Locos Dos -SURVIVING Costa Rica: Rainy Season and Football

Jesse Bishop - JAN 21, 2019
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Surviving Costa Rica – Rainy Season and Football: It’s no secret there are two seasons here in Guanacaste: the dry one and the wet one. Your faithful scribe currently finds himself in the dead of rainy season, sitting here at his trusty ol’ word processor. Outside it’s raining cats, dogs, and even more cats … and has been doing so for the last six days.

At first, this season is welcomed by all as a pleasant alternative to the heat and general brownness of dry season, sometimes referred to as “summer.” But by late September, as the rains really start kicking in, popular opinion starts to change along with the local landscape.

For us American expatriates,
football is a pretty big deal.

Once dusty and rutted roads, guaranteed to bust an axle or two, are replaced by swiftly running torrents of water and mud, bringing down the occasional tree and creating a washboard effect capable of automotive incapacitation. As an added bonus, drivers can no longer see the monstrous huecos (potholes), now camouflaged as puddles. It’s a good time of year to be a mechanic in Tamarindo.

Giving directions in Tamarindo also changes during rainy season. In telling someone where to find the Banco Nacional or Pasatiempo, you no longer say, “up the road a bit.” It’s more like, “head upstream till you hit the big lake, then dock where the water is only up to your knees.” Another favorite is describing the drive to Playa Langosta as “only 25 minutes.”

Come mid-October, Tamarindo starts to resemble a ghost town, with most restaurants closed and the population depleted by residents returning to wherever they came from, if at all possible.

The populations of Argentina and Canada swell for at least a month, when folks like my wife and me start questioning the wisdom of selling property back in the States and leaving us with nowhere to run.

No problem. At least here in Villareal we find all sorts of ways to keep ourselves occupied. We keep track of babies born in our neighborhood — three at last count in our barrio alone — or the number of houses being built, of which we are fast losing count.

Other recommended pastimes while waiting out rainy season include: watching the grass grow, rereading “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” for the fourth time, and the ever-popular long nap throughout September and October.

Rainy season also corresponds with the beginning of North American football season. This is not to be confused with fútbol, a sport played pretty much everywhere else in the world that, surprisingly, involves the use of the foot.

For us American expatriates, football is a pretty big deal, connecting us with the valued institutions we’ve left behind in the States and giving us something to watch besides the rain. Football season is also popular with wives longing for a few hours of peace while hubby is at the local watering hole.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a Dallas Cowboys fan, a very rare commodity in this neck of Guanacaste, which leans more toward the California teams. Cowboys fans are expected to indoctrinate the millions from unfamiliar parts of the world (who mistakenly believe the sport should be played with a foot) about North American football. I have spent many an hour in local sports bars trying to explain the rules of North American football to potential converts from Brazil and Germany, even though I really have no idea myself. I’m usually pretty successful, leaving each new batch of Cowboys fans reciting their newfound mantra: Cowboys Live, Patriots (or Steelers, or Giants … ) Die!