Stormy weather --- Rainy season in Oaxaca
Posted: Sunday, July 13, 2008
by Alvin Starkman
Casa Machaya Oaxaca Bed & Breakfast
From May until well past summer's end, Oaxaca can be subject to extreme weather patterns. While we've all experienced torrential downpours and damaging winds, here in southern Mexico the region's utility delivery systems ---which at the best of times have lacked quality control and are now (mostly) outdated---make for storms which affect most of us in ways we have seldom if every experienced. Whether you're at an internet café, in the comfort of your hotel room or home, on the road or in a restaurant, Oaxaca 's meteorological marvels will impact you in new and different ways.
Depending on wind direction, occupants of homes, offices and retail establishments may find themselves mopping up. The use of weatherstripping is the exception rather than the norm. So be patient if the level of service you expect is not forthcoming when climatic conditions curtail the ability of your waiter or salesperson to attend to your needs. Oaxacans tend to "go with the flow," after having endured months of draught and the resultant periodic shortages of water for daily predominantly commercial consumption, and challenges to maintaining crops and gardens. It's part of the cyclical nature of life, and we quickly become stoic about tolerating and adapting to such temporary natural occurrences…even the minor earth tremors (something different to tell the folks back home).
But it's the impact that the storms have on electricity that is stunning, both while the skies are thundering and for perhaps 12 hours after the last bolt of lightning has illuminated the cerros. One television may be out of commission while another in the same household may be working, but without sound. The computer may not come on after the fireworks have subsided, yet the lights are on. Some bulbs may be operating at full capacity, while others are not…they may function at a reduced candlelight level, or may simply flicker. One phone may work, another not. The refrigerator may be operating but not the microwave. Causes? For one, Oaxaca lacks a sophistocated regulatory framework which might otherwise control matters such as gauge of electrical wire and overloading of circuits. While " obra suspendida" notices (stop work orders) are not uncommon, they result more from a failure to submit basic drawings to the authorities, than from the substance of the construction.
Your reward for tolerance and understanding is the knowledge that soon all will return to normal, and when you are able to get out on the road you may be blessed with a triple rainbow…it's all part of the magic of Oaxaca . The city will appear fresh, ultra clean, and have a green tinge to it, many buildings having been constructed of pale green cantera stone mined from local quarries, the cantera taking on deeper tones after a rain. Oaxaca has been called the City of Jade because of this phenomenon.
Rains and their temporary effects on services ought not to put a damper on one's Oaxacan travel plans for this time of year. The color of the hills and mountains changes from nondescript beige to brilliant green, the temperature range is pleasant at both extremes, and the fiestas are plentiful and filled with unmatched pageantry. Keep your vacation itinerary in tact and you won't be disappointed. For $1 you can always pick up a rain poncho on the street. Most of my pre-residency Oaxaca travel experiences were throughout the summer, and yet here I am, a Oaxacan looking forward to whatever comes my way.
Alvin Starkman together with wife Arlene operates Casa Machaya Oaxaca Bed & Breakfast ( http://www.oaxacadream.com ). Alvin received his masters in social anthropology in 1978, and his law degree in 1984. Thereafter he was a litigator in Toronto until taking early retirement. He and his family were frequent visitors to Oaxaca between 1991 and when they became permanent residents in 2004. Alvin leads small group tours, is a writer, and occasionally is a consultant for documentary film companies.
This Article has been viewed 94 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.