Umbrella Time in Guatemala

You could tell that it was coming.

You could feel it in the air... the uncomfortably hot and sticky air.

The heavy afternoons that caused your life to become a slow-motion parody of itself. Your energy levels dropping as the humidity levels soared. The air so thick with moisture that you were tempted to use the backstroke to move from room to room.

In a word, “yuck”.

Finally, this past Monday, Guatemala heard a sound that had become quite unfamiliar during the previous six months: a quiet tic-tic-tic on the window panes.

“Hey, it’s raining” someone in my office announced.

As the day wore on, the sky grew increasingly dark and angry. The soft tic-tic-tic became a hard tac-tac-tac, as the rains intensified. The temperature plummeted. The winds picked up and started slamming against the office building. We all ran around closing windows and shutting doors.

Suddenly a brilliant FLASH of light... and an explosion of thunder! And again! And again! The lights dimmed, and then struggled to come back. So we ran around turning off all the computers and printers.

The tempest was now deafening, and our Monday afternoon meeting put momentarily on hold as we watched the weather in silent awe. And then I said “what... the... heck?!?”

We all ran again, but this time to the window, to watch a very unusual sight in Guatemala: a hail storm! Balls of ice bouncing crazily off the ground like popcorn in an massive popcorn popper.

And so the rainy season begins in Guatemala!

On a personal note: I returned to my apartment after work only to discover a small lake in my living room. How did all that water get there? The windows were closed. The roof wasn’t leaking. I was dumbfounded. And then I realized that the water must have poured in under my front door!

The really freaky part? I live on the second floor.

As difficult as it was to believe, it was apparent that all the water in my living room was rain that had been blasted horizontally through the one inch gap below the door. When I went to confirm this improbable theory, I discovered that it was true. It was as if someone had power-washed the front of my apartment with a pressurized hose.

The upside, I guess, is that even though I had some mopping to do inside... the outside of my home has never looked better!

Tags: Guatemala, Rain, Rainy, Season, Weather

Posted by elcanche at April 26, 2006 08:52 PM