I love the rains here and not just because it lowers the temperature. Dust is a constant problem here with the cobble stone streets and all the belching buses. Rain cleans up the town, not only does the dust almost disappear, but all the foliage gets rinsed and everything is a bright green. The hills get sort of brown and dusty looking during the winter, but now they are a verdant green. The tall coconut trees in the picture of my view off the back are at least five or six stories tall. They were shot from my terrace on the third floor. Twice a year an old skinny guy climbs up and cuts down the clumps of coconuts. He used nothing but his feet and a rope around his waist. He cuts them off with a machete. But first he wraps a rope around the clump and slowly lowers the coconuts to the ground. Once they hit he sort of jerks on the rope and it comes free and he pulls it back up.
I love sitting under my cabana (with cocktail) and watch the rain beat down. Sometimes it pours off my roof like a waterfall. Now some days it will just sprinkle which only increases the humidity, but this year we have had lots of downpours. The rain drops can be the size of a dime. Since Vallarta has no curb gutters or storm drains, the water all flows down the streets until it reaches the beach or river. You can see how flooded my street gets and I am five block higher above the beach. You can imagine what the lower streets look like. I have seen the water up over the curbs and across the sidewalks. No photos of that as I do not like to go out during those downpours. I do not mind getting wet, but am terrified to cross a cobble stone street under six or eight inches of water.
You can see how my plants love the rain and how bight and green they all are. Of course about a half dozen are under the cabana, so they still have to be watered and sprayed. I love my plants (all 32 of them), but they do take a little work. Just during the rainy season I do not have to water most of them. Most nights the clouds come over in the late afternoon and the rain starts around 7 or 8:00. Sitting under my cabana, I enjoy not just the rain, but the thunder and lightning show. The lighting can come so rapidly that it looks like the street is being lit by strop lights. You can tell how far away it is by the time it takes for the thunder to hit. At times the lightning is directly overhead so I hear the loud crack of the lightning with almost immediate thunder. The clap is so loud it seems to shake the whole building. It is a show unto itself. We all pray the rains continue, but we also have the hurricane season (September and October) to look forward to. Oh, yes the electricity might go out. Usually just for a little while, but that is why we all have candles about. It never dull here. Maybe this isn't really paradise here, but in my old age, it seems a perfect place to live out my days.
Kitty does not mind the rain or the thunder. She keeps dry curled up in a corner of the balcony. She is quite happy here and rarely strays inside. She knows I do not like it. She disappears for a while each day to go to the bathroom on someone else;s property. Her evil twin
shows up on occasion, but she is afraid of me and runs as soon as she sees me. Oh, I can be pretty scary looking, especially in the morning. One day I spotted her eating the last of kitty's bowl while kitty sat right next to her. She looked up at me with the big blue eyes as if to say, "What's the big deal? I just invited her over for tea" Next she will probably go down on the street and scream "Free lunch on the balcony at 265" and I will have ever stray cat in town on my balcony. But, like everything else in life, I will deal with that when and "if" it happens. People in Mexico do not worry about what "might happen" and I like that way of thinking.
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