"Agatha? Who is Agatha?"

Trip Duration: 13 days
Spanish Fluency: 7%, growth solely in weather terminology
Feeling: happy to see the sun

After a few days of stormy weather in Pana, I thought the weather would get better after a while. But the rain kept belting down, harder and harder, until the courtyard outside the apartment started to flood up. Then Evan walks over and says he has some bad news. Tormenta Agatha: national alert for all of Guatemala. Oh and Pacaya, the volcano that we climbed a few days ago erupted and ash is all over Guate City... WTF? I was still trying to cope with all the information until I realized we were probably going to be stuck in Pana for a few days. We left the apartment and stayed at Hospedaje Eli, a small family run hostel off the main tourist street. I tried asking the daughter of the owner if they knew if anywhere was open (we were starved) to eat since we didn't bring any food and suddenly 5 soaked crying women and men appeared from the street. They were family members of the hospedaje owner and their houses collapsed and some were flooded waist deep. The girls grandmother waded in water for a god knows how long in her house until the rain let up just enough for her to cross the river. They were all sobbing and frantically toweling off and it was then that I realized just how bad it was. Pana, which is at the base of several mountains, was stuck by Hurricane Stan in 2005. Hundreds died, thousands were homeless, and the destructive pathway of the storm could still be seen in Pana today. Korea donated money to the small town to build a new bridge since Rio Panajachel grew so fast it tore down the old bridge. Well, the weather was so bad while we were there that the new "indestructible" bridge broke after 4 days of constant rain. Almost 100 people died throughout Guatemala (14 in Pana) and thousands were once again homeless in a muddy soup of unstable grounds.


That night, for some crazy reason, when the weather was at it's worst, Ariel showed up and said we must go to the river to see how bad it was. It seemed like the streets were rivers and you want me to go where?! but alas, we went, we saw the destruction, and I cried. It was just awful. The next day's weather was supposed to be worse, but just like that the rain stopped and after a day or so the sun started to poke out again. After the storm, the whole town when down to the river to claim any wood they could for cocinar, and other people were sifting through rocks for something but when I asked what for, I didn't understand the response. So what was supposed to be a couple days of more relaxation in Pana turned out to be a crazy muddy adventure but I'm glad we and our friends are OK. We finally left last night and are in Antigua. Today we leave for Coban. We had to cancel our plans for Montericco, Xela, and Chichicastenango because not only are the roads damaged, but parts of Xela caved in on created huge sinkholes! Same thing in Guate City, but worse. We may come back to volunteer some once the roads are clean and it is safe.

Hopefully that is the last of the natural disasters for this country for this year because I'm not sure if they can handle much more.