2015 In a Nutshell

It seems silly at this point with instagram, Facebook, twitter, snapchat, and whatever other social media tools we use, to write paragraphs on what those snip bits covered on an almost daily basis.

But, at the port-a-potty line of 70.3 Cabo last Sunday, a woman I'd never met came up and introduced herself asking if I was Tatiana as she loves to read my blog and is very happy I'm back racing and involved in the sport. WOW! That made me blush and it was so cool to have that kind of reach and appreciation from people you may run into once in your life or maybe not at all.

Triathlon, and sport in general, connects us like that- and it's special. We can all inspire and motivate people when we don't even realize it.

Deep talk aside, I'd like to note for years ahead when I read back at 2015, that I am incredibly thankful for what life has given me these past months!

After accepting the Austria Worlds 70.3 slot at Galveston, I enjoyed an amazing two weeks in Spain that were a welcome change to every other kind of vacation/travel I'd ever been on. I met some wonderful people and experienced things that I thought only exist in movies.

After that escapade, I was back in Cabo hosting our SMASH/DIMOND camp. It went really well, and only cut short due to a tease from Hurricane Blanca, that luckily just caused some rain and power outages...but led to me fleeing Cabo early for the summer.

Back in Texas, I jumped into Lubbock 70.3 to get my butt into gear for Austria training and then followed my good friend and teammate, Dawn Elder ("Kona Dawn"), to a month long training camp in Tucson.

I LOVE TUCSON! We had a ball- and the camp resulted in another fabulous friendship with Lauren Palmer, who I'm sure I'll battle out the 25-29 in Kona next year if the cards line up for us;)! Some other HPB/Smash athletes joined us for some random training days, and I left for Europe feeling fit and in love with triathlon all over again.

Europe can't even be summed up here. Austria is the most beautiful country on Earth. The training at Hotel Mohrenwirt was absolutely perfect. I've never been to or seen such picturesque and ideal training grounds for triathlon, and road or mountain biking.

After 3 weeks alone in Fuschl Am See, my brother and mom joined and we headed to Zell Am See for Worlds.

The race went as best as it could've. I swam and biked my heart out, and may or may not have paid for it on the run but that was the plan- just GO FOR IT. Im happy to see cycling finally clicking- just need to run like I used to with that new bike rhythm.

After Europe I touched down in Texas and raced TriRock Austin which is always a blast! Then it was off to Chicago for Short Course Worlds. Chicago itself I'm enamored with. What a cool city! I hope to return to enjoy it as a pure tourist soon. I had some issues in that race- just felt flat on the run, and a fiasco in T1 with running in bike shoes through literally wet mud puddles resulting in minutes trying to clip into my speedplay pedals.

To end the year, I had the intention of racing Ironman Cabo and again joined Dawn for her final long Kona workouts in Texas.

However, when I returned to Cabo at the start of October I realized Ironman felt daunting. The heat those first two weeks was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Also, and in hindsight it's even clearer, I was unplugged after that whole summer of training, racing, and traveling. So I opted for the 70.3

That half was important to me as I have a lot of people that look up to me here in Cabo, and I needed to perform to give back in effort what this place and the community means to me.

I probably rolled over the last staple-thing before the turn to the manicured airport toll road at around mile 30 of the bike. I was leading the age group race by 10+ minutes and after standing around for a miracle pit stop from a mechanic or anyone that would loan me a spare wheel, I called it and went on to cheer for my brother, Daniel. He ended up winning overall amateur in his first 70.3!

There's no excuse for not carrying a spare but I'll give my reasons- I have no race wheels here. Daniel even forgot my front and I scrambled to find us another wheel from local friends that weren't racing 1 day before bike check in. He even had to use a front clencher and rear tubular.

The disc I flatted I just bought from a friend a few weeks ago and it had a bike shop glued tire that after the race took me 30+ minutes to peel off. I had no pit stop here...and in the end YES I did say "last race, all or nothing, here goes!".


Bitter sweet weekend as a lot of friends, new and old, were in town racing and we hit up some of my favorite spots. Superstar Mel McQuaid decided to stay a couple more days with me and we went with some other triathlete friends to swim with the Whale Sharks!

