You want rain? We got rain.

Estelí RainI was walking around in Estelí yesterday, when (as happens at this time of year) there was a big rainstorm. First came the wind, then the thunder and lightning (mostly thunder, actually), and then a sprinkle of rain, which soon turned to a torrent. Within minutes the road was full of water spilling onto the sidewalk.

Last year, houses were washed away in some rural areas (including in the village of Santa Julia, whose people I have met) due to heavy rains, so this stuff can be pretty serious. But to me, yesterday, it was just fun.

This is not like other rain I have seen. The monsoon in Pakistan isn’t much more impressive, but it lasts a lot longer – this whole storm lasted no more than about 35 minutes, with the main part of the rain falling during about 10 of those minutes. In Pakistan (where I lived with my partner for a year in 2006), the monsoon can last for hours and offer immense amounts of rain. For example, yesterday,  according to one website, Islamabad (where I was) got 39 millimeters of rain in 24 hours.  One morning in 2006, the second floor of our house flooded because the drains on the large deck over our living room got blocked by leaves and the rain came backing up under the door into our upstairs sitting room (and leaked a little into the bedroom). I was glad to discover it before the flowing water reached the plugs on the top of the electric power bar on the floor under the TV.  Fun times.

rainy day
It can rain pretty heavily in Bangkok, too.

I was also happy to have a big squeegee that day.

Yesterday in Estelí, I figure we got 6 or 7 mm, but we got them very quickly. Then, it just stopped. It was late, so the sun went down shortly after and the roads didn’t dry out as quickly as the previous time I had seen a storm like this here, but it’s true that the main street went from dry to a river to mostly dry again in the space of about an hour. Pretty cool. I’m just glad it’s paved.

Anyway, that’s my story. Want to see some pictures?

Unpleasant. But the water is subsiding.

Some from Flickr:

Estelí Rain

Estelí Rain

Estelí Rain
This was rolling down the main street. Don’t ask me.

Estelí Rain

I’m finding it frustrating to always have to upload jpegs straight from my camera, as I usually edit everything a bit in Lightroom or Photoshop (or both). But this is making me work harder to get it right in the camera, which is good… and I will probably sit down with many of these photos and fix them up when I get home in August. Maybe I’ll show you some of the results, if you like.

Till next time, stay dry!