Earthquakes and Eruptions and Cyclones, oh my

Starting out with a nice picture of the valley just outside of Antigua, I took this picture while on top of Pacaya. It has been a busy few weeks here in Antigua, Guatmala. Kyra joined me a week ago, we have been going to Spanish classes together (together in the sense of in the same school, since all lessons are one on one and her level is still quite a bit higher than mine). It is wonderful having Kyra here, she is always fun to be with, except that all of the male 20 somethings are vying for her attention, and I have to keep reminding them that she is my daughter and how embarrasing it would be for them to have a 52 year old man kick the @$*%! out of them. My Spanish is moving at a snails pace, some days seems better, some days even worse. My teacher keeps trying to convince me that the process is altibajo (up and down), but I still think I'm liguistically retrasado (delayed, retarded). I am out of the house and living in the student housing with Kyra, these two Mayan women cook our meals, if they stood on each others shoulders, they would barely be as tall as I am, but they make the best pancakes in the world.

Kyra and I were watching a movie at the school in the afternoon on the El Salvador civil war when we experienced a 3.4 temblor (tremor, or mini-earthquake). Immediately after the tremor, there was a sudden loud part in the movie, and we both shot three feet out of our seats. The locals tell us that they get as many as 10 tremors a year like that one, but it was the first time I've ever experienced one.

But wait, there's more.

Evidently, the tremor triggered an eruption of Pacaya, the very volcano I climbed two weeks ago (see previous post), sending rocks and ash flying all over the place, killing a reporter, and as many as 3 other people who are still missing. The black ash blanketed Guatemala City and has closed down the airport for the last 4 days. I have here a video link that was taken just a minute or two after I moved out from under the flow that I was standing under in the previous post. Just click on it, it is only a minute long, and it gives you a sense of how active the volcano is right now: http://www.flipshare.com/ViewReshare.aspx?i=8f4c1d4b-5221-44a4-92e4-1e2e07672307&s=14107403&emt=b871045f-96e6-468c-bca5-724a29301965&locale=en-US&senderLocale=en-US

But wait, there is still more. If you order now, we will throw in a free cyclone with the earthquake and eruption!

Thats right, we have a cyclone (hurricane, only on the Pacific side rather than the Atlantic) that is pounding us as I write this, with as much as 50 cm (20 inches) of rain expected in the next 2-3 days. That is more than 2 years worth of rain in Albuquerque! We were going to go to Lago Atitlan this weekend, but the threat of mudslides is too great to be traveling right now. Our little house is springing leaks left and right, the streets are ankle deep rivers, it has gotten so bad I went so far as to buy an umbrella! Right now it is raining so hard that it is nearly impossible to carry on a conversation indoors. The good news is that all of this has been great for my Spanish, how else would I have learned the word for earthquake (terremotto), flood (inundacion), landslide (derrumbe). Anyway, before all this started, Kyra and I went for a walk and found this family doing a street performance.

The immediate future is going to see Kyra and I taking classes and awaiting the arrivel of Deborah and Elise in less than 2 weeks! That is if the world is still here as we know it.