....."I feel the earth move under my feet...."




Well here I am in Antigua, Guatemala 



and the news today is.....

       


I was in an Earthquake!

Well, not in one, so much as felt one.....things shook, that counts!

I can't genuinely say it was all that exciting, but as it was my first ever seismic/volcanic event, I think it's reasonably worthy of a blog post, even if only for the comic way that we, (we being the average Gringa) did not have a clue what was going on.




(The average Gringa, above left, Michaela:Australia, demonstrates advance romance techniques for backpackers, below  Me:UK, Ory:Israel, Emma:UK, Belinda:Australia)


I was actually sitting on the third floor of a hostel, in a room with a balcony outside it, quite exposed to the elements, and as my brain tried to piece together the novel information which was filtering in via my senses, what I actually thought at first was that this was the sudden onset of really high winds. Like when the house shakes in a storm. Strange as there was no storm...

We really didn't have a clue.....

Here was the earthquake from our perspective:


Me: The rooms shaking!

Belinda: No it's not

Me: Yes it is...

rumble, rumble, shake, shake, shake,

Belinda: Oh, yes it is!

At this point I went onto the balcony, consulted with the neighbours and concurred that this was indeed the result of some kind of seismic activity.  We decided it was probably "just one of the volcanoes" (there are three here to choose from) and went back in.

The event concluded with..

Me: OK, lets go to the hairdressers then..

Belinda: OK

So I am pleased to report, that not only am I alive, I am alive and even more beautiful than before!

I know you find this difficult to believe dear reader but hey, you'll just have to trust me.

As an aside, I don't think anyone in this whole town who hasn't gone and looked it up realises, as I do (in my wisdom), that we actually shook with a quake that was 6.8 on the richter scale (at its epicenter), and it was not all that far away.


A strong earthquake hit Guatemala and parts of neighboring countries Wednesday. The US Geological Survey put the preliminary magnitude at 6.8 saying it was located 70 miles south-southwest of Guatemala City in the Pacific Ocean at a depth of 40 miles.

The trembler struck at 1:29 p.m. local time and sent residents in El Salvador's capital rushing into the streets for safety. According to Benedicto Giron, spokesman for the National Disaster Reduction Center, there had been some landslides in the southwest province of Escuintla. 
Dan Wilson on June 13, 2007 - 2:48pm.
www.bestsyndication.com
http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=061307_guatemala_earthquake.htm

I do actually wonder from time to time, being out here in one of the worlds most active Earthquake/Volcano zones whether there is any kind of early warning system at all that I might be privy to, and how that would work......

However having searched, I don't really think there is one available on the web, (sorry mum). All I can find is websites that tell you about the natural disaster and it's effects after it's taken place.

As useful as this, is I think I could probably work that out myself. One might, as we learnt today, notice an earthquake happening, and I assume a volcano blowing up would attract a certain amount of attention as well.  It's the advance warning information that I'm after......

If anyone has any links, could you send them to me!



Hey Ho...

So what else has been going on.

Well firstly I was far to drunk on Utila to post anything worthy, but have finally worked out how to put on pictures, as you have already seen.

Since Utila I have been trundling my way through to Antigua, stopping to see the fabulous ancient Mayan ruins at Copan in Honduras.

These ruins are really quite impressive. They are 300 - 900 AD, and built by various different Mayan Kings over those eras.

The ruins contain a number of alters, as the Mayans had clearly not cottoned on to a good veggie burger and really liked to kill things. They were big on Sacrifices and used to kill lots of animals on a daily basis. Dogs, monkeys, birds. However if they were really lucky they got to be killed themselves....

In between the sloping walls, and on the strip of grass at the center of the photo above, they would play an inspired acrobatic dance like game, once a year. All of the noble and "lower" families would come out to watch, and then the priest and dignitaries would pick the best player from the winning side.
 
This lucky chap would then be given the great honour of becoming a human sacrifice on the "giant hamburger" alter below. If you get up close to it you can see the channels carved out to catch the blood.

Lovely.

Ask not what your team can do for you.

Apparently it got them eternal life after death, but we all know that us modern folks would have been diving for the floor, throwing ourselves under the feet of the opposition, and doing anything else possible to ensure our continuation on the current plain of existence.



REFEREE!

You can even get in the changing rooms, here is Sam on the right, getting ready for a rematch with Germany...



There are various other things you can do to keep yourself entertained in a land without compensation culture......

When I first arrived in Central America everyone told me that Volcan Pacaya is a must do. It is.

As an aside there is an easy way and a hard way to do the actual climbing bit, .......




Someone I was chatting with recently noted that this is probably the only place in the world that you can climb up a volcano and get within 5 meters, (closer if you want to melt your shoes), of red hot lava. You can push sticks into the cracks in the earth where you stand and they catch fire before your very eyes. It's only going to take one tourist to fall in and they won't allow it anymore......

In the meantime

(click to see)

Tourism Guatemala Style!

Me and Belinda are going Hiking for a few days now. More later.