Day 67 - The heavens opened.

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Any exciting news that we might have had of the everyday events that happened to us today have been upstaged. We need to tell you about the freak, huge, thunder and lightning storm that hit Guanajuato in the evening.

It started at 4pm with grumblings in the sky and threatening clouds, but nobody seemed too fussed.
8pm saw eardrum-shattering cracks of thunder and a deluge of rain. It quickly cleared the streets of pedestrians. Unfortunately we had to make an extra effort to get back to the house because we'd made a specfic request for the evening meal. So we braved it.

Within 2 minutes we were wet through, but this was just the beginning. It's a funny town with lots of steep, narrow roads and even narrower and steeper alleyways. Plus it's kind of bowl-shaped, with the centre surrounded by hills. In a few minutes the rain had turned the pavements and roads quite literally into rivers. As we were walking uphill along one street we noticed a wave coming the other way. Only small, but it was the start of a torrent, like the 'Arnside bore' north of Blackpool. A minute later the water is up to Gemma's knees and we find it difficult to keep our feet. And this is in a city centre!

We found what we thought was a safe place to stand until the water level went down. From there we watched a parked motorbike get washed away and lodge itself under a stationary flooded car. 5 men struggled with it - rather pointlessly - for 20 minutes or so, with the water reaching halfway up the car's windscreen, but they got it free eventually.

Once the river started to subside we resumed our walk back, passing plenty of destruction along the way. Perhaps the best bit was our 363 (revised figure) step climb, which had turned into a lovely cascading waterfall.

A few of the braver dogs of Guanajuato were already out remarking their territories. They, along with Guanajuato's council workers clearing the streets, had plenty of work to do before morning.

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