Way Too Much Rain!!

Our rainy season has been days of no rain and days of torrential rains and days of a gentle drizzle.  However, at the beginning of September on a Tuesday we had a huge rainfall.  Probably more than 9" in 3 or 4 hours.  The result of the large amount of water hitting our soil was the arrival of many mudslides  on the main road to Berlin and on our property.  The ones on our property took out about 30 coffee plants and went across the road at the back of our property.  A smaller slide near the house took out a number of our bananas plants.  Not serious problems for us but it made it difficult for our neighbors who live on the road to go in and out.

This was the largest slide and it took out trees, rocks and even some type of power/phone line.












Not quite so large but still a lot of dirt.



The side of the hill was removed down to rock.







The big problem was the main road that we take to Berlin where  a number of large slides brought down mud, rocks and trees.  The largest of the slides went across the road and kept us housebound from Tuesday until Saturday!  The road crews have been very busy cleaning away the debris and the road is now back to normal if looking a little different.








After being stranded for about 4 days the road was cleared but much of the debris still remained.  It is now all cleared away but driving that particular part of the road is still strange.












Much of the debris was pushed to the steep side of the road which made it a little less scary passing.  One day coming home from San Ramon there was so much mud on the road, I was skidding in 4 wheel drive!  Scary as the road drops off quite steeply!
    

One of the days we were stranded we decided to try the back way to San Ramon and this is what we encountered.  As the water was moving quite rapidly and there was a drop off on the left side, not to mention we had no idea how deep the water was, we decided to turn back!

This is what our road looks like just before getting to our gate.  It was actually worse but is getting better everyday!  Unless we have some more torrential downpours!

The rain also came with quite a bit of wind and consequently we ended up with some leaks.  Not uncommon in Costa Rica.  It is difficult for us to understand why in a country that rains 6 months out of the year they have not perfected a leak proof roof??  I really like the rainy season because we don't have to water, there is no dust and sometimes it's nice to have an excuse to curl up with a book in the afternoon!  However, I'm really getting tired of having water where it shouldn't be!!