TheBanyanTree: rain dance

[Jim Miller]

Jim, weighing in from South of the Border where it's the Hot-Wet season. I
too can delight in the sensory pleasure of warm rains splashing me from head
to toe. I've experienced that on several occasions lately. But, enough is
enough.

I'm in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and have been here for over a month. Rains
fall mostly at night with the day temperature between 90 and 95. With a
humidity at the saturation point, it feels like 105-110. With even a short
walk, you rapidly become drenched in you own perspiration.

Linda joined me on August 21, and returned home on the 31st, but not before
a little adventure. I had spoken to her of the occasional hard rains that
accompanied raucous lighting and thunder shows. The storms stayed at bay
during her visit until last Monday, the night before her scheduled
departure. To her delight the lighting danced across the skies and the
thunder rattled the walls . . . . .  followed by the rain and more rain, and
still it rained. The reports are that the water volume in a few hours was as
great as the entire month.

I'm staying in Nuevo Vallarta, about 12K north of the airport . . . . .
across the Rio Ameca (Ameca River). Mexico 200 is the only North/South
highway along the coast. There are two bridges across the Rio Ameca. The new
bridge carries traffic north and the old bridge carries traffic south. There
are a couple of small bridges without highway accesses to the east, near
small villages. On Tuesday night, three of those bridges washed out and the
fourth (newer bridge) was closed indefinitely for inspection, blocking all
traffic flow north and south.

The locals rallied and boats large and small lined up at the Marina public
dock to carry people across the bay to Puerto Vallarta. We managed to get
Linda to her plane on time and the newer bridge was opened to light traffic
by mid afternoon allowing me to take a taxi back to the condo.

My flight is scheduled to depart this afternoon and I am ready to go. At 2
AM this morning I was again wakened by lighting flooding my room like a
giant strobe followed shortly by the thunderous crash. And the RAINS came.
Torrents of water cascading from the roof like a small Niagara. All night it
stormed until about 7:30 this morning. And still the rain comes in squirts.
the street in front is flooded. I haven't seen that before. I can find no
news of the remaining bridge, which I hope is good. I have a rental car to
return, which may be a problem without a bridge. (I haven't observed any car
ferries.)

It's now 8:30 AM. The rain has once again stopped and it appears the sun may
be trying to press through. If the bridge is still open, I'm off for home.
If not . . . . . . For sure, I've enjoyed enough of the sensory delights of
a warm rain to last until . . . until I see the first snowflake.  Then I may
be thinking of the friends I left in sunny Puerto Vallarta. Nah, I think
I'll enjoy the snow for a least the first 30 days.

Jim

On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 4:21 PM, Sachet <MountainWhisper at att.net> wrote:

>
>
> Rain drops dance on skin
> Wet caresses splish-splash down
> My perfect playtime
>
> I was enjoying the tactile pleasure of searching through the cool soil in
> my garden, uncovering the bounty of potatoes hidden there when I heard the
> rain coming.
>
>