Finding the Humor in Weather

“The nicest thing about the rain is that it always stops. Eventually.” –Eeyore. Yep, it’s that time of year again. The rainy season officially started June 1st and it didn’t take long for it to roll on in with a weather disturbance that picked up in the Caribbean. Predictions were forecast at 90% of becoming a tropical depression. The general consensus was this was nothing to worry about, but that we were definitely guaranteed to get severely wet, and we have been. Thankfully not all day every day. Homeowners and renters with cisterns are relieved to get them finally filled back up. Drivers are not quite as happy. Everyone that was wishing for water to keep the dust down on back road detours due to construction is now faced with potholed mud bogs. Island life – for better or for worse we get both extremes often 😀 You definitely need a good sense of humor to weather the rainy season in Belize and some Useful waterproof travel gear. As a result of all the tropical storm reports many people have been asking me about the the weather in relation to their travel plans – no one wanted to get storm delayed. Thankfully they will just get to come and enjoy tropical rain showers. If you are planning your first trip, from now until November 30th, you should expect it to rain pretty much every day at some point. It often comes late at night or early morning – how much is anyone’s guess. Some useful weather sites, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Weather Underground and AccuWeather. Another downside – with the rain comes the mosquitoes. Thankfully they have not been an issue for me in town but I have friends (both down south) who have been swarmed recently. So many times over the years I have enjoyed crackups with one or more people doing the skeeter dance and flailing our arms around like crazy people while trying to keep the pint-size flying “Draculas” from quenching their thirst. Of the many crazy rainy season memories I have, (and there are many) is the super silly and slightly toxic experience of trying to outrun the malathion truck. Out on a quest to El Divino at Banana Beach for burgers, I was walking the back roads in San Pablo with a couple of friends. As we heard it coming it was unanimous we instantly felt transported into a bizarre horror movie. Laughing hard and running as fast as we could, the ominous buzzing noise drew closer. We managed to reach an offshoot dead end and all drew a big breath so as not to inhale the stinky poison cloud as the truck rounded the corner and passed us.