Living at Lake Chapala in Mexico

A couple of years ago, when the first early rains fell on the Lake Chapala area in late May, Bill Haslbauer wrote the following vivid description to the members of a then active email group of folks interested in moving to Lakeside. We thought you'd enjoy his description of that first unexpected storm.

"It began far off in the distance. Little flashes of light every so often that they surprised me and woke me from a sound sleep. "It's nothing but my imagination" I thought in my half awake state. Suddenly, the crash of thunder brought me wide-awake and sitting straight up in bed. It was 2:30 in the morning after a typical late spring day in Ajijic. With the suddenness that usually accompanies the rains here, there was more thunder and lightning. Who could go back to sleep with this light and sound show going on?

"After a couple years here, I didn't expect this storm in May. But then the rain began; the first sudden down pour quickly slowed to a gentle rainfall. As the thunder and lightning abated and the rain continued, we were curious to see how our new house was weathering the storm. When the lights came back on, first we checked the covered terrazzo and saw droplets of water everywhere. We switched into rescue mode, trying to save our new furniture and everything else that could be damaged by water. For several minutes we were scurrying about bringing in pillows, chairs, papers from the table, and everything else we could lay our hands on.

"When the rain started falling in sheets, the droplets became puddles and the lightening increased to light show frequency. Our surprise at this early storm turned to shock, when we heard hail hitting the roof glass over the stairs. Hail is very rare here, and thankfully the stones were not large and didn't last long, but it certainly got our attention. When the long rolls of thunder and the brief wind subsided, we went back to bed. With distant thunder still rumbling, we drifted slowly back to sleep, listening to the soft, steady patter of the slowing rain.

"With the dawning of another beautiful cool morning, we discovered a very wet and dirty terrazzo. The garage roof, which we expected to leak, did so with profusion. Actually I was amazed that there were no more leaks than we had. Between our tile roof and the totally different construction here, I would have expected more problems.

"Thanks to tile floors, our clean up took only a few minutes, by mid-morning everything was back to normal. This is just one more chapter in living in a new land. We'll begin some mundane work on the roof Monday, but I think I'll also address what can be done about the leaky terrazzo roof. I'm sure there is a fix to it, after all, these Mexican craftsmen can do almost anything.
"Mexico...ya gotta love it!"

Thanks Bill and Neva...we enjoyed your report. If you want more details about the rainy season at Lake Chapala, check out the June 2007 "From the Editor" column in Living at Lake Chapala at http://www.mexico-insights.com/.

"Life is Good at Lake Chapala"

Labels: Rainy Season, Summer rains, Weather

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Judy King is publisher of  Mexico Insights' Living at Lake Chapala, a monthly online magazine for people interested in Mexico's Lake Chapala region, in the state of Jalisco.

Judy, a 16-year resident of Ajijic on Lake Chapala's north shore, conducts weekly newcomer's seminars, shares her expertise about Mexico in her monthly online magazine, and in the "Mexico Lindo" column for the Lake Chapala Review.

Judy also is a speaker for local organizations and visiting tour groups about the Lakeside area and Mexican customs and holidays.