Rock ‘n Roll

I’m a little late getting to the earthquakes we’ve been experiencing of late.  Expat Mom blogged about it in near real-time.  Apparently her community (about a mile from me) suffered a 6.8 magnitude, although I noticed only the equivalent of a large truck driving by.

I didn’t have that much to say, I guess, now that the novelty has worn off.  El Blogador says there were 31 tremors on Saturday alone, but doesn’t bother to source it for us, so who knows.

My sources show only 7 since 1 April, but hey, what does the US Geological Service know of such things?  Anyway, they’ve become so routine that they’re no longer that big of a deal.  My kids are convinced that it’s a sign Fuego is about to erupt, and want to know what we’ll do if that happens.

Fuego on a bad night.

I told them (knowing the panic and anarchy that would be present outside the gates), that we’d say some prayers, fire off some email to loved ones, then pull out all the treats and feast.  Either we get buried alive in our home (instead of stuck in traffic), or we survive.   They just stared at me after I told them that, but would it really have been better to shrug my shoulders and say, “I don’t know?”

Really, there is one road to the capital, and there is even one smaller road between us and that road, none of which are passable if a procession is within 5 blocks, so what do you think it’s going to be like when Fuego is spewing lava and ash 5 miles into the air?  The road the other way goes to Esquintla, but all the people who saw the aforementioned spewing before I did and managed to get onto the road before I did will already be parked on the road in front of the gates.  Should that not be the case, yeah, we’ll hang out at the beach for awhile.  I’m sure ash falling into saltwater makes for good entertainment.

In all seriousness, I told my oldest that I wasn’t worried about Fuego erupting, because these things have signs and someone, somewhere is watching.  He promptly responded by saying, “Signs…as in increasing numbers of earthquakes?”

Yeah, something like that, smarta$$.

Update: Okay, people, that picture above is not really of Fuego, I just thought it was a nice compliment to my story.  A potential expat emailed me scared to death about living so near to such a monster.  I assured her that Fuego doesn’t erupt often, in fact, the last time was in 2007 and the result was seven families were evacuated.  So, chill.  If you want to see a real picture of Fuego and what it she normally does, go here.