Rain/Lluvia

On Thursday, the 22nd, we received 3.4 inches of rain, the highest in a single day where we live in Vista Atenas for this month of August. We were in Atenas when it started, just as we were finishing lunch. By the time we got home, it had reached our house. I had laundry drying on the line and managed to get some things unpegged and into the laundry basket but just left the sheets and pillow cases as they were already soaked.

I figured they would get a nice rinsing from the lovely tropical rain and the sun would dry them the next day. Wouldn't they smell wonderful .... wrong! I forgot about the bats. Currently, we have many of them doing bug patrol every night. We haven't actually seen them yet but they leave their calling cards everywhere. Everything got rewashed the following day.

When our garden trash removal guy, Mario, and his workers were here on Wednesday we showed him where the upper level berm had given way earlier in the week and caused the flood in our house. "No problemo" and five minutes later they had dug a ditch and filled in the berm. Thursday's mega rainfall showed their handiwork had done the job to prevent more flooding, although some soil erosion was seen and husband Lance went up the hill to do a bit of repair work.

You can read Lance's monthly weather reports for where we live at Paul and Gloria Yeatman's monthly newsletter, Retire For Less in Costa Rica. Paul keeps weather records for San Ramon, where they live. They live at a higher elevation then we do and it is interesting comparing the weather between the two places.

The repaired berm after Thursday's rain

Lance doing a bit of repair.

 

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Tracking the Weather in Atenas

My husband Lance is collaborating with Paul and Gloria Yeatman on keeping daily rainfall and temperature statistics for both Atenas and San Ramon, a town that is at a higher elevation than Atenas and therefore experiences different rainfall and weather patterns. Costa Rica is a country of microclimates. Many think that the country may be uncomfortably hot and humid. That is simply not so. It depends on where you choose to live.

Paul and Gloria live in San Ramon and have a very informative and interesting website called "Retire For Less in Costa Rica". They share many of our philosophies about living a simpler life with less "stuff" to clutter up your space and mind. Their site offers lots of helpful information about living in Costa Rica.

Lance recently received a rain gauge as a gift from our friends and neighbours, Rose Mary and Tony ... thank you! On the days we have rain, he records the amount of rainfall and also the daily high and low temperatures at our altitude. It is interesting to compare the different figures between Atenas and San Ramon, especially for those people researching living in the Central Valley of Costa Rica and wondering what area would suit them best.

Lance's rain gauge

Notice the nice green pole the gauge is mounted on. It is mounted in an area unobstructed by overhead foliage. We went to the Atenas hardware store, Vargas, and found the perfect piece of wood behind the store in their lumber area. It even had a pointed end to drive into the ground. Then we bought some outdoor green spray paint for the pole and a couple of screws to loosely mount the gauge on the pole. The loose mounting allows the gauge to be lifted away from the pole to eye level for reading, emptied of water, and placed back on the pole with ease - ready and set for the next day's reading.

 

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