We had been told that January and February are the rainy season, but somehow it was hard to imagine rain in a place where we lived for five months before seeing a single cloud. Now we can imagine it.
Our first week back, it rained every day starting around 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon and continued into the night. People who live here describe the weather as "bastante lluvia" or "muchisima lluvia" (soooo much rain!). People who live in places with pounding summer thunderstorms would call it a light rain.
We fall into the second category, but what is shocking to us is how this "light rain" can cause so much chaos!
People who live here describe the quality of the roads as bad. People who live in places where the standards for road work are a bit higher would use a stronger adjective. Horrible. Abominable. Treacherous. We've been told the road work always goes to the lowest bidder, who will then cheat on the work and pocket some extra cash. The result: colossal potholes and cavernous cracks in all the main roads.
On Saturday night we went out to catch the new Mission Impossible movie and we saw what used to be a road transformed into a river. Normally we can stand on the corner and catch a taxi within just a few minutes. Saturday was a different story. Many of the taxi drivers call it quits during the rainy season because of the terrible driving conditions and the damage their vehicle sustains. After waiting 15 minutes in the rain, jumping back from the curb every couple minutes to avoid getting splashed by the vehicles that did brave the deluge, we gave up on the taxi and took a bus.
Both David and I come from families with, shall we say, libertarian leanings. Certainly everyone doesn't agree with each other on politics, but none of our family members would have a problem using the term "nanny state" while sneering derisively. David and I also fit this description. However, the lack of infrastructure to adequately handle a couple months of light rain has been a gentle reminder to us that sometimes regulation is a good thing. Perhaps we wouldn't mind the government sticking their nose -- just a little -- into certain areas. Like road maintenance.
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| We were warned that if the river flooded the city might have to shut down the water supply for up to 72 hours. Thankfully, that hasn't happened. Yet. |
The rain also found its way into our house -- and, from what we've heard, into most of the houses in the city.
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| Hours of rain + a clogged drain on the balcony = an ugly welcome home present on our first morning back. |
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| Fortunately for those of you reading this, technology hasn't figured out how to transmit smells via the Internet. Otherwise, I would have posted the wretched smell that accompanies this soggy ceiling in our stairway, and you would be gagging right now like we do every time we walk up the stairs. |
There are upsides to the rain. I wouldn't have said this a few days ago when I was in a state of tea-drinking, rain-hating, nap-taking depression. But now, with the benefit of hindsight and 3 days in a row of sunshine, I am appreciating some of the upsides to the rainy season.
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| The cold, wet weather resulted in an enormous dump of snow on the volcanoes. |
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| The mountains are often shrouded in clouds these days, but sometimes for an hour or two on clear mornings we get to see breathtaking views. |
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| Two weeks ago Misti had no snow at all on top. |
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| I had pretty much given up on the calla lilies we had planted a few months ago. But apparently they were just waiting for a little shower before making an appearance. (This is the only one blooming so far; the other 11 plants still look dead.) |
I'm getting ready to wrap up this post, and I'm realizing I should have titled it "In Between the Rain" (not "After"). Today is only January 12th, and the rainy season is supposed to last through February or even early March. Evidently there was an earthquake tremor on Saturday. (I say evidently because we were only told about it. In 8 months of living here we still haven't felt any of the dozen or so earthquakes that we've heard about.) Anyway, supposedly the more substantial tremors change the weather patterns, which may be why we've had a few sunny days and not a drop of rain for the past few days.
In any case, I'm enjoying the reappearance of blue sky and drinking significantly less tea these days. David tells me not to get my hopes up that the rainy season has ended early, but as you can tell, I'm not doing so well with that. We'll keep you posted.
1 comment:
fun stuff!
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