Tuesday, April 08, 2008

The rainy season!!!

Well folks, with 1 1/2 weeks left, I am just catching the front end of rainy season here in Costa Rica. What does rainy season really mean for those of us from non-tropical areas? Every day around 2 or 3 pm the rain starts. We wake up to sunshine and blue skies but by mid-day the clouds have arrived. The rain lasts for about one to two hours and then lets up. But the world comes to a pause during that time. Really. Ok, without exagerating I am going to try and explain this. The video below does not do it justice.

One way to explain it is by sharing the story of the leak. Last friday it rained for the first time. At that point, my Tica family's gutters had not yet been cleaned out and so there was nowhere for the rain to go. In a matter of ONE HOUR only, the rain was so hard it had leaked into the sun room to the point of flooding. We had about 8-12 towels on the floor as well as about 13-14 buckets. They were all full within the hour, the towels were soaked, and the water proceeded to go down the hall soaking all of the rugs in its path.

When it rains, umbrellas do absolutely no good. They keep the tip top of your head dry and that's it. It doesn't just rain sideways. It rains upways. How? Because the water drop are so huge and the road gets so full of water that when the rain hits the road water splashes back up to a near waste-height. Really guys. This is no lie. From now through mid-december this will be the way it is. Luckily, I get to enjoy it for a few weeks and then I'm outa here!

You can't really tell but, in this video, we had to stand on the bench because, as mentioned, the covering overhead did nearly nothing to keep us dry. It was unbelievable!

2 comments:

mikepettengill said...

rain, rain, go away...you ain't seen nothin' yet

Unknown said...

Wow! That's on your way back from the cross!!! I'm SO glad you were back down the mountain before it hit! That would NOT have been fun!