WHY ALL THE FOG AND RAIN?

When considering a vacation in a tropical locale such as Costa Rica, we tend to dream of sunny beaches, swaying palms and drinks with paper umbrellas in them being sipped as sun sets over the waves.

Why then, constant reader, might you ask, does my Facebook page mentions so much rain, wind and fog?

In a word:  micro-climates.  In some other words, remember the sunny beaches are just found on the coastlines in most parts of the world and there is more to this fair country than their coastline.

I'm staying, on this trip, in what is close to a cloud forrest.  In the middle of a coffee plantation. Coffee loves warm foggy temperatures better than hot sun.  The beans ripen slowly, starting out almost lime green, they go thru phases from grass green thru orange to scarlet and finally at a rich dark brown they are ready to be picked.  By hand.  One bean at a time.  Coffee beans grow in clusters but each bean ripens individually so the cluster may be picked over several times before the entire handful is harvested.

The cloud forest reminds me of the Pacific Northwest.  Today started out socked in fog-I wasn't able to see across the yard.  About 8:00 AM, the sun began to burn off the fog and for an hour or two there was some sun, some warmth and I quickly got the clothes I'd washed out on the line to dry.  Looking down the ravine to the casas on lower parts of the ridge, I saw women in many of them doing the same thing.

Further down the hillside, however, the fog sat in thick pockets of soupy morass.  The road I walk went in and out of the fog as it wove down and up and through the terrain.  Across the valley towards Volcan Poas, much remained hidden but the tip of the volcan had begun to peek out of the fog.

<insert pic of poas here>  

By lunch time today, the fog had gone but the major storm clouds rolled in for the usual afternoon drenching.  All of us with clothes on the line...well I'm the only one with a 'line' for the most part, it's clothes on the bushes, fences, railings and in the trees...were rushing to get the dried things in the house before the afternoon rains began in ernest.  And boy did they!  The wind was rocking the trees, I lost connectivity once again and leaves and branches were blowing over the yard.  We had some lightening and thunder and it was a good time for a nap or to clean up the house, which I decided to do as Bev returns in a couple of days.

When I was starting dinner, marinating a chicken leg and thigh in fresh 'orangeish like juice' and pepper, cutting up the cauliflower and nibbling on the last of todays plantainoes (fat bananas that you fry) the skies cleared and the sun came back out!

I took Dobbie and Suzy for a walk as he had been either inside with me or hooked to his lead all day and needed to stretch his puppy legs.  The pathways were all muddy but the fields were beautiful after the rain.

And as always the sunset was magnificent -  sorbet colors of orange and raspberry tonight that the camera just can't catch-they are so subtle on the undersides of the clouds that a picture just shows grey.

<insert tonights sunset pic here>

So-thats why it isn't always sunny in the tropics-but no matter.  It's a mighty fine place to be.