The eruption on Thursday of the volcano Pacaya, which killed and injured people, was alarming, because it was between Lake Atitlan, where we'd gone for a quiet four night holiday, and the airport at Guatemala City, which was promptly closed because of ash. Then we learned the rain that had started in earnest on Thursday night and continued for 48 straight hours, was due to a tropical depression that was big enough to have a name.
We bailed out of Lake Atitlan at noon today. It took six hours to cover the 90 kilometers from there to Guatemala City.
As we arrived at the InterContinental Hotel here in the capital (which is running on generators just now), we learned that a bridge we crossed on the way out of the mountains (you'll see water churning over it in the photos that follow) has given way. Glad we left when we did.
Guatemala must be uncomfortable being the second story on the BBC World newscast we've just heard, late now on Saturday night, because if you're Guatemala, that can't be anything good. Their story was that twelve are now dead from the combined calamities.
Here are a bunch of photos, presented in the order that we took them, of the drive out through tropical storm Agatha.
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