.......

What that flat caused though, is a fire inside me that I haven't felt since I last raced Hawaii! It made me so angry that I couldn't put all that hard work to use and showcase it in front of my hometown. Naturally, I looked for what race I could do this year- but not just any, one that could have an end purpose and a lot at stake.

Enter IRONMAN COZUMEL. My last Ironman in 2011, my first race as a Pro, and in my country. BAM! Unfinished business is an understatement.

This last week ramping up the mileage and planning the training showed me that I needed that recovery/taper week leading into Cabo 70.3, that I was EXHAUSTED beyond measure and I couldn't even sense it myself!

Right now I am a mix of awesome emotions- I'm pissed, motivated, ecstatic, hungry, ambitious....I want to go to Cozumel and absolutely race my heart and body out. I want to cross that finish line with nothing left- nothing but a deep exhalation of what an amazing year Ive had and how fortunate I am to be surrounded by wonderful family, friends, and supporters.

Training and racing aside, things in the sport development realm in Cabo are going fabulous! We have a new government in place and investors/local business keen on attracting sports tourism and brining in the infrastructure needed to make Los Cabos an athlete's paradise. I won't share more until things are clearly defined, and honestly because there's too much to share I could probably write a book!;)

Keep an eye out.

Cheers.

2015...Checking in from Cabo!

Um, wow. That about sums up my reaction to life thus far. Up until I reached a quarter century, literally at 25, life had been pretty smooth sailing. The biggest stressors I had faced were college papers, demands from parents and coaches, the occasional fight with a friend, a sports injury, the buildup to an Ironman....cake!

This post may be a long one because I have a lot of personal and professional things that I've kept to myself the last couple of years that I'm finally ready to speak about and release, welcoming a breath of new air, new beginnings, and a new found strength that only certain downfalls could've provided.

The first bump in my step isn't really news- the back injury that seemed to pop out of nowhere in 2012, thus leading me to pull away from any hope of being a professional triathlete, maybe ever competing in an Ironman distance again, and starting the real world job hunt that had only proved fruitless since my 2009 college graduation.

It came at a necessary time as I was also exhausted and craved change- maybe not so much change as came about- but change nonetheless.

Fast forward to moving to LA and no luck at finding a job that would sponsor a visa. There were amazing internship offers that I wasn't legally allowed to take as an intern can't be foreign unless the company sponsors an entire H-1B petition for them (no company in their right mind would do such a ludicrous thing).

So out of a casual bar conversation with a stranger bloomed the idea of moving to Cabo San Lucas- the thought of which had never entered my mind prior to that fateful February evening in Pebble Beach.

So in a span of two months I visited Cabo, signed employment with Snell to sell real estate, sold my car in LA, packed up my condo, flew to TX, packed bags there, and moved to Cabo.

Through all of this, beginning in November 2013, I was battling some perplexing, frustrating, and depressing health issues. I've only vaguely told people about this because until recently I still had no clue what was really going on.

All I knew was that since cutting back my training from a full time athlete to your average gym-goer, I had actually become more fatigued. Where was the sense in that?

If only it had been just fatigue, I started getting double vision, headaches, grave unexplained and random bloating, muscle cramps, and a complete apathy toward any and everything.

One could say I was depressed, but it was different. It would come in bouts, and even when my mood was great, when I was stoked and at my most optimistic, this cloud loomed over my physical and mental health.

Around April, when I was finally in Texas for a few weeks before the move to Cabo, I Googled my symptoms like mad, determined to narrow down what could possibly be preventing me from even 30minutes of activity a day, causing weight gain while eating healthy organic foods and in complete caloric control.

Enter hypothyroidism. I was convinced. This had to be it. Thyroid and a major hormonal imbalance whether related or not, where causing this turmoil.

Back track for a second- even in early 2013 when I went to Clermont for QT2 Pro training camp, I had a discussion with Jesse about my ridiculous fatigue and recovery issues at my young age. How I felt like I was 80 and training was ten fold harder.

