Hurricanes.
If this was a word association test, most people would probably respond: Florida, New Orleans, Caribbean.
Two years ago, I would have been right there with them. The notion that hurricanes are a creature of the eastern Pacific was not part of my experience.
The reason is easy. Lots of people live along the Gulf of Mexico. That means people are interested in news story when weather causes problems on the East Coast.
But the eastern Pacific has tropical storms and hurricanes. I knew that years ago from my cruise visits to Mexico. Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta have maintained ruins from their recent rounds with variously-named storms. But that piece of trivia never stuck with me.
Tomorrow I may have an opportunity to improve my memory by experiencing up close and personal my first hurricane -- or tropical storm.
Andres is headed our way. Whether giant or midget, we will find out tomorrow. It is a tropical storm at the moment, but predicted to pick up enough speed to graduate to the esteemed rank of hurricane.
Take a look at the picture at the top of the blog. About in the middle of the red area (marked "hurricane warning") you will find my little village of Melaque. (You will have to imagine because no population centers are marked.)
Admittedly, this is just a prediction. And as President Michael Dukakis can tell you, predictions are not always accurate.
I will predict one thing, though. Sometime early tomorrow morning, I will lose electrical power. That means no blog entry.
So, this will have to be it.
I suspect we will end up with some wind and rain, and a few severed plam fronds.
When we have power again, I will fill you in on how my three-day a week Spanish course is going, and whether there were any interesting storm events.
Until then, salud.
