V's seven-year-old niece Amy said something really sweet to me on the phone last Tuesday: "Tio, sentiste el temblor anoche?" (Uncle, did you feel the tremor last night?) She knows I'm in another country, but clearly can't visualise the distance of thousands of nautical and territorial miles that this involves.
On Monday night Antigua shook for 27.4 seconds to the rhythm of a seismic event measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale and epicentred 81km from the capital to the north east of Totonicapán. V says it was the most violent she recalls during her four month stay in Guatemala.
At the time she was enjoying a farewell dinner at her sister in-law's house. Some people got up and ran to the door, but V felt loosely fastened into her seat by the recently-imbibed contents of a bottle of Undurraga Reserva - a temporary sensation of increased body mass that allowed her to face up to the contrasting lateral movements of chair and house. The tropical fish in the tank looked as anxious as it is possible for fish to look.
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