Trying to think of a title for this post was almost as time consuming as writing it. After our June post (And… We’re Back), where we summarized what we had been up to for the first half of 2025, we had truly planned to get back into blogging on a more regular basis. However, even with all sorts of good intentions, life can sometimes get in the way of the best-laid plans and, unfortunately, we ended up MIA for the last half of 2025 as well.
So, titles such as “Let’s Try this Again” or “One More Time from the Top” or even “Water, Water Everywhere (But none where it should be)” crossed our minds, but in the end, didn’t feel quite right.
Knowing we now need to play catch up once again to let you know what we were up to for the last half of 2025, it only seemed fitting to title this “And…. We’re Back (Again)!”
So, just like last time, grab and drink and buckle up… we have six more months we need to cover!
July and August flew by in the blink of an eye. During the summer months, we keep the AC on in our home office during the day (so Lorne’s brain won’t explode from the heat while he is working), and I spend my days in there too, since it’s cool and comfortable.
During these months it’s way too hot to spend any time out on our patio, and since storm season started, it was time to pack it all up. We moved all our patio furniture and wall décor into our guest room to store until November. I always find it weird that we pack up our patio stuff for the summer and then look forward to the winter when we can bring it all back out again.
We typically spend these months watching the weather, concerned for both the heat index and storms. Three or four times a day we check for updated info on both the weather app Wunderground and the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) website in case there is something we need to be aware of.
By the end of August, we felt prepared for September to arrive, as we usually receive most of our big storms in September. Little did we know how unprepared we would be for the next three months of all the crazy that would come our way.
Sep 1
A 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook our condo at 2:38pm, surprising everyone while they were going about their day. It was reported to be a shallow earthquake (10km deep) with the epicenter near San Jose Del Cabo, approximately 37km (23mi) from our place. An aftershock of 3.8 magnitude shook us again at 9:59pm. No major damage was reported.
Coincidentally, a year earlier on Sep 3, 2024, we were suddenly woken at 4:48am by a 4.5 magnitude earthquake, with multiple aftershocks that followed.
Historically, Cabo San Lucas has experienced small, almost undetected earthquakes, however the 4.5 magnitude earthquake in 2024 surprised everyone. After our 4.8 magnitude earthquake in 2025, local authorities have now accelerated plans to install better monitoring systems, just in case.
Sep 3
Tropical Storm Lorena that was heading northwestward intensified into a Cat 1 hurricane and, later that day, the system attained maximum sustained winds of 140km (85mph), about 340km (210mi) west of Cabo San Lucas. The storm was far enough away to not be a direct hit to us, however the heavy rainfall from the outer edges of the hurricane resulted in much flooding throughout the area.
Knowing the storm would pass near us, we prepared for the rain. Our window latches typically leak during a storm so to prevent history repeating itself, (the small flood we had in our home office in Oct 2023 from Hurricane Norma when water seeped through the window latches overnight), I had the brilliant idea to stuff disposable diapers under each latch. Overnight, one of them ended up collecting over a liter of water!
Sep 4
After the storm, we carefully surveyed our condo for any water damage that might have occurred and found there had been some leakage on the inside of an exterior wall and apparently a leak in the roof as we could see some minor water damage on our bathroom ceiling.
Sep 15
Tropical Storm Mario, that had formed Sep12 off the coast of Acapulco, headed northwestward and passed by the Baja Peninsula on Sep 15.
Tropical storms may not bring hurricane force winds, but they do tend to bring more rain than hurricanes, and we have learned we need to be prepared for this. After Mario passed, our area saw many homes and vehicles damaged from floodwater. Sinkholes and flooding on roadways caused widespread traffic issues, and drainpipes were damaged, causing wastewater to flood several neighborhoods. The total damage caused by Tropical Storm Mario was estimated at USD 11.4 million. In comparison, the total damage caused by Hurricane Lorena (Cat 1), who passed by a week earlier, was estimated at only USD 1.8 million.
Surveying our condo after the storm, we were grateful to not see any additional water damage and we were glad the diapers in the windows still did their job.
Sep 22 – 24
Normally after a storm passes by us, we usually enjoy a week or so of cooler temperatures as a bit of a reprieve, however, right after dealing with the aftermath of Tropical Storm Mario, we ended up having a huge heat wave thrust upon us. Major cities in our state recorded heat indexes up to 48-50C (118-122F). That “feels like” temperature was nasty hot for a few days. The heat finally broke when a small rainstorm passed by, and our temperatures dropped down to a more manageable 30C (86F).
Sep 26
Around this time, we started to notice the smell of mold in the cabinet under our kitchen sink. This was immediately cause for concern as back in 2023 we had dealt with our dishwasher leaking and the kitchen sink not draining properly and we hoped and prayed this was not happening again. After pulling everything out from under the sink, there was no sign of any leak or any moisture anywhere, yet the smell of mold was even stronger.
At this point we suspected water might have seeped through the wall which would cause moisture to build up behind the cabinet. We contacted our personal property manager (Angelina) to ask her to send someone out to inspect the outer walls of our condo.
Sep 27
The inspectors Angelina called to investigate our water/mold issue arrived to do a thorough inspection of our outer walls, and sure enough, they found numerous cracks in the exterior walls of our condo. These cracks were not noticeable when we purchased the condo, nor even a couple of years ago. We highly suspect the cracks were from the earthquakes we had in Sep 2024 and again in Sep 2025. We also suspect the mold intensified due to the heatwave that came through after the storm.
