A harrowing 40-hour bus ride from hurricane-ravaged Mexico to O.C.

1/15

A man walks on a street where most power lines and light posts have been knocked down by Hurricane Odile in Los Cabos, Mexico. (Victor R. Caivano / Associated Press)

2/15

A kid walks by a souvenir store damaged by Hurricane Odile on San Lucas’ main street in Los Cabos, Mexico. (Victor R. Caivano / Associated Press)

3/15

Mexican soldiers try to stop people from looting a convenience store destroyed by Hurricane Odile, in Los Cabos, Mexico. (Victor R. Caivano / Associated Press)

4/15

Maria Ramirez, left, puts the shoes on her one-year-old niece Maritza next to the remains of their home that was destroyed by Hurricane Odile in Los Cabos, Mexico. (Victor R. Caivano / Associated Press)

5/15

Raimundo Diaz Cruz, left, and his wife Graciela Castillo, right, salvage wood beans and bricks to rebuild their house after it was destroyed by Hurricane Odile in Los Cabos, Mexico. (Victor R. Caivano / Associated Press)

6/15

Strong winds blow palm trees on the beach in Los Cabos, as Hurricane Odile turned into a Category 4 hurricane. (Victor R. Caivano / Associated Press)

7/15

Tourists sit on the concrete stairs in the service area of a resort after the designated shelter was destroyed by Hurricane Odile. (Victor R. Caivano / Associated Press)

8/15

Tourists watch the ocean swells generated by Hurricane Odile from inside a swimming pool at a resort in Los Cabos, Mexico. (Victor R. Caivano / Associated Press)

9/15

Tourists rest inside a shelter at a resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, as Hurricane Odile batters the Baja California Peninsula. (Victor R. Caivano / Associated Press)

10/15

Waves in Cabo San Lucas. Hurricane Odile swirled menacingly toward Mexico’s Los Cabos resorts on Sept. 14, forcing authorities to evacuate high-risk areas and open shelters as the powerful storm threatened. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP/ Getty Images)

11/15

The waves in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, as Hurricane Odile swirled menacingly toward Mexico’s Los Cabos resorts. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP/ Getty Images)

12/15

A family from San Jose cover themselves with pillows as they sit on the concrete stairs in the service area of a resort after the designated area for shelter was destroyed by winds in Los Cabos, Mexico. (Victor R. Caivano / Associated Press)

13/15

A view of an empty street in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, as Hurricane Odile made landfall. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP/ Getty Images)

14/15

A child eats a piece of bread as families rest in a school serving as a shelter after being evacuated from their homes in Los Cabos, Mexico. (Victor R. Caivano / Associated Press)

15/15

Strong waves hit the coast. (Oscar Ramirez / EPA)

By Harold Pierce

Sept. 20, 2014 8:22 AM PT

Four Newport Beach men who took a harrowing bus trip out of hurricane-stricken Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, are back home after 40 hours of travel.

John Lenell told the Times Community News he and his 19-year-old son Kevin and their fishing buddies David and Jack Ewles were promised a 20-hour ride to Tijuana when they boarded a bus in La Paz at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

After enduring two days of traversing flooded rivers, eroded roads and countless potholes, they crossed the border about 7 a.m. Friday and arrived in Newport Beach by 9:30 a.m., Lenell said.

“We were kind of sent on a three-hour-tour type of deal,” Lenell said, referring to the castaways in the TV show “Gilligan’s Island.”

Hurricane Odile, which made landfall about 11 p.m. Sunday and ravaged hotels, vacation rentals and stores in Cabo San Lucas, forced the group to travel to La Paz, where they found the bus.

Given the choice of waiting in a seemingly endless line at the airport or buying the $200 bus ticket to Tijuana, Lenell said he chose what he thought was a more promising path.

His group joined about 400 other tourists fleeing the country in a caravan of seven or eight buses.

It didn’t take long for Lenell to realize the 900-mile trip would take longer than 20 hours.

“A lot of the ride was spent not being sure what was going on and what was ahead,” he said.

The bus often took detours on dirt roads and frequently stopped for hours at a time because of traffic accidents and flooded highways.

At one point, the bus in front of Lenell’s became stuck in a river near Santa Rosalia. Passengers waded in the water and tried to push the vehicle across before a big rig came by to tow it out. The driver, however, only had a rope that continued to break.

“The expectations were building and then we’d be disappointed with the results,” Lenell said.

Eventually, someone found a chain and towed the bus to dry land.

For Lenell, the low point of the trip came when he found out that passengers from another bus ahead of his were stranded at an impassable river. They labored for a day building a dam to try to keep the water level from rising and spent the night sleeping on the desert floor because the bus’ air conditioning was turned off to conserve fuel, Lenell said. The buses behind it had to wait it out.

“This is where you hoped in your dreams that 20 or 30 transport helicopters take you out of the middle of Baja to take you home,” Lenell said.

Pierce writes for Times Community News.