The Beach / Peace cam aka La Manzanilla live started August 2014, back when streaming live was not as cut and dry as it is today. It took a lot of learning, trial and error and the help of Mike Barbie, Deano, Tim and Mark bringing parts to get it up and keep it going. Ans a huge thank you to EarchCam for the service. It was born out of a strong desire to share the life I am living on the beach.
700,000 of those hits came during hurricane Patricia. I had the cam hooked up to the battery of my car so I could keep streaming after they shut the power off. At one point the wind blew the cam crooked, I went out to fix it and after that the phone started ringing off the hook with calls and emails from people all over the world asking me why I was still there and telling me to get out of here!!! I also got phone calls and emails from television stations asking for permission to use the cam stream and a radio station.
I didn't get the cam streaming again until about a week later but the following days I got emails from all over the world asking how we were here and giving both best wishes and admonishment for my stupidity.
Below are a couple of the News reports that used the beach cam stream. So its actually 700,000 direct views via EarthCam, who knows how many around the world have seen the cam stream indirectly.
Here are a few links from the message board archives about the web cam when it first went live. Going through the site map for 14-03-17 to 14-11-25 and clicking on some of the links brings back some wonderful memories and makes me nostalgic.
Oh, Daniel, this brought me to tears, again. I watched the storm's progress on telly from my hospital room in Guadalahara, in tears, wishing safety for everyone ... and you all were! SO much property damage, but no deaths. I was ... and am, deeply grateful. The almendria tree outside your office was naked when I got here a month later ... and look at it now! It is, for me, a symbol of this village and its people -- strong, resilient, willing to change, and totally beautiful.
What a brilliant idea. We were all glued to the beach cam in the hurricane. It’s a lesson about sharing, kudos to you Daniel.
I appreciate all those views without ads too. These days a million views could translate into some big bucks for you, the way the internet is going...
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Re: One million views !
Posted by Daniel H on April 21, 2021, 9:46 am, in reply to "Re: One million views !" Edited by board administrator April 21, 2021, 9:52 am
Thanks.
Re the ads, never been interested in advertising on the LM website, the rentals section provided me some income back in the mid to late 2000's but hardly anyone pays the $250 pesos a year fee anymore and I am too lazy to go get it. Just gettin my dopamine from other things now.
EarthCam does an advertising spot before the stream starts but I only see it on the cell phone and even then it is only once in a while, so not sure of their business model but am very appreciative of their free streaming. I have ideas for them to increase viewership and have sent them emails with those suggestions.
On the road to discovering the current set up the options were around the $100 usd per month range! So again, Kudos to EarthCam.
The whole video streaming world has changed immensely since 2014, but since I am happy with the current set up I have not kept up with the changes. People are live streaming their lives, I am surprised no one has live streamed some of the events here in LM (if they have I haven't heard about it).
Its a max cheapo set up but since I don't want more resolution due to privacy issues (discussed on the archive links) I just leave it as it is and am happy no one has asked me to stop streaming.
Boy, that brought back some memories. My family wanted me to leave, but that didn't seem like a great option, so I hunkered down and waited it out. Glad I did, as the roads were impassable for days.
I had the same experience--people frantically calling and emailing me to GET OUT NOW. I told them the same thing that I told the Proteccion Civil officer who came to my door and ordered me to leave: I take care of lots of animals and only have a bicycle, so where do we go and how do we get there? "Good point. Good luck," he said. But I didn't feel unnerved until the Beach Cam went out because it was the only way to view the storm from the ocean's point of view.
As soon as the howling winds began to die down, someone across the street started to softly play a drum. Others joined in with various instruments, pots and pans. It seemed to be a sign that the storm had passed and that my neighbors were okay. The next morning in the light of day, everyone went out to survey the destruction and begin to clean it up. That was the wonderful part.
Once I left the office and got to the place next to the art gallery (Casa Mariposa, thanks Janet), The wind was howling through the Palapa on the upper floor and making a high pitched whistling noise, I thought the Palapa was going to be destroyed so I went down one floor and went to sleep (what else to do when the world is coming to an end?).
In the morning I awoke to the sound of a river outside, I looked and yes there was a river outside going down Perula Sur.
I walked through the river barefoot (smart guy eh?) and got to the office. It was ####ed up, roof part gone, doors hanging off their hinges, waves had broken through the back windows. It was overload for me, I found a place to get coffee and just sat in front of the office in a daze.
Later Josito came by with an electric drill and put the doors back on their hinges so I could secure the place. Simple for him, impossible for me. I owe him big time.
