Ya no existe Guatepeor?

This weekend, the local TV newsman reported, Guatemala has suffered a trio of horrible disasters. The first two were rather obviously the volcanic eruption and tropical storm respectively.

V tells me she was expecting him to go on to mention the sinkhole which appeared in Zona 2 at 11 Avenida and 6 calle, but no, the final member of this unholy trinity of calamity was the 5-0 goleada that Guatemala suffered at the hands of World Cup hosts South Africa this weekend.

Anyway, readers may recall that I predicted a renewal of this unusual Guatemalan real estate phenomenon when the heavens opened above a city already creaking from the fervours of its nearby volcano Pacaya.

Yet when I first saw the pic of the apparently brand new sink hole as it went viral on the Web, I suspected that someone had either been dredging up images of the hoyote of 2007 vintage or playing with Photoshop, in order to reinforce the increasingly fashionable view that Guatemala has somehow fallen out of favour with the Creator.

As we saw three years ago, any explanation other than those offered by scientific experts appears attractive to both chapines and Internet commentators the world over. It's a secret UFO tunnel, a side-effect of time travel, or indeed, according to comments on a bulletin board Scott found earlier, a base for reptilian shape-shifters.

The most promising local theory I heard today was that it is somehow part of a devious plot concocted by the Mexicans, who will of course stop at nothing in their quest to divert tourism away from Guatemala and into their own territory.