The rainy season

Jeff and I made our trip to Nicaragua right at the start of their rainy season. That sounds bad, but I suspect it made things a little more pleasant. During the rain storms were the only times that it wasn't overwhelmingly hot and humid. Plus, we quickly became able to predict when it was going to rain. The weather always followed the same pattern: If the day was sunny and beautiful, we could usually see far off clouds. As the clouds got closer, the humidity would build. Just as you thought you were going to melt into a puddle of goo, the skies would open up and dump rain. There were no gentle showers or drizzle -- just downpour. I've heard of tropical places that always have rain at the same time of day for the same amount of time. Nicaragua wasn't like that. It was different each time.

Towards the end of our trip, we had a couple of extremely heavy storms and they caused flooding in much of the country. I took these pictures from the back seat of a cab heading to Granada. As we drove past, I could see huge streams of water running through houses. Entire communities of people were out standing by the side of the highway, watching the flood rush through their homes and waiting for it to subside. I asked our driver if the flooding was normal, and he told us it happened every June. He seemed unconcerned.










That night, I watched cable in our hotel. The Nicaraguan TV news reported a few deaths relating to the flooding. I couldn't understand exactly what they were saying about the young men who were killed, but they showed the bodies. It looked like they had been dragged at least a couple of miles by the water. After watching the Nicaraguan news, I switched the channel to a local news program coming out of New York. Their lead story covered flooding that was happening in a Brooklyn neighborhood, apparently simultaneously. Several homes had suffered damage from basement flooding. Must have been a slow news day in New York.