I think the name of their hotel, Pablo, in Emiliano Zapata, is El Refugio -- apt, me thinks. Would you be willing to email me a copy ... or the link to this footage? It's still sobering and awe-inspring and terrifying to watch this. I love your signs of peace being restored, Lynne, and your account of the numbness that set in, Daniel.
Hey Jo Anna. I think you might be right about the name of the hotel in E. Zapata. Yes, truly terrifying to watch and to imagine how those folks felt trapped there with the roof coming off. Here's the link amiga.
Okay Jo Anna, I see that didn't work! So... there's probably other ways to retrieve this link that Daniel and other clever people know about, but what you can do is simply click on the play button, then click on YouTube at the bottom of the window and then you will see the link in your browser that you can then copy. Alternately, if you click on the 3 dots at the top right, then click More, you will have an option to click on "copy link". Buena suerte! I'll email you it if you don't find success.
Just watched this video again for maybe the 5th time since we experienced Patricia...and found I was twisting my hair nervously! Still when I hear high winds I begin to tremble! Was a time not to be forgotten, the noise sounded like trains going through the air, the windows coming apart from the house, the trees flying by, the trees falling all around, and us just watching, frozen in place inside, praying that it would be over...soon! And when it was over and the sun came out the next day, there were folks with their brooms and the sounds of machetes and a sigh that we were all intact and accounted for, and smiling! Stunned but smiling!
Ha, Lynn you are so right! At one point there were 5 chainsaws going! But it was some days later as it was not essential as it was for some! But I had trees here below that were not even mine! They just settled here! But it sure gave me a different view of the Eastern hills!
Only days before I spoke to my gardener and said we needed to do some tree trimming! Be careful what you ask for!
I remember spending that memorable night with memorable Rita. She was wonderful, so resourceful and unafraid. She was resolute and steadfast, so reassuring. I could not have spent that evening and night with better company.
We went upstairs to escape the expected torrential rain and expected inundacion (my Spanglish}. But instead we got torrential wind. Surrounded by windows and glass, this was not the best place to be.
Within five minutes after 5:00 pm and the storm's arrival, a flexiblass piece of roofing was sailing to and fro in front of us in the patio. Luckily it didn't hit the windows or glass door, flying instead over the wall to the neighbor's yard. Phew!
Then, around 9:00 pm, the accumulated water started to seep in from under the patio door. The drains had become plugged. With flying crap we couldn't go out to unplug them. Rita and I mopped and bailed for what seemed forever. But we got through the night in one piece.
In the morning, Rita yelled from our patio perch to the neighbors, they turned out to be her relatives, to come and help us escape. Our entrance and stairs were buried in two feet of broken tile and debris. We couldn't get out or down. Rita's nephew scaled a shared wall and came to our rescue, phew!.
Finally, when we were able to get downstairs and to the front gate door, we were greeted by Tivo and Angela who had hot coffee in their hands and big relieved smiles on their faces. What a welcome sight! Tivo died two weeks later. I wish I had a picture of that aftermath morning, Tivo still alive and happy.
And I so wish that Rita was still here too. She was the best to face whatever calamity or danger with. I do miss her and her reassuring smiling face. Cruz
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ONE MILLION - DONE!
Posted by Duckie Hoomever on April 22, 2021, 4:31 pm, in reply to "One million views !"
I was lucky to click on No. 1,000,000. Here (I hope) is a screenshot.
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Playing with numbers
Posted by Daniel H on April 22, 2021, 6:26 pm, in reply to "ONE MILLION - DONE!"
Thanks Duckie, glad that's settled.
To demonstrate how much a billion dollars is (a stack of bills on its edge) he gets in his car and drives a normal speed for over one hour!
To do the same for a trillion dollars you would need to fly a 787 at cruising speed for 5 days.
- A million seconds is a little less than two weeks. - A billion seconds is about 32 years. - A trillion seconds is about 32,000 years. i.e. 30,000 BC!
If you made a million dollars in a year, it would take you a thousand years to make a billion.
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Re: ONE MILLION - DONE!
Posted by Tim Edwards on April 23, 2021, 7:38 pm, in reply to "ONE MILLION - DONE!"
Hey Duckie: with the branding of images these days, you should register that and it might be worth a lot of money. That said, it has been very interesting to see the eveloution of the Beach Cam. I'm not sure if the one we have now is the one I brought down, but if so, it might have been $100us. However the kudos go to the Web Master. He has done a great job over the years of connecting us NOBs to the wonderful beach of LM.