Anyway, three days before scheduling an appointment with my family's endocrinologist, I started taking a supplement by Mega Food (I love this company btw because everything is FOOD based). I didn't want to take anything synthetic, especially on my own, and I didn't want supplements that had thyroid hormone etc because if I was wrong I'd be playing with fire.

Mega Food's Thyroid Strength has a large dose of iodine from kelp, 300mg of tyrosine, some holy basil, copper, magnesium, basic things that help to support your thyroid.

You may think I am crazy as heck and that's fantastic but I swear by the time I stepped into the doctors office a few days later, I almost wanted to apologize for not canceling the appointment because I felt 16 again.

I had energy to conquer the world, I slept amazing, the water retention disappeared about as magically as a bad bout of PMS, the headache gone...just out of this world amazing.

I told the doctor this, he ordered blood work, and a week later we discussed that I may be borderline hypothyroid. As such, I should continue on Mega Food's supplement, my multi, and check back at year's end. If I feel like stopping that supplement then I could go off it a few days or weeks and monitor the symptoms.

I lost roughly 10 lbs by July, and the sky was blue and sunny again!...And then it happened....In Cabo Mega Food anything can't be found, and the only multi is Alive (which is ok, but you'll later understand why this didn't work for me), and I had run out of my own. Everything returned to the nightmare of early that year, until late August when a trip to Mexico City reunited me with my pills haha that my mom had sent from the US with a friend for me to pick up there.

Again like a roller coaster, I was revving back up to normal. Thanks to the hurricane, once back in the US I wanted to monitor blood and all again and see if there was a way I could not be dependent on this supplement forever...I mean what if they discontinue it? What if I am in another country? etc. Also, I was sure something else was missing in this puzzle.

Coincidentally, I happened to read Jordan Blanco's post about some health issues and her doctor, in Colorado, Dr. Silver at Boulder Peak Health. She seemed like an excellent option- a doctor that lives in the heart of crazy endurance athletes like myself, is an athlete herself, and speaks of hormonal and women's health so passionately.

Immediately I scheduled a phone consultation, we ordered blood work, and this is what we found....

Everything looked normal and actually very healthy. Creatine looked a bit elevated, could just be dehydration....but there was ONE "aha!" to my symptoms: MTHFR.

I have a genetic mutation C677T that hinders my usage and production of folic acid.

Very few multi vitamins on the market use FOLATE- the bioactive form- and instead use synthetic folic acid, which if you have my issue you can't use and it only in a sense clogs you.

Folic acid is also used to fortify a lot of foods- luckily many are gluten products like pasta and cereals that I don't eat.

Regardless, through my years as an endurance athlete I had run these reserves of folate pretty low, and since a couple years ago I had stopped taking a certain multi vitamin that contained the FOLATE that I didn't know I needed and had switched to multi's like Alive that have folic acid.

If you do your research you'll see that your body's ability to use folate directly impacts your thyroid, your hormones, your ability to make new cells, seratonin, dopamine, everythingggg!!

So why had Mega Food's thyroid supplement worked really well for me? Because it fed me the tyrosine and other thyroid supporters that my body wasn't churning on its own.

Since then, taking METHYLFOLATE, and/or a vitamin like Garden of Life's Kind Organics Women's Daily which has folate (from lemon), I feel like a NORMAL 27 year old!!

These ups and downs have resulted in my inconstant training, in reality exercise. They've caused me to value health and the ability to have even the most basic active lifestyle, and more importantly that Ironman did not cause this, that I didn't overtrain, that I'm not a hypochondriac, that I wasn't depressed, and that I can and will still workout avidly and compete in sports- especially the one I love most.

Through this all, through the moves, the job challenges, the hurricane that left me literally feeling homeless and unemployed, and sad about what had happened to such a beautiful place, I learned that as quickly as the body recovers, so does the soul...so do groups of people, and cities like Cabo.

And out of the storm, if you keep your mind and your heart in the good that you want out of life and what you hope to contribute, life will exceed your expectations and give you tremendous fortitude and opportunity to live out your potential and help others do the same.

