Thursday, March 19, 2009

He-lo-lo-los

No, that's not a new greeting, that's how our nephew used to say helicopter. It's not much different in Spanish - helicoptero - so his then three-year-old mouth had the same difficulty as an American toddler.


There's a naval base here in Zihua and it's quite common to see helicopters flying overhead throughout the day. Yesterday as we were leaving the beach we noticed a huge dust storm over the downtown area, and at first, overreactor that I am, I thought it was a fire, then another grenade attack. There were several helicopters hovering quite close to the ground, and we finally decided they were just stirring up the dust.

A short time later, just as I got home, I heard another helicopter flying through town. I'm not up on my 'copter lingo, but the ones we usually see are normal what I'd guess you call "military" helicopters. But these looked like troop transporters.


Two came through town right after another, then a third, normal looking 'copter landed as well. My overactive imagination pictures dozens of troops swarming the downtown area, but I never went down to check it out. Hopefully today we'll find out what's up.

17 comments:

Janna Leadbetter said...

Cool! I just hope it doesn't mean anything bad is afoot.

Anonymous said...

Could be that they are just "showing their might", translates to doing maneuvers to train and let the opposition(cartels) see what they can do.
Multipurpose, train and give out a warning.
And if you think of it, a third benefit is that it can cause comfort to the local people.

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Janna, I don't think there is. Like Penguin said, it's most likely just a show of force. We've seen a lot more police patrols lately and less "bad" people on the streets, so hopefully it's working.

JLC said...

Your photos look like the opening scene to MASH. (Oh great, now I have the theme song in my head.)

Jennifer Taylor said...

I hope things stay safe and it isn't anything serious.

colbymarshall said...

Any new updates?

Robin said...

That's sort of cool, but I hope there aren't any bad implications. Maybe the team from The Unit are coming to clean up the town. Those dudes are tough cookies. They travel in helicopters that look like that one. It's all coming together. . .

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Turkey, I knew they reminded me of something, lol.

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Thanks Jennifer, and welcome!

There was just another helicopter flying overhead as I was coming home, but nothing exciting to report.

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Colby, I just saw the paper while having lunch with Ibis, and from what I understood, the helicopters ARE a show of force, to show they mean business. (that's my horrible translation.

I will say, we haven't seen the local drug dealers in a couple weeks, so whatever they're doing is having an effect.

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Robin, I think you might be on to something...

Spy Scribbler said...

Hah! If The Unit comes to town, you have to kiss the sniper-dude for me. I know, I know. Surely Ibis will give you special compensation (that's not the right word, is it?) to do me a favor, right?

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Is it too late to confess that I've never seen The Unit and don't even know who's in it? I've heard of it, just haven't seen it.

Nadine said...

Melanie, you definitely lead an interesting life! You are the only person who could write a sentence like this, "we haven't seen the local drug dealers in a couple weeks" and I don't think twice. LOL

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Nadine, it's been weird because we've noticed several people are no longer around, and these are people who were ALWAYS there. To the point we wondered if they ever slept. Now the street is practically deserted, although I did see one of the transvestites flash his breasts at some people this afternoon.

Nadine said...

"one of the transvestites flash his breasts at some people this afternoon." I reiterate my point :)

That is odd that the people you normally see all the time aren't there.

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Well, we're assuming those are/were the dealers. The police are apparently doing something right.

And yes, I realize my life has turned into Bizzare-o Land.