A REAL mud tunnel

Unlike Mud Tunnel on the C&TS, this tunnel on the former IRCA in Guatemala is a real mud tunnel. Originally this was a cut, but the tropical rains turned the surrounding hills into goo and the cut kept filling up with mud, covering the railroad. There was so much mud that simple retaining walls could not hold it back. So the IRCA built a tunnel and the mud was allowed to just fill in around it. The railroad kind of floats on the mud through here. When we got off the train for the photograph one of our group members sank about two feet into the mud and when she finally pulled her feet out the mud had stolen her shoes...it kinda just sucked you down. Not a nice place to build a railroad.

JBWX