I came back to Cabo in early December, with only plans of staying a few days at a friend's house- unsure what conditions it was really in, just wanting to tie some lose ends, not overstay my tourist-visa-welcome in the US, and clear my head a bit after two months of another round of door knocking for US jobs that led to nothing.

The progress was outstanding! Sure roughly 60% of hotels are still shut until late spring/summer, there are some "issues" in the lower income areas of San Lucas and San Jose, and only things pertinent to tourism are being dealt with full force, but if you really witnessed or understood what this place went through with Odile, the fact that it felt 99% normal in its everyday functions, leads to nothing but respect and admiration for the community.

At that point, I had a gut feeling (I always say there's one thing you can trust over everything else and that's your gut!) to try and stay in Cabo. So I put it up to fate. I said, if there's a place for me here, then I will be able to commit myself to the sports development that I had begun to get deeply involved in with TriCabo, it will be nearly effortless to find a place to live, and my family will be receptive to the choice.

One phone call to Paco of TriCabo expressing my desire to commit to them 100% at least until summer and see where it goes, and he was on board and thrilled at my decision. One email to these condos that a new friend had shown me, and they responded with ONE unit left for lease through June available Jan1.

Coincidently, one of our TriCabo coworkers that had been administering TriCaboKidz had begun to slowly step out of that role and so it was perfect timing that I came in to shadow her and take the reins to grow our Triathlon School for kids, promote our races, our camps, and help develop sport in Cabo.

I feel elated, healthy, free, and honored to be giving back doing what I love more than anything else.

Working with the kids is refreshing, inspiring, challenging, and am also coaching some local adults, and hoping to change a little bit of the culture in this part of Mexico to be more in tune with an active and healthy lifestyle.

As well, I have my own lofty triathlon goals for this season that I can't wat to announce in the next post...now with the fabulous assurance that my health is on track!:)

My hope is that I can welcome any of you to Cabo in the near future and showcase the progress we have made with the community's involvement in sport, and host you in a wonderful training or racing experience.

Cheers from sunny Cabo!

Hurricane Odile- From Paradise to Armageddon in 12 hours

I'm writing from the safety of my family's home in Mexico City after fleeing Cabo on a rescue plane yesterday morning. Words will never be enough to portray what I saw and experienced in Cabo during and after Hurricane Odile, but I want to write the most detailed account so people can get a sense of what the situation was really like as of Wednesday, Sept 17- as most media outlets are filtering things likely to protect tourism in the long run, as well as not to worry friends and relatives of those in Cabo during the storm. The easiest way to do this is as a "timeline"...

Sunday morning (Sept 14)- Woke up and went to the grocery store as we all had word that the hurricane was coming, but Mega (the grocer) wasn't packed nor frantic, so nothing seemed too worrisome. I bought two jugs of water, and some coconut water as I had plenty of rice, energy bars, and snacks to hold me down a few days (even weeks- thanks Powerbar!!) if the electricity went out. I returned home and just chilled the remainder of the day as all my training for Cozumel 70.3 had pretty much wrapped up and I was enjoying this OFF day and looking forward to a cozy but interesting night in, and my upcoming Wednesday flight to Cozumel for the race!

Sunday afternoon- I got messages from friends saying to duct tape all glass doors and windows and fill bathtubs (don't have one) with water in case it needed to be used to wash dishes or other things after the storm. Having never experienced a hurricane before I started thinking this was kind of crazy but it did raise my level of concern so I had my neighbor help me tape my windows. I also put up my bike box and some dining room chairs against my glass balcony doors to protect them further.

Sunday evening- the skies and the ocean were beginning to look quite eerie and the wind was starting to howl. I continued using internet and face timing with family and friends until about 8pm when lights would flicker and eventually the wifi went out. At that point, as the wind was making very scary loud noises, and the doors and windows were rattling I had the impulse to change out of my pijamas into workout clothes and tennis shoes in case...well in case I didn't even know- it just felt like what I should do. Also, in a rather amusing but what felt like necessary way, I packed a backpack with some essentials- wallet, jeans, a jacket, power bars, emergen-c packets, car keys.

