invierno

So, as it turns out, it's winter here in Guatemala. Also known as the rainy season. I knew that before I came, but I didn't really understand. Before I left, I looked up the weather in guatemala, and it showed highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. And then I looked at another site, which said that on average it reaches the 90s and the lows are in the 60s. The first one was probably about right, but the second one was definitely wrong,or maybe for Guatemala City. Anyway, I didn't really pack well. Basically, whenever you're in the shade or it's cloudy, you're cold, and whenever you're in the sun, it's pretty hot. Thus, you are effectively dressed wrong no matter what. I brought with me one jacket, one sweatshirt, and one sweater. This means I'm wearing either the jacket or the sweatshirt every day. Yo necessito comprar unos sueteres.

Of course, as you may have heard, this year the rainy season has been particularly bad. It's apparently been the rainiest season in about 70 years, and that means lots of landslides. The highway from, Antigua to Xela is mostly very nice; 2 lanes in each direction and nicely paved. Plus, the pueblos along the way all have a bridge over the highway, so you don't have to slow down in the pueblos. But, right now, the road is in terrible shape from all the landslides. They had done a good job of clearing it up enough that traffic could pass, though. In many places, only one side of the highway is passable, and the other side has piles of mud, often 10 or even 20 feet high. In one place, in the mountains, half the road was simply gone. Like, the earth underneath the road had collapsed, and the road went with it. It's really bad for the country, as it will take them very long to fix all of the damage.