After the rain
//EDIT: additional photos posted to previous link//
Well that was interesting.
Copiapo finally got its rain yesterday. And boy, did it rain! A solid day of rain even by Vancouver standards - maybe 40mm? In the desert that’s just crazy. Probably a 1 in 10 storm although I’m making that up completely. And today the sun is out, to dry up all the rain, but the itsy bitsy spider ain’t going anywhere because I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any insects here. Certainly not at site.
At the project site, I’ve seen guanacos (lots), foxes (a few), condors (six at once!), a mouse, small darting birds (a few), and spindly dry grasses along the river. That’s it. How do the small birds survive? On grass seed? When? What do the mice eat? There are no grubs, no worms, no spiders, no flies. The old lady would have gone hungry.
Anyway, it was wet here yesterday. Rain + Sunday = almost everything shut down. The roads were rivers in places and swimming pools in others. I don’t know if they have a road drainage system. Why bother if you need it only once or twice a year?! And my fancy hotel? Buckets in the foyer, a puddle in the carpet outside my room, damage to the laminate floor in the restaurant (spongey!), etc.
Other cities in the region are worse though (mudpits), a top news headline.
Naw, there have to be insects down here or the flowers wouldn’t be able to mate.
Well that was interesting.
Copiapo finally got its rain yesterday. And boy, did it rain! A solid day of rain even by Vancouver standards - maybe 40mm? In the desert that’s just crazy. Probably a 1 in 10 storm although I’m making that up completely. And today the sun is out, to dry up all the rain, but the itsy bitsy spider ain’t going anywhere because I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any insects here. Certainly not at site.
At the project site, I’ve seen guanacos (lots), foxes (a few), condors (six at once!), a mouse, small darting birds (a few), and spindly dry grasses along the river. That’s it. How do the small birds survive? On grass seed? When? What do the mice eat? There are no grubs, no worms, no spiders, no flies. The old lady would have gone hungry.
Anyway, it was wet here yesterday. Rain + Sunday = almost everything shut down. The roads were rivers in places and swimming pools in others. I don’t know if they have a road drainage system. Why bother if you need it only once or twice a year?! And my fancy hotel? Buckets in the foyer, a puddle in the carpet outside my room, damage to the laminate floor in the restaurant (spongey!), etc.
Other cities in the region are worse though (mudpits), a top news headline.
Naw, there have to be insects down here or the flowers wouldn’t be able to mate.