Day 14 - Earthquake

Some rather large news is that there was an earthquake in Guatemala this Monday morning. Final reports say it was a 6.9 magnitude and centered around the Mexican and Guatemalan border, not very far from the Lake Atitlan region. Though it was closer to the other side of the lake than the side of Panajachel, we certainly felt it pass through a bit after five in the morning. It shook me awake, and in my groggy state I was very slow to recognize what it was. I just opened my eyes and thought, “My bed is moving… my apartment is moving…the whole world is moving.” Then I thought, “Either it’s an earthquake or my apartment is falling down.” But with the length of time that it took me, still half-asleep, to have all of these thoughts, the shaking stopped, and I felt relieved that whatever was happening was over and my apartment had not collapsed so I could go back to sleep. I might’ve thought it was all a dream if my flat mate hadn’t at that point called out asking if I had felt it too. He had been less groggy and the shaking got him out of bed and into a doorway safe from falling objects. I was very fortunate not to have anything over head as my disaster reflexes were far from impressive. Nothing in the apartment broke, though some shampoo in the bathroom took a dive from the shaking, and I found out the next morning when I opened the fridge that things had definitely shifted around in there. But we and most others in Panajachel were very blessed with little to no damage and no reported injuries. School was called off the next day for the whole department of Solalá, as some areas had lost power, but work commenced as usual, and everyone arrived shaken but unscathed.

San Marcos, where I had been to visit the very afternoon before the earthquake, was hit harder than Panajachel. When I checked the news there were two reported deaths from the San Marcos area from a collapsing house and quite a bit of damage there. It feels so strange that if I returned now, not even a day later, some of the places I saw might be rather different. Every day the world is changing.