Ducha de lodo

After about a month belated start, the rainy season here in Guatemala is now in full effect. There was a period of four days late last week that it rained non-stop as Barbara was hitting the coast of Mexico. Now that the tropical storm has passed the weather was slipped into the normal pattern of intermittent periods of heavy rains that last for about an hour or two followed by the sun.

These deluges seem to sneak up with little to no warning as occurred yesterday over our lunch break. A torrential downpour lasting only about 30 minutes produced a calf-high raging river of mud, garbage, and excrement (there was a dog with a bout of diarrhea just a few feet upstream from us) flowing through the main street in town—the route Kelly and I had to take to return to my house for afternoon Spanish classes. Thankful to be wearing capris and Chacos, we trudged through the swirling putrid water until we finally reached a section of the road with a sidewalk out of the flow.

Having not even spent a minute on dry land, we heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. Before we knew it, a mini-bus whipped around the corner heading straight for us leaving toxic brown waves well over six feet tall in its wake. It seemed so surreal as I frantically popped open Kelly’s umbrella all the while she was yelling, “Hurry! Open it! Open it! Get down! Get down!”. As if taking shelter from a bomb, we crouched down behind our little plastic shield and braced ourselves for the oncoming flood. While it did block a good portion of the surge, our puny umbrella was unable to completely protect us from being inundated by the fetid stream. Everything seemed in slow motion as we looked up to see a brown river flying over our heads. Completely soaked from the waist down and smelling of sewage, all we could do was laugh. Bienvenidos a la época de lluvia, verdad?