Who’s Felix?

September 13, 2007

One thing that I haven’t discussed in the blog is the weather. And since I’ve had a lot of questions regarding Felix, this seems like a timely topic. To start with Felix – he didn’t affect us at all. We live in the north-west part of Nicaragua, very close to the Honduran border and the hurricane only really affected the east coast of both countries. We wouldn’t have even known about Felix except for the e-mails from the consular and our families – plus we watched the evening news after the fact. It rained of course, but it rains everyday, so we didn’t notice a difference.

Right now is what the Nicas call invierno, meaning winter. It isn’t really winter as we know it in the states… it is just the rainy season. Here in Nicaragua, there are only two seasons: wet and dry. During the wet season, the mornings are usually sunny and in the 80s, and the afternoons are usually rainy and much cooler. Right now it is 5:10PM, raining, and 73 degrees. People keep asking me about the heat here, but it really hasn’t gotten that hot. If you’re out working in the sun, then yeah, it’s hot – but not unbearable. The only time when the heat is uncomfortable is under the tin roofs on a sunny afternoon. We had a spell of mini dry season during our solar culture course, and it got pretty hot in the afternoons. But, out where there was a breeze, in the shade or under a clay roof it was quite pleasant. I guess the worst heat was when we were in Managua – it was really hot at night. Here in the Mountains though, we have to cuddle up to keep warm.

The interesting thing is that winter (wet season) is during summer and summer (dry season) is during winter, as far as the Northern Hemisphere knows it, and Nicaragua is above the equator. So, when summer does come around, it is actually winter, so it won’t be as hot as it would be if summer was during summer. You may doubt my logic, but Marcio said that it gets pretty cold during the nights in December, which is summer. Of course, my other theory is that since there is a 6 mo. drought, the air must be dry, and if you’ve ever been to the desert, you know that it is hot during the day but cold at night.