Here Comes the Rain Again

Turns out it’s the rainy season in Guatemala. Every day is mostly overcast and cool. At some point, sometimes several times, the skies open up and release a torrential downpour. Rain falls so fast and so hard, the air is almost white with moisture.

The sky decides whether I leave the house

Life already moves differently here. With the rains, the sky rules the day. When it rains determines if I will leave the house or stay at home. Every aspect of life is affected. Is this what life is like in Seattle?

For example, I left the house early, headed to the mercado with the hopes of getting some vegetables for the house, and a few other essential groceries from the store. It hadn’t been 30 minutes since I’d left the house before it started to drizzle. Luckily, I was wearing my raincoat.

Funny story – I had read that the rainy season would require a good raincoat and umbrella to survive. I didn’t have a good one, not since I’d lost weight; the one I had was too big. So I researched and eventually landed on one from Lands End. I made a point to bring it with me on the road trip down because I expected it to rain. It only rained once in the entire trip. And then by the time I settled into Guatemala, it didn’t rain again. (I did not realize that the rainy season had ended.) I was like, I’ll never need to use my raincoat now. It was pointless to bring it. Ha! Joke’s on me. I just had the timing wrong. Good news for this year because the rain came again.

The sky sets the price of parsley

By the time I got to the mercado, I noticed that many vendors, especially the ones who were set up outside of the newer metal-roofed area, were starting to pack up their wares to go home. The rain was coming, and the clouds were darkening the sky. It was only a matter of time before the storm began.

Rain keeps customers away, and I’ve heard them say before that it just isn’t worth it to stay out in bad weather when there’s no one buying. For the ones who were packing up, some of them were willing to bargain on prices to lighten their load. Which became a win for me, since I was able to score many goods at a lower price from the one guy. Win for both of us.

The next day, the weather was better, the sun was shining in the morning when I left the house with my neighbor, and she did not have the same luck I did on the prices of some of the goods she was buying. I had no idea it would affect the price of parsley. What cost me a few quetzales two weeks ago had tripled in price when she went to buy some that morning. I did some research about the rainy season when I got home after that shopping trip because I felt that I needed more information if I was going to survive as a local in this new environment. Things like which crops are affected by excessive rain, and what is affected.

The sky rewrote the road that brought me here

Some things were obvious, like areas affected by landslides. When I was driving into Guatemala, we crossed over the mountains from the Chiapas region in Mexico. That was probably the most harrowing part of the journey since my truck was burdened with a cargo hitch and my roof rack. But we made it to the capital unscathed. I was glad to have my truck and the extra clearance because there were some areas where rain had washed away parts of the road, and it got rough for several stretches in the mountain region.

Apparently, El Niño is intensifying the rainfall in Guatemala. The rains were supposed to start in April, but didn’t come until the middle of May. Though supposedly, this is below average rainfall, it still feels like a lot to me. Because the rain, when it comes, falls in more intense bursts, leading to flooding. This I have seen, and I guess that is what all the warnings about El Niño were about, which I kept hearing earlier this year. The flooding affects local transport and roads. Something I need to keep in mind is traveling as a local, as I read that the local buses can close down certain routes during downpours.

I live differently now

Things I took for granted living in the United States, I am paying close attention to here in Guatemala. It is a new way of living for me. A little more intentional. A lot more planning ahead.

In fact, here comes the rain again. If this is what life is like in the Pacific Northwest, not only do I think I would have preferred it to the oven heat temps of Texas, but I would have been fine with it. I thought that the rain would have brought on some depression. Surprise, the weather has no adverse effect. Apparently, I can’t get any lower than I already am. I find the rain soothing, the constant pitter-patter of raindrops a peaceful reminder of my change in circumstance.