Just before 7:30 this morning I was awakened by my wife shouting frantically from downstairs “\u00a1est\u00e1 temblando!” – it’s quaking! –<\/p>\n
The sound of a freight train roaring in the distance quickly jolted me out of a perfect sleep because the closest train tracks are about 50 miles (80 km) away in L\u00e1zaro C\u00e1rdenas. I tripped into my shorts and sandals and hopped, skipped and jumped downstairs, all the time thinking “\u00a1caf\u00e9! \u00a1caf\u00e9! \u00bfd\u00f3nde est\u00e1 mi caf\u00e9?”<\/p>\n
My wife and daughter were already on the ground floor with the front door open. I went into the street and looked up and down. Everything looked okay. Lampposts were still wobbling a bit. I was surprised that only a couple of other neighbors had bothered going outside. You’d think folks would at least try<\/em><\/strong> to save themselves. If it had been “the big one” we’d have had a lot of buried neighbors.<\/p>\n Fortunately this one appeared to have passed without any damage, and so far there haven’t been any replicas. But it sure set off a flurry of activity on my message board<\/a> by other ex-pats in the region from Barra de Potos\u00ed to Troncones as well as by folks in other parts of Mexico, some who were surprised and\/or concerned.<\/p>\n