10th September 2004

Tim, me and all the rest of the travellers in our posada waited for the worst, then eventually went to bed. The Brit couple have been driving me nuts. Alison quipped that if Ivan hits during the night she’s coming into our room, because she doesn’t want to die with them. We both laughed out loud. Funny how you laugh at stuff like that. I guess you have to – a bit like the locals getting drunk. I was so worried about their houses. They are so flimsy. They’d never have survived it.

At about 2pm Ivan suddenly changed direction and started to head north. The Virgin came through for the people of Los Roques - and us - although many of the smaller houses are totally swamped with water and sewerage and what used to be a salt bed at the back of the village is now a small lake. It rained all day today and most of last night. It started again about half an hour ago.

On the brighter side, the rain held off in the early evening last night allowing us to attempt our salsa moves in the plaza until 1am drinking rum and Cervesa - Spanish for beer. (I obviously haven’t had enough cheap Spanish holidays because I seem to be the only one who didn’t already know that). But then I hate beer. It was the fiesta of the Virgin of the Valley after all and nothing was going to stop this lovely people having their fun. The minute they’d stopped emptying their houses of water, they were all straight out onto the square.

DJ Anthony was the star of the show. Hysterical. He starts off with Salsa and Merange music and then once it hits about midnight everything goes crazy when he starts playing a mix of salsa house and trance. Every now and again he booms "DJ Anthony!!" and the crowd goes wild.

The people here definitely work to live. Today, as we waded ankle and sometimes shin deep in water, every face we encountered, whether wading with us or scooping out bucket loads of water from their homes boasted a big smile and an 'ola' or a joke quipped about the rising water. Tim is concerned about the pelicans - their wings get waterlogged. They are really funny to watch lined up on the boats holding their wings up to dry out. I haven't seen any since the rain started though. No doubt they have found a good hide out.

We walked along the beach tonight as another 3 storms approached - all from different directions. It was a spectacular sight, but storms have always scared me. It reminds me of when I got caught out alone in a flash flood in Italy with jagged lightening streaking down in front of me. I was eight then. I’m a lot older now but they still terrify me. Back to the posada to drink more rum then. They swig it straight from the bottle here - that's when they are not dancing like lunatics.