Deluge

As I think I mentioned, the rainy season has started down here in Guatemala. And it seems that this year the season is opening "con Gusto" which is to say that it has rather dumped down for a few days here (but only in the afternoons - the mornings are lovely and sunny).

It may sound a little strange, but the tooktooks have been reminding me of salmon!

The streets here do not have the usual "crown" profile to shed rain water to the sides and into the gutters as they do where Im from. Here, The road its self is the storm drain system and the road has an inverted "crown" shape with the low point in the middle.
And as Im sure I have mentioned, the roads around here are often very steep.
So, when it rains hard, the main street here in San Pedro becomes a veritable torrent and its quite fun to sit in a coffee shop (they have good coffee here in Gute'...who would have guessed!) on the corner at the bottom of the hill and watch the show as chickens, cats, babies, and small dogs get washed down the hill and into the lake... Very amusing! :)

But, when it rains hard, the tooktooks do a roaring trade carrying people and their remaining pets and babies etc to their homes. Most of the tooktooks are painted bright red (like a spawning salmon) and when they have their customer aboard at the bottom of the hill, they approach the main road up the hill cautiously and linger momentarily at the margins before plunging into the strong current...
Then they plunge on in and the water sprays up in huge plumes (50-100cm) well over the tiny little wheels and it looks like the little fellows will surely lose their grip on the road and be washed away;   But no, They hang on and face directly up stream and the driver revs hard and they struggle frenetically up the hill...

Just like Salmon!
It reminds me of home :)))