Chaos in Peru...

Hello, friends and family.

First of all, I'm safe and sound in Seattle right now. I work my way back towards Peru this weekend...more on that down below...Nihal, my friend and colleague was caught in the middle of the earthquake...living in the same room I do...his story:

16 August 2007
Lima, Peru

Yesterday was my luckiest day. Like many others, I did not die in the dusty town of Chincha, when everything shook so violently under an 8.0 magnitude earthquake.

I was back from work in Hotel Columbus at about 6:00 p.m. Hotel Columbus is a 5-story, 2-year-old building, which is the tallest building in Chincha. I told the driver that we will be going out for dinner after a quick shower. At about 6:30 p.m., I stepped into the shower on my fifth floor room and felt the whole room shaking. I immediately stepped out of the shower.

With no clothes and wet, I ran out of the room into the hallway and realized that I was the only one on the top floor. The whole building was shaking more and more violently as if some giant monster has lifted it up with the outer columns and decided to rock it. I was not sure if I should stay on the fifth floor and have the roof collapse on me or attempt to go downstairs and risk getting crushed under five floors. I went back into the room and managed to get a pair of jeans on me. Everything in the room was either shaking or moving on the floor.

Balancing myself in the hallway, I was hoping that someone somehow could stop twisting this building. I knew I was going to die. I was looking for a place where I could hide my head to prevent injury. I did not want to die because it will be hard to explain to the kids why I did not come home from Peru this time. Then again, I wanted to die instantly by getting hit hard and smacked rather than getting trapped in the rubbles. I was waiting in eternity for the roof to collapse on me. After about two minutes, it stopped. I ran down as fast as I could.

I want to kiss the mother Earth for sparing me this time. On the second thought, I want to wait for a few days to make sure that she is not shaking.

Not much to say after reading that. Nihal is back in Texas and with his family...all is well. As far as I know, no one on the project got hurt. The main destruction has been south of Chincha.

I was supposed to be in Peru this Sunday night, but the Peruvian Consulate pulled a shenanigan and so now, I'm staying overnight in Houston to renew my visa down there for at least 1 day. There's a chance I'll work in the Houston office for most of next week since there is little work going on at the site right now...I'll learn more on Monday afternoon.

My trip to FL and WA has been great. Horsed around with the nephews, caught a few fish, lots of sun, some solid bike rides...very good trip. Oh yeah...when I tossed my nephew Josh in the swimming pool my last night in FL, he didn't let go and I wound up tossing myself into the pool as well...fried my celly. If you have my email, please send me your number one more time. Thanks!

I'll get back into the blogging. I'll upload some pix soon. Until next time, take care and say a prayer or two for the folks in Peru if you could...there's a lot of work to be done down there.

Scotty