Experiencing a 6.8 Earthquake!

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Over the course of 9 months in 2017, my partner and I sold all of our possessions, including 2 vehicles, and a house full of stuff. In order to sell the house for its maximum value, we also completed 3 months of renovations that had been lingering for over 3 years. We wrapped up 2 businesses and left a town and tight knit community that we both cherished. We did all of this in order to seek out a life of freedom, away from the hustle and bustle of the 9-5 life, but most importantly, we did it so that we could travel. This is our story…….

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Well, after living on the West Coast of Canada for 15 years, and being told that “The Big One” is coming any day, and having only experienced one small, very small, earthquake (4 something, of which I only really felt dizzy for a second), I can now say that I have fully experienced a relatively large earthquake.

We had had a really full day yesterday. I was super tired.  We had been up since 5:00am.

We were picked up early in the morning by an acquaintance that we had met through facebook. He is a Canadian, and his partner is Bulgarian (seriously?! We loved Bulgaria!), and they moved down here 2 years ago. We have a bunch of mutual friends from Canada, so we were introduced via facebook, and told that we really should connect when we get down here.

Joseph is a also tattoo artist here in Costa Rica, so it seemed like a good connection to make, since Chris wanted to do some tattooing here as well. Needless to say, the fact that he only lives 30 minutes from where we are housesitting, made it all that much more serendipitous.

We had a spectacular day with them, first heading to a different, near by, beach. They then took us back up the mountain and into the jungle to see their property, and spend the day with them there. All I can say is WOW! What a place! What awesome people! We definitely connected with them on a deep level, and made instant, wonderful, new friends.

But I have to remiss, as this blog post is not about that, and we have made arrangements to go back there in the New Year, to stay on their property and help out with some projects that he has planned.  So, there will be plenty more to write about that later on.

THIS post is about an Earthquake!

Needless to say, after getting up at 5:00am, I was tired! It wasn’t even 8:30, but down here, it really is the normal time to go to bed. We have been struggling with this. Most people get up between 4:00 and 5:00 here. The house owners that we are house sitting for, have people that come by to do work on the property, and they start at 7:00. The dog that we are taking care of, Omber, usually starts walking around the house at about 6:00, if we haven’t gotten up before then to take him for his walk.

In Canada, being artists, and finding that the time that we were most creative was late at night (not too mention it was the only time we HAD to be creative), we would do our art at night, and usually wouldn’t go to bed until around midnight (or later), and would get up at 7:30 or 8:00, starting work at 9:00.

For the first couple weeks here, we tried this routine, but it didn’t work. The dog wanted to be walked, other neighbours were up chatting away super early outside, the monkeys would start banging on the roof at first light. No too mention that it get’s really hot on the beach by about 8:00, so if we would walk the dog around then, he would be miserable, and so were we.

Slowly, but surely, we are falling into a routine of early nights, usually no later then 10:00, and getting up at 6 or 6:30.

So! I went to bed at close to 8:30. I had my book with me, thinking that I’ll just read a chapter and then nod off. No sooner did I lay down when the craziest feeling overtook me. I felt like I was floating on the ocean, bobbing around like you would in a boat. I heard Chris in the kitchen go “What the F#c@?”

I got out of bed, book in hand, and made my way to the doorway. I’m pretty sure I was muttering something like “holy shit, holy shit, holy shit…….”. Chris was looking around equally as in awe as I was, and said “Holy shit, is this an earthquake?”

I stood wide eyed in the door frame, holding onto it like it was my life preserver or something……book still in the other hand. By then, the gentle ocean bouncing had turned into more of a feeling of walking in jello, or maybe like that of being on a bouncy castle. I just stood there absolutely incredulous, not knowing how long it would last, or how bad it was going to get.

I have to say it was other-worldly, like nothing you could ever prepare for, or understand what it would feel like, until you have been in it. I kept thinking that the walls were going to start cracking, or that the roof would flap or SOMETHING! In fact, this completely concrete house, just rolled along as we did, barely noticing that anything was happening under it. We had stacked dishes high in our dish drainer, dishes from supper, not one of them budged. The hanging light was swaying, but really, that was the only indication that anything was amiss, as far as the house was concerned.

I think this made it all the more incredulous. Like, how in the heck is a concrete house not doing SOMETHING, when we feel like we are bouncing around in a bouncy castle?? Like, somehow it tricked our minds into thinking that we were imagining it. The laws of physics were being played with…….concrete and brick doesn’t bend? What the heck was going on??

Still standing in the doorframe of the bedroom, still staring wide eyed, I started saying “What do we do? I don’t know what to do?” “Do we go outside?” “We should go outside.”

