Earthquake in Mexico City

Well, around 9:30 AM we experienced an earthquake here in Mexico City. We were still in the hotel room - James was about to take a shower and I was sitting on the bed watching the news. I suddenly felt a peculiar sensation, as if things were moving. I stood up and the rocking motion continued. It felt like things were moving from side to side and frontwards and backwards at the same time. I called to James in the bathroom, "James, do you feel that...I think we{re having an earthquake!" After he came out of the bathroom, I was still feeling the movement. We saw the window curtains swaying back and forth as well. Then, the quake began to subside. I assumed it wasn{t too bad because, well, the building was still standing and the electricity and water were still on, and no gas smells or anything like that. About 10 or 15 minutes later, in between news from Israel/Lebanon, and London, there was a brief snippet interjected on CNN, "This just in, we{ve just received word of a large earthquake near Mexico City. The Mexican Geological Survey is still trying to determine the magnitude." It was on the local news again much evening. We later learned the quake registered a magnitude of 5.9 on the Richter Scale. The U.S. Geological Survey later assigned a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter Scale. The epicenter was about 125 miles west southwest of Mexico City. It turns out though that there really was no damage and thankfully no one was hurt. So, we're all okay. An interesting experience though. We've now seen a large volcanic eruption in Ecuador on this trip (Volcan Tungurahua, which cause evacuations in the towns nearby), and now have experienced a moderate earthquake.

Here is some information about the earthquake:
CNN - Quake Rocks Mexico City
USGS - Magnitude 6.1, Guerrero, Mexico

After all that, we had breakfast, and then traveled south to Cuernavaca to visit my host family from when I studied Spanish at Universidad Internacional there for six weeks last summer. It was very pleasant to visit with them and see them again. We all had lunch together around 3:00 in the afternoon at their home. After looking around the center of Cuernavaca a while, and eating some delicious ice cream, as well as tacos al pastor, we went back to their home, said our goodbyes, and then made our way back to Mexico City.

We're getting our luggage rearranged now due to the new restrictions because of the terrorist threat from London that occurred yesterday. Tomorrow afternoon we takeoff around 3:30 for Atlanta (about a 3 hour flight). Looking forward to returning home after 5 weeks of traveling around 4 countries.

Hope you all are doing well. Take Care!