9PM approx- a glass balcony door from my bedroom (I have a studio so it's continuous but the bedroom is a bit separated by two steps and an archway)- blew out and I heard some glass splatter across. Adrenaline rushed through me, I grabbed my backpack, literally put on my bike helmet and sunglasses to protect me from flying-anything, and rushed to my bathroom and shut both doors (one leads to my tiny hallway the other to the bedroom). I still had phone signal and called my mom scared out of my mind. At this point I had only a flashlight and didn't know how long the batteries would last so I spent various minutes in the dark with doors rattling and the wind making atrocious noises and things breaking everywhere outside of the bathroom. Eventually the ceiling began to raise (where the vent is), and shake badly, my balcony doors had broken too and if the bathroom doors gave I was completely exposed in the 4th floor to the 125mph winds and anything flying around. **Note: I later learned that it actually helped when things broke because it leveled out the pressure in the apartment. If I could do it again I'd have left the entire balcony doors open to the screen only and maybe nothing would've broken- happened to many people I later spoke too (not even a coffee cup had moved because they opened windows on purpose!).

Early on I had to open the bathroom and retrieve my passport and the jug of water I had forgotten as water had already stopped running so in that hot bathroom I couldn't be without water till morning. It was the scariest few minutes of my life trying to retrieve those two things.

This continued for about 2.5 hours. At roughly 11PM the eye came over us and I heard my neighbor yell for me. I thought their place was in better condition but I was wrong! Their front door had blown out as well as their glass pane/windows in their bedroom and their bathroom ceiling. So they took cover with me (he and his gf and their two dogs) in my tiny bathroom where we remained until about 7am. We'd occasionally sneak out to pee in the dark as the winds calmed down for periods at a time.

7am-10am Monday Sept 15- We walked out to a ghost town- it looked apocalyptic. All of the beautiful palm trees were skimmed, the skies were a gray I'd never seen before, there was some flooding, the pools and the ocean were a disgusting brown, the palapas were all collapsed. Only about 6-8 people were renting in the Casa del Mar Apartments, and the resorts which it belongs to- Zoetry and Las Ventanas had been evacuated. I immediately shifted to robotic mode- it was instinctual- and started to clean up and gather my things. My apartment was clearly uninhabitable and at that point I just had to figure out where to sleep that night and how to get my things out of the apartment asap. I ran into one property management guy and he was walking around with a notepad assessing the damage to report it to the office at a later time in weeks I assume. I told him I was evacuating and made sure they were going to take care of the damages with the owner from then on. A couple that was renting an apartment two floors down for a few days had been the smart ones that opened their balcony and so other than flooding their place was not damaged. They offered me a bed or couch if I needed for that night and also helped me with some clean up (limited to sweeping some glass and using all towels to limit the flooding). They had little water or food to hold them through the next few days and I am mortified thinking they're still there as their flight was for the next day (Tuesday) but they had no rental car, there were no taxis functioning and like I said the whole complex was empty. So once I left and it was dangerous and also wasted gas to go back once more, I don't know how they fared.

10am- I drove down to Cabo to my great aunt's house to check on her and see if I could move in with them for now. I didn't take that couple's offer cuz I had to get all my luggage out and it was survival time so being around those that had food, water, and other resources, and some plans was imperative. The roads were okay but you had to meander through telephone poles that were splayed across the highway, rocks, fallen signs, often drive on the wrong lane, etc. My great aunt and her husband were find and their community had some neighbors that had really taken Odile seriously and stocked up well. They had found a pipe that was providing water thanks to gravity and so after a long day of packing my things and bringing over 4 luggages with all my clothes and stuff, I was able to shower with buckets. It was the best shower of my life.

4pm-8pm I returned to my old apartment to grab my bike box, wheels, helmets, bike trainer and kept that in my trunk with the plan to store it at another friend's house that was very secure, in their garage. My great aunt's neighbors cooked some fish on the grill, they even had wine and she made a salad- we were using all the food that was going to spoil and actually had a lovely dinner enjoying the fact that we were alive and safe for now. It was a much better Monday than the majority of the people. I also had 3 bars of phone service on their rooftop so I called my mom and dad and brother and a couple other people.

