Rick dropped by in October, but now we are back to sunny skies, the river is running clear and there’s dust on my car again! It must be the end of the rainy season.
As for your humble reporter, I was in chilly New England when the remains of Rick came through town. We had snow in New Hampshire on October 15th! But I digress. Frank Smith (affectionally known to us as ‘Turtle Frank’ because of all his great work with Grupo Ecológico de la Costa Verde) reports in his monthly newsletter that the storm arrived around 4 in the morning. My records show that the heaviest downpour came around 7:15. At a rate of 4 in/hr for a brief period!
The shelf at San Pancho beach.
All told, we were drenched with 2.16in / 54.9mm of rain and a big change in our beach landscape. Frank reports that “hurricane Rick crossed into México about 160 miles north of San Pancho. As a powerful tropical storm, Rick’s waves cut a steep seven foot bank along the entire length of the beach that advanced within 15 feet of the La Perla restaurant. Within five days a second beach appeared below the bank.”
Check out Frank’s web site at http://www.project-tortuga.org.
Daytime temperatures remained amazingly consistent during October, moderating only slightly by the end of the month. Night time temperatures sloped downward very nicely though, reaching into the mid-60s by month’s end.
On the Tercer Mundo road construction scene: Wednesday, November 4, the road section in front of the soccer field had one lane torn up. The questions abound: how long will it take? how will traffic have access to town? will there be proper drainage in this section? Answers to these questions are elusive, much to the consternation of business owners in San Pancho, now that the tourist season is upon us.
