Tropical Storm Blackhawk

Hey hey, Rich´s pics are all up to date.

We are currently in Antigua, but before coming to Antigua, we spent 5 nights in Guatemala City. Guatemala City is not touristy--it has a poor reputation for safety and is often skipped through by travelers. Luckily, a friend of ours had a vacant apartment in ¨Guate¨ that was generously offered to us for free. It is in the city´s wealthiest, and safest, neighborhood (we didn´t feel unsafe for a singe moment). We decided to take advantage of the chance to have our own space, a kitchen, and a break from the constant travel we had been doing the past few weeks.

Unfortunately, 2 of the days we spent sick from some sort of food poisoning. But when we were well, we were the witness of some entertaining weather. One day, we woke up to find what looked like asphalt all over the sidewalks. As we walked a few blocks from the apartment, we realized that the asphalt had been sprayed literally everywhere. That´s because it wasn´t asphalt, it was volcanic ash from a volcano that had erupted some miles away and had rained down all over the city that night. There was literally a half inch of ash covering everything, and we had no idea there had been an eruption! People spent the next few days sweeping up ash from everything. This is what happens when you have no TV, no radio, no computer, and no phone... interesting weather phenomena go unnoticed. Which leads us to our funny story.

Our last day in Guatemala City, we woke up and it was pouring rain, just absolutely pouring. We know it´s the beginning of rainy season here, so we took no notice and just pegged it as an incliment day. We took our time and got ready to go out, we were willing to brave the heavy rains to get out of the apartment having been couped up sick the past 2 or 3 days. We went out, raincoats on, and took a taxi to visit some sites. Through the entire day, it rained buckets constantly. Rainy season, of course. We visited the city´s main square and got really wet but were happy to be out.

That night was game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals and we took note of 3 or 4 potential sports bars where we could watch the game. After our visit to the city center, we relaxed for a bit and dried off. While inside, we noticed it was starting to rain even harder, which was ridiculous because it was really raining! We mean, very serious rain all day with no letup.


But this was the Stanley Cup Finals and we had been inside for 3 days. We were determined to go out. So we got back out there. At this point, it´s pouring buckets and there are rivers running down the street. Cars are stalling in the streets. We began having serious doubts about travelling in Central America during the rainy season, but we were determined to persevere and watch the game. This is when things got fun.

When we got to the first sports bar, they had power, but the cable was out. We tried another a 10 minute walk away in the pouring rain. They had cable, but the power had just gone out. After waiting 30 minutes for the power to come back on, we thought we would try going back to the first bar to see if the cable was back in action. We again walked 10 minutes through the absolutel downpour and when we got to the bar, their power was out too! We´ve now missed about 1 hour of gametime, soaking wet, and without a lot of options.

We thought we would again try the 2nd bar, to see if their power was back. Literally the second we walked up to it the power clicked back on! It was glorious! We rushed into the bar, took a seat, took off our soaking shoes and raincoats and settled up. Then they fired up the satellite. Every channel worked... except for one... the hockey game. There is not enough vulgarity in the english language to express our reaction to this development. Soaking wet, exhausted, hungry, thirsty, and now over an hour of gametime missed.

We had one other option... the Mariott a 15 minute walk away through the monsoon. We strapped our boots on and sucked it up and went for it. When we walked in the front door, we realized this was a business-center Mariott. There were marble floors, men in suits, and a martini bar with a piano concierta. Meanwhile, we were soaked and dripping all over the immaculate marble floors. We were making quite a scene, but were kindly escorted by security to the sports bar in the back... where they didn´t have the game.

Dejected and with personal morale at an all time low, with the rain still pouring and pouring, we had a decision to make. Go home, tired, hungry, and hockeyless, or just go out and have some food. We decided to go back to the original bar we tried. Even if there was no cable, they were supposed to have good food. We took a taxi instead of walking.

When we got there, it was as if we came upon a CocaCola machine in the desert. The lights were on, the televisions were on, and - wait for it - there was the game on the huge screen in the center! We (literally) ran upstairs arms in the air to the table that seemed to have a heavenly light shining down upon it directly across from the game. It couldn´t have been better timing either... the 3rd period was about to start and the game was still tied, so therefore still interesting. We ordered wings, pizza, and beer and gorged ourselves as we watched the Hawks win Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

The next day, we arrived in Antigua, and the rain had stopped. We saw a sign on a cafe from the day before that said the following: ¨Closed for Tropical Storm.¨ We had no idea that we had been walking the previous day through Tropical Storm Agatha. Our thoughts that that rain was just typical rainy season were just plain silly... we had been walking 2 hours in a near-hurricane to watch Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. That, our friends, is dedication.

The tropical storm was not just a funny story for us, it also was very tragic in some parts of Guatemala. Mudslides in particular have destroyed some parts of some communities. After realizing what happened and arriving in Antigua, we spent 2 days volunteering in nearby Ciudad Vieja to help the community recover from their landslide. You can look at the pictures now, and we´ll talk more about that and Antigua in our next post.