Monday night- candles lit, I said goodnight to my family and went to sleep- shocked.

Tuesday morning Sept 16- Woke up actually thinking I was still in paradise in my apartment- then it hit me. I rushed up to the roof to try and call my family again but service was now completely gone. I went with another guy from that complex to try and get signal on one of the highway ramps in town but we quickly realized it was gone everywhere. I asked him to take me to Brent's house - my friend that I train with at Diamante all the time and whose house I wanted to store my bike and prob other luggage with for the long term. He and his wife and baby (4mths old) and his mother in law were about to drive out to Diamante as that exclusive property had large generators and they could care for the baby better and eat. I asked if I could follow them in my car and I was very very fortunate to spend the whole day in Diamante.

The contrast between the people of San Lucas we saw on the drive over lining for a bit of gas in barrels, and packed outside all the grocery stores and other shops looting and fighting over everything, to a buffet, and cold drinks, and even some people playing on the putting green in Diamante was heart wrenching. People in all of the hotels/tourist developments were not being told of the chaos in town both in San Lucas and San Jose so as not to set them in panic. The dark reality was hard to keep to myself but I was also shamefully enjoying an almost normal day in Diamante as people were walking and standing in the heat for hours just to get basics for their family.

A friend that's a pro golfer at Diamante let me store my bike, wheels, trainer, pump, helmet and shoes in the clubhouse and I couldn't be more grateful. It is by far the most secure place in Cabo due to it's distance from town and incredible security.

Tuesday 3pm approx - we left Diamante through back roads to avoid the chaos in town but still ended up seeing the disaster in San Lucas where the Walmart Plaza, Costco, etc are all located along Hwy 1. Cars were parked all along the mudded highway and people were walking out with everything- abusing their chance to get free food and water and stealing electronics and anything they could get their hands on. Police, even military squads couldn't and didn't do much of anything. I was really worried driving as a single young girl, in a nice car, through this free for all mayhem. We sped quickly back to Cabo del Sol (residential grounds and also resort grounds of the Sheraton and Fiesta Americana).

There I rushed to another friend's house, Paco- he's from Mexico and we were working together with TriCabo for all the exciting races and events. I learned his wife and kids had fled on a plane that morning- which didn't surprise me but I was beating myself for not having come to him sooner. Luckily, for me, he was still there with his two housekeepers. I found one and she waked with me to the Sheraton where he was meeting with the head guy of the resort and he explained he stayed to help with the situation at hand; also to secure his house. The Sheraton had a generator going and the people were enjoying 3 buffet meals a day and enough water/drinks. Though they weren't very comfortable sleeping in a big convention room with nothing but a couple fans.

All these tourists had their names written down by hotel staff and told there were no commercial flights for a few days, and eventually they would get bussed over and put on planes. I knew there were already at least federal planes coming in and even though the airport was destroyed it seemed stupid to not try and at least see what was really going on for myself the next day- especially with a car of my own and enough gas for 2-3 trips- another advantage I had over tourists as they didn't have rentals and again, no taxis were available. They were completely reliant on what hotel staff told them.

5pm Paco offered me to stay with him at one of his villas- the other had been absolutely obliterated- front door blown out, plasma tv from the living room blown out, marble slabs broken in half, ceilings ripped. My great aunt has two cats and I'm deathly allergic, and as I said it was survival mode and Paco frankly lived in a much more secure community and is very well connected so he was my best shot and making it through the next week if need be or at least getting to the airport soon. I took him up on the offer and went to my great aunt's to collect my 4 suitcases full of clothes, shoes, jewelry, purses, everything.

6-6:30pm they had a tiny generator that was going to pump water for a half hour. I showered with a bucket from the little water that came through the bath. Filled my car with my stuff and drove to Paco's. A neighbor of his in another villa had experience with hurricanes having lived in Cancun- he's the manager of Esperanza a luxury resort in San Lucas, and he was the only one that did a phenomenal job of forcing his guests on buses to San Diego Sunday morning. Some resisted not understanding the state of emergency but his initiative won them their safety. His wife had made soup from pots on a grill, and we had another great dinner, and then it was off to bed.

