That would be the rain. The blogs down our way, like Erin all the way over in San Pedro to the east and Jen all the way over in San Ramon to the west, are talking ’bout endless rains. The past few weeks in particular. It’s been raining HARD and LONG. It’s 9pm now and it’s been raining pretty much non-stop since around one. Big loud drops and plenty of ’em. The video is a drop in the bucket and it didn’t record the huge thunder roll that happened near the end…
You wake to a beautiful sunny day, bright blue sky, bright green grass, birds singing: Gorgeous. By 11am, it’s getting cloudy. By the time the rains start a couple hours later, our house is usually IN the clouds. Big fog. Loud rain. Droning on and on… It puts you right to sleep. I haven’t had such a hard time staying awake since the last time Hal tried to explain inflation to me.
Funny, we are high enough at 4000′ here to have the famous Costa Rican t-shirt days and comforter nights. High enough to be in the clouds during the height of the rainy season, but not so high and so wet that our house is mildewy. When we were looking for a house, we decided if it had a fireplace, it was too high for us. Cold enough for a fireplace means a wet house in the rainy season. That’s probably not a completely fair analysis, but it worked for us. Living by the ocean all that time was wet enough, thank you very much. We didn’t want to be wet and cold.
When the rainy season started this year, we were all so grateful. Last year’s wet season was not. It was more like a damp season. Last year, there wasn’t a rainstorm over four hours and that was rare. Apparently, the year before that was almost as dry. By 2007 May 1, official start of the green season, you just felt parched. The earth, your skin, the asphalt – everything hot and DRY. The only people enjoying the bone-dry fields were the local juvie pyromaniacs.
In Guanacaste, where Mel Gibson just bought a $25Million finca [FEEN-kah, farm], it’s so dry, they ship in water. There’s a woman over there sitting on a property full of exotic palms and she brings in two truckloads of water EVERY DAY. I wonder if Mel Gibson knows how his garden is going to grow eight months of the year?
This year’s rains, in the central valley at least, is making up for the last two years’ dry spells. Gotta be. There is so much water here, it’s gotta be soaking right thru to… um, whatever country is opposite us on the globe. Google didn’t know and my personal encyclopedia is asleep.
Everyone says, in a real rainy season, by the time November rolls around, you are ready for it to be over, desperate for the rains to end. I’m not yet. Not even close. I love these sleepy afternoons, cloudy cozy early evenings, the sound of rain pounding on our tin roof, bright green beautiful mornings. Mowing the lawn every other week. Almost 10pm. Still raining.
Hi,
I’ve been reading and enjoying your blog for sometime now. I love how your posts truly connect to your readership. I’m interested to have an interactive/link-up/post with you. I’ve written a novel that is fully centered around Tamarindo, Costa Rica and am preparing to do a virtual blog tour. I would love an opportunity to participate on your blog.
However, my book ‘Turtle Feet, Surfer’s Beat’ is only a small part of what I’m trying to build. The book itself revolves around a typical suburban teen girl, Penelope, from the States that is forced to go to Costa Rica with her parents for her father’s job assignment. Involuntarily, her parents sign up Penelope and her little brother to spend two weeks at the Leatherback turtle biological station (for ‘their own good’) at Playa Grande. Penelope, obviously isn’t pleased but forgives the horrid accommodations and the never ending bug brigade as she sees the turtle and instantly pledges to do all she can to help it from extinction. But hang ten, dudes! Penelope is about to get help. One lonely night, as she’s patrolling the beach for turtle poachers she stumbles and falls directly into the arms of the Costa Rican surf champ. Together they dive into the world of surfing and marine preservation.
These days, we are constantly facing global problems that seem to be getting worse and worse daily. Living in Costa Rica, I’ve been inspired to take action. I started by writing this book and am now developing a community of teens, surfers, artists, scientist, and everyone else who is interested in working together to have fun while helping out.
I would love to join forces with you and your readers in a fun, interactive way. I will gladly write a post about your blog (and whatever you will like to plug:), plus a link with your blog to my website and blog in return for a small interview and a mention about the book.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Thanks so much,
Marina
I hope you had enough rain today, in my neck of the woods it rained from 3 pm till 10 pm
It has already rained more in 2007 than in all 2006
Yeah, it poured again today. My front yard is a stinky swamp… but the grass is green!