I slept fourteen straight hours. My wife only managed four. Not a dream.
Our local tiki lounge/restaurant Rimini, has a generator and have a charging station set up. We can charge our phone. Our main tienda has opened it's doors and we buy supplies. There has been no price gouging. As a matter of fact, shop owners seem to be giving discounts for those in need. Local restaurants like Motumbo are cooking food before it spoils and serving free lunches. We buy food. The weather is almost perfect. We are in the beginnings of Ecuadorian winter. It is cool and clear.
Though the Manta airport lost its tower there are helicopters and planes flying in and out constantly. No commercial flights. These are all aid flights from Quito, Guayaquil, and other countries.
Ecuador President Rafael Correa, declares a period of mourning. It will last 8 days.
Trash pick up has been skipped twice now. It is piling up. Not a sanitary state. Some are burning their refuse in vacant lots. We may have to as well.
Yes, there are more quakes but none even close to the initial one. These are off the coast though and we have to stay vigilant. Tsunamis are a real possibility.
We are now seeing pictures of other cities including Portoviejo. It is worse than we ever imagined.
We still have no phone minutes to make international calls or cash, but Tamy is going to get us cash. There are a few working ATM's in Portoviejo. We give her our ATM card. She will get us cash. We are told not to go to Manta either.
Helicopters have landed less than 2 blocks from here with emergency supplies. Garbage is being picked up.
The next day WiFi is restored. We spend hours contacting family, posting to Facebook, letting everyone now we are OK. In truth we needed this to move forward, get over the quake. The inevitable question is asked. "When are you coming home?". We are home. If we have to go, we will decide where that might be then. We never ran from hurricanes, we won't run from this.
The next day our landlords arrive. Their family is OK as is their home. They fix the front gate and make other minor repairs. The house is fuego (strong) and we will not have to move.
Water is flowing into our cistern which never leaked. All our friends are OK and all our services are back. It is unbelievable.
Life is slowly returning to normal in the village of Crucita. The mourning period had passed. The music that infuses our life is returning. More and more shops are opening, More and more street vendors are around. Yesterday, we saw bottled water being delivered. Yes, life is returning to normal here but just a few miles away it is a very different story. We have only been here a short while but things will never be the same. Sometimes change is tough. Most times it is tough. The Government of Ecuador has done very well managing this event. The people of Ecuador are nothing short of amazing. We are in awe of them. Chao!
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