It was also a ghost town there- only a few people in the villas and it looked out of a horror movie. I asked Paco to sleep in the same room as I, and frankly we were both scared during the night. I still tried to open the faucet to brush my teeth only to be reminded I had to use the water bottles. We grabbed buckets of pool water to flush the toilet- just surreal stuff. You learn to appreciate basic necessities.

We were told 8pm no one was allowed out of Cabo del Sol as cars would be parked outside to prevent people from coming in along with armed security.

Wednesday morning Sept 17- 6am went with flashlight to the underground parking to get my car and move some belongings around in suitcases to make sure of what I was going take on the plane. Paco's driver had agreed to meet me at 8am to take me to the airport to try and see if I could get on a plane. If not, at least we would see what the situation was. Again, I feel incredibly fortunate to have enjoyed a breakfast at the Sheraton buffet- limited- but still, coffee, eggs, has browns, and fruit. I asked a staff member if the guests were being taken to the airport at any point that day and he said "no, there are no commercial flights today, we'll just have a meeting at 9am to tell people how things will work to evacuate". I grinned in disbelief- what BS.

As we were driving to the airport at 8:30 am 50+ cars were lined in one gas station waiting to get rationed gas. The radio was repeating that it was obsolete to make the trek to the airport because there were no commercial flights today. OMG. BS!! I was looking at planes in the sky on the toll road drive over!

We get to the airport and there was a line of 300 people maybe? I told the driver to take me to the front, got out of the car, and cut my way to the very front of the line. No apologies whatsoever. Once I knew there were actual flights leaving, I was going to be on one of those flights no matter what it took. I only had a small suitcase and a backpack with me. Fortunately I spotted two families I knew and grabbed the hands of the children and when they opened the actual way over to the military trucks and walkway to the runway (the airport was in shambles, you got on at the runway), I yelled "women and children" and we found our way to the very front group. We got on one of the military trucks and got off at the point where it was a line for Mazatlan and a line for Guadalajara. They were going to make 3 trips to these mainland airports and from there people could connect to their homes internationally or in Mexico. I got on the Guadalajara plane, and from there to Mexico City where I finally landed at 4:30pm.

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Looking forward....

I am still in disbelief- I loved Cabo and cannot believe it went from paradise to now being enforced by Marshall Law and looking like a bomb exploded.

I pray for those still there without running water and power. In that heat, sickness/infections are almost inevitable and the frustration of unshowered hungry thirsty people leads to incredible danger.

Some friends and even my great aunt and her husband, understandably wanted/had to stay. They own property there, they have pets, family, etc. I was in a sense a tourist renting a furnished place and only with 4months of ties to Cabo. It won my heart over immediately but I could leave and at my age with no pets, children, or in a relationship I can go anywhere.

The only thing I feel I can do to help Cabo is to provide information and pictures and pressure others to donate for reconstruction and to aid those stuck in Baja Sur.

I know it will be rebuilt and it is a place so dear to nationals, and internationals, that they want to see it thrive in all its beauty again.

At this point I will be in Mexico City for a few days before going to Texas to my mom and stepdad's a few weeks- need to see them, my brother, my dog, and have a sense of normalcy for a while. Also, I have little clothes and stuff with me so need to be with them and regroup.

I'm open to finding a job in Mexico City in the marketing/Ad industry that I love, but I am slo heavily considering a job abroad - not going to spill the beans now but I had an incredible phone call yesterday with an opportunity to live/work in a country I've been dying to visit since I can remember.

The point is, things, even horrible things, happen to all of us and we grow and learn from all of the experiences. You have to see it as a blessing even in disguise and make the most of it. If I learned one thing it's that the only things that matter are safety, health, and family. I would not have even flinched at just leaving with the clothes on my back and my passport and phone.

I LOVE YOU CABO AND YOUR WONDERFUL PEOPLE. YOU WILL RESURFACE EVEN BETTER THAN BEFORE.