Dry Season, Rainy Season, Easter etc

January brings the winds . . . in fact today has been one of the windiest  . . . "vientos alisios" are the trade winds of January.  It is not completely unusual to be walking in the garden of the Pura Vida and see a neighbors roof go by 10 meters above the trees.

Wiki describes them like this:

• "The trade winds (also called trades) are the prevailing pattern of easterly surface winds found in the tropics within the lower portion of the Earth's atmosphere in the lower section of the troposphere near the Earth's equator.^[1] The trade winds blow predominantly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere, strengthening during the winter and when the Arctic oscillation is in its warm phase. Historically, the trade winds have been used by captains of sailing ships to cross the world's oceans for centuries, and enabled European empire expansion into the Americas and trade routes to become established across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans."  The trade winds were how Christopher Columbus got here and back.

Costa Rica's dry season starts around late November and runs till the beginning of April.  Literally the spigot is turned off and garden watering must begin.  Thankfully due to a local phenomenon called municipal leakage we have a constant trickle of water from a little muni-stream that looks and acts like a river during the rainy season that starts in April each year. During the peak dry season months - no rain at all in January, February and March the gardens of the Pura Vida need a good sprinkle every day

April generally brings us to easter or as it is known locally "Semana Santa".  Semana Santa is a very serious festival indeed (well except in our neighborhood) . . . a big local holiday, you can pretty much expect much of Costa Rica's government and bureaucracy to shut down for a week.  Yes tourism will go on but best to book things ahead.

Entry to be continued . . .