I feel the Earth. Move. Under my Feet.

Actually, when there was a tremor in Antigua 2 nights ago I didnt feel a thing because it was 3 am and I was asleep.

But the next day, my teacher had a lengthy conversation with me in Spanish about the Earthquake that hit Guatemala in 1976. It registered at 7.5 on the richter scale and when it hit, 25 000 people died in their sleep as their houses fell down around their ears. The rest of the people ran out into the street to hear every dog in the area howling and going nuts, while in the sky, stars were falling through the sky one after the other after the other...everyone ran to the market to see if the other people were ok. The ones that were OK helped the ones that werent, bringing them blankets, making them food and generally providing aid to anyone that needed it. For 2 months, people were too scared to return to their houses as their were big aftershocks every couple of days, so they all set up camp in the streets, making make shift tents, bringing guitars and drums out to play to keep the spirits of the people up and making frijoles and rice for anyone that needed food. No one looted, no one took a thing from anyone´s house although the doors were left wide open and the walls had holes in them.

Here, I feel way more connected to nature and Pacha Mama than ever before (Mother Earth). I have climbed a live volcano, swum in hot waterfalls and with sharks and manterrays in crystal clear ocean, taken boat rides through the jungle, climbed ancient ruins and seen amazing sunsets and sunrises. While all this happening, I realise I am in the hands of nature and have no choice but to ask Pacha to protect me and watch out for me. Sounds a bit hessian I know, but she is alive and well and when humanity wants to fuck around, she always has the last say...

I only hope that in the case of something like the Quake of 76 happening in our own country we could stick together as a community and not rob and kill each other as it was in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit...

In other more positive news, today I read my first fairy tale in Spanish. It was called ¨Recitos de Oro y los tres oros.¨ You probably know it as Goldilocks and the three bears. Yew!!!!