We needed to have the cracks filled, but since we were in the middle of storm season, we had to wait a bit for some clear days so we could schedule the job to be done.
Sep 29
While getting ready to go to sleep this night, we felt some water drip onto our heads. Our bedroom AC unit is on the wall above our bed, and the occasional drip is not totally unusual, as sometimes there is too much humidity in the air, so that the AC unit forms condensation, which can drip off the edge of the unit. However, these drips were larger and seemed to be dripping off the edge of the headboard. Then we noticed water was leaking from the AC down the wall, landing on the headboard.
Late at night it was hard to see exactly what was happening, so the easiest thing to do was to move our bed to another wall, lay a towel over the headboard to soak up the water, and wait until the next morning to figure out what was going on.
Sep 30
In the morning, we took a closer look at the AC unit and saw that on the wall below the AC unit the paint was bubbling up, the wall was soft and full of water and was still leaking down the wall.
We detached the headboard from the wall to move it out of the way so it would not be further damaged and were surprised to find that mold was already growing on the back of the headboard. This would indicate the AC had been leaking for some time.
Later that morning I opened our upper kitchen cabinets and noticed the smell of mold in them too. On the flip side of this wall that holds the kitchen cabinets is our bedroom wall with the leaking AC unit. This would no doubt be the water source that would cause mold behind these cabinets.
Lorne immediately contacted David, the guy who installed and maintains our AC unit and Chay, the guy who built our kitchen cabinets to have them come to see the issue and figure out what could be done.
Oct 2
Chay (our carpenter guy) arrived to inspect our kitchen cabinets and confirmed what we suspected, that there was mold behind the upper cabinets as well as the lower cabinet under the sink. He advised he would be able to remove the back panels of the cabinets, clean and treat the mold and replace the back panels with new ones. This work could only be done once the bedroom AC unit was fixed and the cracks in the outer walls were sealed so we would be sure no additional moisture would seep through again.
He also took our headboard back to his carpentry shop as he would be able to clean, sand, treat and repaint it for us.
Oct 3
David (our AC guy) arrived to inspect our leaking AC unit. He confirmed the drainage pipe was damaged/blocked and needed to be repaired. It was so weird to see a portion of the concrete wall simply disintegrate when he was checking for the source of the leak. He confirmed it would be a three-day job and would be able to start the following week on Oct 10.
As a temporary measure, he attached a longer piece of hose to the drainage pipe and let it drain into a bucket.
Oct 8
Hurricane Priscilla reached Cat 3 strength (185kmh/115mph) on Oct 7 while she was about 345km (215mi) south of Cabo San Lucas. Later that day, she thankfully weakened due to some cooler water, and then on Oct 8, passed by us as a Tropical Storm.
After Priscilla was gone, we noticed further water damage to our bathroom ceiling due to the roof leak. We asked David if he could also repair this and he confirmed that he would be able to fix it when he worked on the AC unit.
Oct 10
As if Hurricane Priscilla wasn’t enough, on Oct 10 Tropical Storm Raymond headed directly for the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula, which meant even more rain was coming this way.
Here in Cabo, the heavy rainfall and flooding from Raymond caused landslides and sinkholes and 107 people needed to be evacuated.
Raymond’s remnants combined with remnant moisture from Priscilla’s passing two days earlier, contributed to flash flooding and landslides in many Mexican states that caused at least 76 fatalities and more than USD$6.1 million in damages.
Of course, the AC repair work that was scheduled to start today had to be postponed for another week as it was not possible to work during a tropical storm.
Oct 13
After a weekend of clean-up from the storms and while waiting for all the repair work to begin, we had a moment to think more about the AC issue. We had asked David if after fixing the drainage pipe, he would be able to guarantee no further leakage into the wall and he said he couldn’t for sure, as it’s always a possibility with an AC unit.
After Lorne and I discussed further, I wondered if we should move the AC from the current wall to another wall (an exterior wall), then if there was any future leakage, at least the kitchen cabinets would not be affected again.
Lorne reached out to David to confirm he could do this, and David also agreed this would be a better solution and confirmed he could do it for the same quoted price. He also advised he would be able to start work on Oct 17.
Oct 15
The guys arrived to start filling the cracks in the outer walls of our condo. This work took two days to complete.
Oct 16
We contacted David and he confirmed he was ready to start the next day. Even though the job was scheduled to take three days, we know well enough that nothing ever goes as planned and I wanted to prepare in case it did take longer. Since we had to move everything out of our bedroom for them to be able to work anyway, it only made sense to move our bed into the guest room so we would be comfortable during this reno, even if it was to be for only three days.
That evening, we moved all the stuff we normally store in the guest room during storm season into our home office and the living room. We then moved our bed and loaded all our clothes and essentials for the week into boxes to have available in the guest room.
We were ready…. Or so we thought. I mean, what could possibly go wrong at this point?
(A little foreshadowing here… just as I suspected, it wasn’t just three days, we ended up sleeping in the guest room for a total of 46 nights!)
Stay tuned for Part Two, coming soon!
ps… Don’t forget to check out the latest Snippets!
