Seasons: Invierno y Verano

I am now ready to say that the rainy season has ended.  I arrived in Guatemala on August first and it rained.  It has rained almost every day I've been down here, but as of this week it has officially stopped.  The loud noise you heard last week was the entire population of central America shouting for joy because the rain has stopped.  During the rainy season it was borderline psychotic to leave your house without a rain jacket or an umbrella.  I only did it once.  

As my spanish teacher explained to me tonight Guatemala really only has two seasons.  Rainy and dry.  Notice this does not include Summer, Fall, Winter, or Spring.  During the rainy season it is warm and rainy and during the dry season it is cold at night and hot during the day.  Not much change.  I really missed the changing of the leaves last month.  I love driving through the mountains watching the Aspen leaves turn from green to golden yellow and red.  The cool crisp air biting at your lungs in the mornings.  Other than football and hunting that's what makes September and October great.  

Here in Guatemala September and October are filled with rain, but every once and awhile the air would feel crisp and if you closed your eyes you just might be able to trick yourself that it was fall time in the rockies, only until the rain starts to fall again.  Then the air doesn't feel crisp at all.  It just feels wet.  No me gusta mucha lluvia.  (I don't like a lot of rain.) My spanish teacher taught me that one tonight.  But like I said the rainy season is over.  Now in the mornings it is cold, cold, cold out.  Something like forty degrees and then by the mid afternoon when the sun is at its zenith it might be eighty degrees out.  Maybe a little less maybe a little more.  It is now November and that means hiking and sunshine.  It is hard not experiencing the seasons, but experiencing a new culture seems to be worth it and I am thankful for that.  I know that I'll be longing for a little snow here soon, but in the mean time I'll enjoy being able to hike up the volcanoes that line my horizon.