Beautiful Downtown Boquete

The rains have been heavy in Boquete since May, with July and August feeling more like October and November.   Lloyd Cripe's Boquete Weather website has reported total Boquete rainfall through August 2017 as  running somewhere between 78 inches and 212 inches, depending upon the focus area.  Since there are no gauges for the Alto Boquete area, I can't speak for my neighborhood,  except to say it sure feels more like 212 inches than 78 inches!  We're about level with Jaramillo Abajo, though, so I'd wager a guess that we've received somewhere around 140 inches.   (Perhaps I should contact him and offer to monitor rainfall data for next year...)  Here's the link to that website should you want to check it out yourself.  

http://www.boqueteweather.com/watchers/bww_update_091917.html

Bottom line, the worst is yet to come.  However, when I think about Houston and Florida and the Caribean Islands, I realize that things could be a lot worse and I need to be thankful for having electricity, running water, and a dry house to come home to.   At least the majority of the time!

Construction is at an all time high in Boquete, despite the rains and inclement weather. Some of it is preparation for installation of the new water system, and some is due to business centers and generalized expansion.  All the downtown roads have been torn up and there are ruts and potholes and puddles and traffic and rocks everywhere. Panamanians don't believe in driving normal speed over roadways that aren't completely level and paved, so traffic slows to 2-5 mph with vehicles weaving in and out of the oncoming lanes when it means they can avoid running over a tiny bump or getting a splash of muddy water on their Hyundai tires.  Funny thing---they recklessly speed along the David highway when they should exercise caution, but exercise undue caution if they think a bump might "rattle" their  auto's suspension.  Got to get one's priorities straight, I imagine...

For the curious who believe a picture is worth a thousand words, I offer the following:

Wondering what things will be like for the November festivities and annual parade.  Or for the January Feria de las Flores y el Café.   Who knows.  Maybe it will be fixed by then, but it seems to be a major undertaking and only a minimal time distance away.  We shall see.   Also worth mentioning, although I failed to  take photos---Los Naranjos is a huge mess, as well.  There are detours to get to Cafe Ruiz, and the mud and yuck is obscene.    Hate to say it, but Boquete is currently not the scenic spot it's known for.  The end result will be well worth it, but this "ugly hair" stage is pretty bad.  If I didn't live here, I certainly wouldn't come for the November parade or the 2018 Feria.  Just sayin'...

Maybe things will be better by the Jazz Festival in February.