, ON the actual active volcano and the land below me (the volcano) started to shake and grumble and moan... I would be afraid... and I'm being dominated by vanity on that statement. They were british. 6 or so of them. I just imagine them more pale and with reddish hair. The above still applies to them of course.
And then there was a reporter from the other news channel just freaking out, from the inside, imploding in terror urging me to "stay calm". He nostrils flaring like a 1/4 mile hot-rod, and his respiration in synch with a victorious cheetah.
I feel a few shakes every now and then, or at least I think I do. Sort of like if I was drunk, but I'm not. I'm high. As I type the experts confirm my doubts: I'm not that high. And I'm not that paranoid either. Some news actors were confirming that more shakes are happening and more are to come, and they might be also quite strong, so "brace yourselves".
They have reports and suspect that the epicenter of it all was up north in the country. I still feel a lot and continuous after-shocks. Also I hear the house cracking every now and then, which kinda, pseudo, micro, freaks me out. But I can handle it.
Then my father calls, he is vacationing in the US with some family and friends. He is a geologist and an overall great guy. So he starts with the mandatory "is everyone ok" head count and then proceeds to tell me about a place between two volcanoes, a fault line (I had to look up the translation) that goes through this river (or something) and, well, I felt informed, he is quite a smart guy.
Right now: A considerable aftershock, a mellow earthwave at much, though, no worries.
So after all, or for now, places had problems, decorations fell to the ground very few roads had problems, and I believe a couple hydroelectric damns had "small filtrations", but everyone accounted for checks out as "fine" (this includes schools, hospitals, retirement houses, cemeteries, A-OK). So it's cool.
Oh Man! The news-puppet, talking with national seismographic experts just, confirmed every single word my dad told me. Now they are "interviewing" regular people and closing up on people's teary eyes. Give'em a break!
- NEWS DUMMY: "Did you feel the earthquake?"
- Hospital worker: [sarcastic, borderline P.C. look] "Who didn't, man! HAHAHAHA"
That made my day. Signing out!
UPDATE. Friday, January 9th.
The capital, where I live, was not attained by the earthquake as much as other areas north in the country. Most of yesterday's news reports came from within the central area.
Today reports surface from the most damaged areas and estimates range from tens to dozens of dead people. Cattle has been lost as well as plantations. Small towns have greatly suffered and in some cases up to 30 or so houses have been completely destroyed. Landslides have destroyed important communication roads and trapped vehicles under debris. It is without a doubt a very tragic scenario and my heart breaks with the images of hardworking families trying to deal with this overwhelming reality.
Right now rescue operations are taking place and families are coping with their material and human loss. Small towns are being entirely evacuated into temporary shelters and people are still missing. My heart, as well as the rest of the population's, is with them.
So far the national news channels are not reporting anything about the consequences on our neighboring countries, I hope our Central American brothers are safe from this catastrophe or at least managing the crisis.
