October is the rainiest month of the Rainy Season here in Costa Rica. I actually love it. We don’t get fall. We don’t get first snows. We don’t get more than a 20 degree change in temperature between “seasons”. We get rain… and lots of it. A few weeks ago the news was reporting that in one 6 hour period we got as much as 15 days worth of rain! I don’t know how to tell you exactly how that compares to 15 days worth of rain in YOUR part of the world, but for us, it was like standing under a water fall for 6 hours straight!
Photo credit: Cia de Foto / Foter / CC BY
I have no problem believing in the story of Noah and a world wide flood after having lived in Costa Rica. In our first year here, back in 2010, it actually DID rain for 40 days straight. (I bought a light box after that to fight the seasonal depression of sunless days.) You should have seen the mud slides and washed away roads around here. A whole community was wiped out when the side of the mountain slipped out from under a community of shanty houses built on stilts. It was sad. Sometimes it rains so hard here that the man hole covers float away! Water will be gushing UP out of the storm sewers and will pop off the heavy metal covers and sweep them away. You never want to drive into a deep puddle or you run the risk of landing your front tire in a man hole.
We also have sink holes here. The soil is very silty and volcanic. Plus the road construction technique here is basically to just roll out a slab of black top right on the top soil. There is no substructure under most roads. So when the heavy rains come, it often washes the dirt away from UNDER the road. I remember once when we were in language school someone snapped a photo of a car tipped nose down into a newly opened sink hole. They said when they walked to school the car was fine, but when they came home, the car was totally sunk into the hole! People were putting a ladder down into the hole to get the driver out since apparently he was just starting up his car when it dropped 8 feet or so. Right now our main highway is under major construction since a sink hole opened up under a newly erected Bailey Bridge which immediately fell just two days after it’s “grand opening”. We are familiar with sink holes.
Photo credit: Jonathan Kos-Read / Foter / CC BY-ND
But inspite of all the havoc that the rain wreaks on the country, I find it cozy and comforting. I don’t mind carrying umbrellas. I have cute rain boots. And I always say, “I won’t melt in the rain. I’m not made of sugar.” So getting a little damp isn’t a big deal. I just put on dry socks at home and crank up the dehumidifier in my closet to keep my clothes from getting overly damp and clammy. (Nothing worse than putting on clammy pajamas and climbing into a bed with damp sheets.) That dehumidifier was a worthy purchase.
On rainy days I would love to be able to curl up in bed with my Kindle and a cup of Earl Grey tea and just listen to the white noise of the rainy world outside. I don’t mind the rainy season. I guess I’m in the right place.
Monkeys in My Bag 