Singin' In The Rain

Not singing exactly - more like "wow! amazing!" We are finally getting our first taste of the true green season in Costa Rica. Up to now, we've been wondering where all the rain was that everyone talks about.

From June to last week, it was nothing but sunshine, high temperatures and afternoon thunderstorms with  periods of rain.

Now, it has been raining almost non-stop for about four days. If it's not a fine mist, it's torrential downpours. Maximum temperatures in the last 24 hours have been 75.7F and minimum 67.5F.  We needed the quilt on our bed last night - I've been wondering why a quilt was stored in our closet (rental house, fully furnished).

Power outages are occurring more often too - we cancelled a restaurant pizza meal the other night because the power went out and we could not call for a taxi on the house phone. Why don't we have cell phones? It's something we have to look into - but I think you cannot get one unless you have residency.

We've been curious as to why this big cement hole was right outside the back door:

With all this rain, we now know it is a drain to syphon off rain water that comes down from the back of the property, which is at a higher elevation than the house. The street gutters are huge - deep and very wide and it sounds like we have a river running beside our house. Torrents of rain are flowing down the street.

The higher elevation of the back of the property, where the banana trees are, has also been designed to control water flow with berms, thereby directing water flow out into the street gutters. It's really impressive how everything has been carefully thought out.

Soggy Acres