Easter, Earthquake and the Dynamite House

On Easter Sunday, Betsy and I enjoyed a buffet brunch at the Marina Terra Hotel. We figured the Semana Santa traffic would still be heavy, so we walked. It’s only about a fifteen minute walk. The hard part of the walk is that it’s mostly on very uneven cobblestone on a hillside.

I had planned on attending the Spanish Language Easter Morning Service at the small San Carlos Catholic Church. They had posted on the outside of the church that mass was at 10:30. They decided to have it at 10:00 instead so it was almost over by the time I got there. But I took a few photos. The parishoners wanted to be sure I got pictures of the interior. They are proud of their tiny cathedral.


The church has 10 rows of pews and one aisle down the center. I'd say it seats around 100 people.


At the Marina Terra Brunch, a fellow played pan flutes all day along with pre-recorded accompaniment. It's kind of hard to describe what a pan flute is. Try to image a set of pipe organ pipes, about an octave's worth. Then reduce those pipes to a size that you can hold in your hands. Then the player blows into the top of each pipe for a different pitch. He had a small repetoire of not more than ten or twelve tunes that he played over and over again, mostly by Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles and the Eagles.


The brunch was decent. They had ham. It was an entire small pig - snout and all - sitting on the buffet table next to the trays of other meat. I asked for a tiny slice. It was very chewy and I didn’t eat it any after the first bite.



On the walk back to the house, Betsy and I decided to find the gate and longway driveway to “The Dynamite House.” That’s the name I’ve given to the house that sits below us. It's the house that has the Spite Wall in front of the Ice Cream House that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.


We found the gated driveway and easily walked around the iron barricade.


We strolled around the perimeter of the house and peered inside the windows.


There is an outdoor shower and full kitchen by the swimming pool. The swimming pool would be amazing – if ever it is filled and used – as it gives the optical illusion when you are in it that it spills right into the ocean. The photo below shows the view if you were sitting on one of the bar stools in the swimming pool.


We walked around the bottom of the empty pool, sat on the bar stools in the pool, and marveled at the view. I think we felt like a bit like kids in a forbidden playground.


A stairway with no hand rails goes along the outside of the swimming pool down and part way down the cliff.



We found the staircase to the rooftop and roamed around there for a few minutes.

Fom this vantage point we finally got some great pictures of the back of the Berryhill house.


It seems at this point the Dynamite House may sit empty forever. It has never been lived in, not even for a day.

We came home and took naps. When I awoke I checked the email on my iphone to find a number of messages wondering if we were OK due to the earthquake!

We did not feel the Earthquake here. We’re probably about 300 miles away from the epicenter. I wondered though, if there would be any after affects at the beach. The earthquake in South America a few weeks ago produced an 18 inch Tsunami here in San Carlos. This was much closer. So around 6:00pm Frances and I went out to the estuary. We drove across the dirt filled bridge that The few folks that were still there from the long weekend were beginning to pack up there belongings as dusk approached.

The ocean was strange and the tide was very high, much higher than I’d every seen it. There was no wind, and yet the usual calm and flat waters of the estuary had three foot swells, many of them forming and breaking as far as 50 feet out. The island that is usually loaded with gulls and pelicans was almost empty. Flocks of seagulls flew in erratic patterns. A Blue Heron waded in the shallow surf.

Frances would not go in the water. One of the reasons she likes the estuary water is because it’s calm. Today it was not. On the walk back to the car – about 1/3 of a mile – we had to almost walk on the banks as the tide was coming in higher than I’d ever seen.

We went back yesterday – Monday – to see what it looked like after a night of high tide. The shape of the beach had changed. In the areas where the high tide had come in there were now alternating mounds and valleys where it had previously been flat sand. Oh – nothing huge. The mounds weren’t more than a foot high, but it was still visibly different.


This beach is normally clean along the shoreline. Today all along the water’s edge were clumps and gobs of seaweed. It's not the same kind of seaweed as on the Northern California beaches. I'm used to long strands with large leaves and giant bulbs at the end of the strand. This seaweed is more the consistency of a very thick feather boa. Mostly it's brown, but on this day there were bright red and orange leaves mixed in that made it look almost visceral. A few clumps were a very dark brown - almost black - thick tangled blobs that stood about six inches high. It looked like the sea had barfed all over the beach, which kind of makes sense. The photos probably don't make it look like any big deal, but the beach is normally clean and very gently sloped.


Her insides probably got churned up a bit with the earthquake. She even deposited plastic cups and watermelon rind along the shore. It was almost as though the sea - along with the rest of San Carlos - had partied too hard over the weekend.

Frances and I went back again around 6:00pm today (Tuesday) and the Sea of Cortez had reclaimed some of her trash and was beginning to look like her old self. The birds were back. It's so interesting. I wish I knew more about this kind of thing.

Well - late this afternoon (Wednesday) my friends Rosey, Ernie, Jim and Geneva arrive in San Carlos for about five days. Since there is no longer internet at the house, I may be a bit more sporadic with this Blog over the next week or so. I suspect I'll have a ton o' fun and have lots to tell though. I have to clean the car out and get some groceries before they all arrive in the afternoon. They are bringing me tons of AA batteries!! My camera just devoured my last four this morning. They're also bringing a couple of other items we've requested that are either hard to find or way expensive - several tubes of caulking for the window beams, and some Spray and Wash which is needed with increasing frequency due to Frances' occasional incontinence. It's tough being an old dog.