March 22, 2010
The rain continues to pour on La Ceiba and the Iguana Bar. I was hoping we could take a day and go into town, possibly visiting some bars and restaurants to scope out the competition. Perhaps it will subside enough that we can make the trip this afternoon.
The problem isn’t that I don’t like the rain – I love the rain, and it’s refreshing after a string of hot, humid sunny days. The problem is that downtown Ceiba has no drainage, so when it rains, rivers are formed and you can’t cross the street. OK – you CAN technically cross the street, and yes, little old ladies in skirts and pumps do cross the streets without even thinking twice. But, it’s not on the top of my list of things to do on my day off, let’s just say.
Last week, Jason and I ventured downtown to try to gather some last minute items before opening day of our kitchen. We took the bus from our neighborhood to “central park” for 5.5 lempiras (about 25 cents). It was drizzling when we left, so I decided that it was best to wear my socks and sneakers (for ironically the first time since we arrived here about 3 weeks prior). We found some good stores downtown – new thrift stores, new hardware stores, new Dunkin Donuts. While grabbing some lunch, the weather changed from a drizzle to a heavy downpour. We hung out for awhile in the restaurant before finally deciding to brave the rain. We walked outside onto the sidewalk, huddled under the canopy over the doorway and choose the direction we thought would take us back to the bus. But upon arriving at the corner of the street, we realized that there was a small 6 in deep river flowing through the street, so we decided to try to back track to the other corner. Turns out this scenario existed on every street corner, some deeper than others, but all requiring us to get our socks and shoes pretty soaked and uncomfortable just to cross the street. To top it off, we really had no idea where we were even supposed to catch the bus, so we were wandering around aimlessly and getting a bit cranky. We decided to catch a cab ride home, and talked the driver into driving us home for 80 lempiras (about $4). It’s about a 20 minute ride, depending on road conditions, but like I said – there’s no drainage, so this little Datsun is driving through literal rivers. I was just waiting for water to pour in through the door in the back! Needless to say, he managed to drive all the way down our washed out dirt road and got us safely to our house; although, he did mumble something about not being sure if he would be able to get back out to the main road.
The other bad thing about the rain is that it turns the ocean water brown and lots of trash and debris washes onto our shore. We knew that the beach had to be cleaned fairly regularly here, but even more regularly the more it rains. I know why there is so much trash – because these people seem to have very little respect for their country and they throw liter EVERYWHERE – including into the river which washes into the ocean. But I still can’t seem to figure out why branches of every size seem to wash up by the truck full loads onto the beach after a few days of intense rain. At least a lot of neighbors burn wood for their ovens, so they will come out and clean up part of our beaches for us for free. As soon as this rain subsides, we’ll hire someone to take away what is left and hopefully have clean beaches by next weekend!!
So, even though we are in the dry season, the rain comes every couple days, and stays for a couple days. And it’s not a drizzle – it’s some crazy, violent rain that comes out of nowhere!! The good news is that we are easily able to locate the leaks in the thatched roof in the bar (conveniently located directly over the center bar stool), and we have discovered multiple leaks in our apartment which just barely miss hitting the edge of our bed! (How do you fix a leak that appears to be coming from a ceiling made of cement?) And it’s keeping my newly planted clippings nice and watered!
Still, I have no complaints about not leaving the apartment yet today – it’s just a little after noon and I slept in until 8:00 this morning! I’m soaking in my day off, eating toast with peanut butter, reading magazines, drinking coffee and listening to the sweet sound of psycho neighbor dogs barking. Sweet bliss.