A thousand and one thoughts were flooding through my brain, it’s impossible at this point to even really remember what I was thinking. We were acting on total instinct.  This whole scene only lasted a minute to a minute and a half I would say.

By now Omber either was reacting to our apparent panic, or he felt it to and was wondering what the heck was going on, as he was now pacing around the room as we realized that we should really get outside.

Chris grabbed the house keys, set his electronics away from the window (we are always in anti-theft mode), and we all went outside. No sooner did we get outside, it had seemingly stopped. I was standing in the front yard (not the beach side), still with my book in my hand, open to the page I was reading, and in my t-shirt and underwear. I made some mention of needing to put my book back inside and complaining about being in my underwear. Chris assured me that being in my underwear was fine, as I spent most days out in my bathing suit anyways! As everything had calmed down by then, I did deem it necessary, for some god fore-saken reason, to go back in the house to put my book safely inside! Don’t even ask me how that makes sense!

Our hearts were beating a mile a minute and we just kept saying “Wow, that’s what an earthquake feels like.” “Wow!” “Wow, that was so crazy!” “Do you think there will be aftershocks?”

This went on for a couple minutes, while I think we just thought we would wait there until other neighbours came outside. None did. Apparently this is just business as usual to them? Or maybe they were all soundly sleeping by then? At some point, while outside, I thought I felt like the ground was swaying again, but at that point I couldn’t be sure. We had no reference of anything else moving, like the light swaying in the house, but I did read that there was an aftershock of 5.1 about 4 minutes after the initial shock, so maybe that was it, hard to say.

We started talking Tsunami, and decided that we should go and take a look at the Ocean to see if it was being pulled back, like you hear about. I literally have no idea what we would have done of it was……climb a palm tree perhaps?? I’m pretty sure if it had of been pulled back, we would still have had time to start running somewhere……..not even sure where we would run to as this whole area is very low for about 2 km inland. Maybe we could climb on the roof of the house?

It’s interesting because I have to say that when we arrived here, and knowing full well that Costa Rica is the land of Earthquakes and Volcanoes, and having been told by our friends in Samara that they had already experienced an earthquake, I did note the location of the house, about 30 meters from the beach, and the fact that if a Tsunami came, we wouldn’t stand much of a chance against it.   But along with most of those fear mongering thoughts that come into our brains, I dismissed it, knowing full well that the chances are slim, and not wanting ANYTHING to ruin paradise for me!

After standing on the beach, in the dark, with only Chris’ cell phone to illuminate anything, but still being able to see the waves, and that they were acting normal, we decided that we could go back to the house. Nobody else was outside, it was all very strange.

Immediately, I grabbed my phone and started googling Costa Rica Earthquake. Sure enough, it was a 6.8, and the epicentre was only about 100km away from us, or so. Of course, I also scoured the internet for Tsunami warnings, of which there were none. We were WIDE awake at this point! No sleep for us!

Chris went back to his drawing, I posted a bunch of stuff on Facebook and social media to let everyone know that we were fine, we both had a stiff drink, and after I had decided that it was safe to go back to bed, not too mention after my adrenals toned it down a bit, and my heart stopped pounding, I finally did so, and slept soundly until this morning.

And now, I can say with some authority, that I know what a 6.8 earthquake feels like! I have been reading articles this morning about this event, and it seems as though many people had many different experiences. No casualties were reported, save for 2 people that had a heart attack (??), at least that’s what one article says. If you would like to read more, I have links to an article here, and here.  Apparently some people, did have things fall off the walls, and dishes break.  A mall in San Jose has cracks in the walls and floor, 5 stories up.  Obviously being farther away from the epi-centre, makes it less intense.

In the end, and after all is said and done, and as a lover of experiences, I have to say that I am glad to have experienced this one! I have never been afraid of anything like this, I figure nature will do what nature will do, we really have no control anyways, but it’s nice to actually know what really goes on, and honestly, it wasn’t that bad.  I’m better off for having experienced it, because at least now we know what to expect.  Obviously, things can get a lot worse, but we will hope that we never have to endure an 8+. For now, a 6.8 is just fine in my books!

Pura Vida!

Xo

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Thanks for reading! Please know that above all else, I aim to inspire others to just get out and see the world. Traveling is such an enriching experience, and I can’t even comprehend how much it has shaped me as an individual. If you have ANY questions, or need travel advice of ANY kind, PLEASE don’t hesitate to email me at the address below! I will do my very best to help you in any way I can!

Xoxoxo Happy Travels!

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