COSTA RICAN MUSINGS - On Leaks

ON LEAKS #1.

Our first big leak.

The rainy season, or as it is called locally "the temporada baja"  or if you are feeling grumpy today just the "temporada", starts in April and goes through mid November. It rains a lot in May and early June (a few hours every day) and again in September and October. July and August can be a mini high season with just a little rain in the afternoons.

In Costa Rica nearly everything leaks.

When we first got here a guest with a nice sense of humor came up to the Casa. We had a few hours earlier let them in and showed them to their Casita at the bottom of our garden - the Mariposa. A torrential rainstorm had hit for the last hour and had just stopped.

He was grinning from ear to ear and asking for some help with mops. "The water came through the front door," he said.

"Oh dear, we'll be right down."

"Well that's the bad news, the good news is it came in the front door and went right out the back like a river."

Since then we have remodeled the Mariposa and the garden in front of it so this no longer happens. As extra security we moved the front door to the side :-)

ON LEAKS #2.

"Don't leave the remote there."
"Why not?"
"That's where it leaked yesterday."
"That's why I put it there."
"Huh?"
"We fixed the roof again today."
"How do you know it won't leak there exactly?"
"It always leaks somewhere else when we do that."
"Not necessarily."
"You wait."

post script: the really big leak is now two smaller leaks either side of the remote control

 

ON LEAKS #3

Pondering plumbing from an entirely new perspective and the continued tales from the Temporada Baja:

I ask, "Freddy what ya doin?"

(ASIDE: Freddy is the new electrician and related to 2 of our staff and hence a protected species and tasked with sealing the rather wet junction boxes in the garden)

He says, "Fixing the garden lights."
"It's taking a long time." I note.
"Yes, the electrical conduit is full of water."
"Is that bad?"

Freddy shrugs.
"What will you do next?"
"I'll seal the box onto the conduit since you don't want me digging up more of the garden."
"Is that OK?"
Freddy shrugs and continues noodling 7 inches underground.
"OK. Hmmmm."
And I head up the hill pondering a new enlightenment.

Today I realize . . .the only thing that does not leak in our house is the electrical conduit.

Later that day. I walk back down the garden.

"Freddy, you know about that thing in the gulf where everything including the ocean floor leaks and people say that is normal?"
"No."
"Well they are drilling a hole a mile deep into a pipe a few inches wide."
"Oh."
"I wonder about such precision with all the engineering needed to cause a trillion gallons of oil to leak out, cracks in the floor and how do you do that and such. I wonder about such things."
"OK."
"Well we have an electrical conduit full of water, you see."
"Yes, I know, I just sealed it."
"What if we took a tip from the experts and we dug a hole down the hill a bit, find the conduit and make a new leak?"
"OK."