September 29th two waves of storms from TS Narda brought flash flooding to the cute town of Yelapa. The devastation was incredible but even more incredible is the resilience of this town. We visited just two months later and the town had been cleaned up to the point that you wouldn’t realize anything happened here. The waterfall in town push 304 meter boulders about 20-30 meters downstream. This resulted in the necessity of new walkways and stonework which has already been completed. The bridge over the river El Tuito was washed out, a small foot bridge has been reconstructed as a temporary alternative.
For the cruisers – be careful the mooring balls have been replaced but their spacing is a major problem. We started on one mooring ball and fifteen minutes later a different mooring ball was under us and close to our rudders. I tied off to both mooring balls to ensure the second one didn’t wrap our propeller or rudder. Later they used a boat to drag the second mooring ball further away (the second mooring ball is one used by a day charter trimaran). In the evening Edgar checked on us, looking around I was surprised to find we were only 20 feet from a panga on a mooring and it was definitely possible we may go bump in the night if we stayed. He moved us to a different mooring ball but this was mooring ball was also quite close to a different panga but a bit more of a gap. Thankfully there was a light breeze all night that kept the boats pointed towards shore and away from each other. I’d say right now it is sketchy to visit and I’m not sure if I’ll bring my daughter and her friends for a visit when they come down on springbreak – which is a major bummer.
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