Category: Nature

General observations, generally during dog walks

Puppy plates?

puppy-plates

I spotted a pile of cut-up license plates at the back of the intendencia (town office) in nearby Salinas. Went to take a photo and realized, wait, there’s a tiny black-and-white puppy in the middle of them, licking up water dripping from an air conditioner overhead. I saw nobody around, but knew there must be. It’s where all the equipment is stored, busy place.

After waiting a long time inside (I cleaned almost all the leaves of the office ficus plant to pass the time), I was able to ask about getting wood chips from their cleanup ops.  No estamos chipeando (we are not chipping) was the answer, because it’s too dry, but they took my number and … this is Latin America … I won’t hold my breath for a call from them.

After which I went back by the pile of license plates. No puppy to be seen.

No había nada.

cat

Usually I walk the beach too late to the road repairs in action, but with today’s balmy weather I went early, and paused a while to watch the surprisingly quick maneuvering of the huge backhoe. The operator was really efficient. Of course, I also saw two guys sitting nearby, doing absolutely nothing.

I asked one of them what lay at the other end of the big pipes they had installed. Una cámara. An underground storage reservoir. Where did the water come from? I wasn’t too satisfied with the answer, since I still didn’t see how water would get into it.

¿No había nada? I asked, guessing there had been no drainage before, which is why the road kept getting washed out.

Nada, he replied with a smile, as if to say, can you believe this?

Tourist season past; time to repair the big attraction

roadwork

Well, now, looks like they’re getting serious about fixing the collapsed Rambla. Instead of just dumping dirt in the hole where the road had been, as before, some serious drain work is in progress.

As I walked down to take a look, my unofficial dog Huma (silent H, remember) went tearing ahead, and when I could see over the ledge, I didn’t see her. But not for long: didit, DiDit, DIDIT and she launched out of one of the tubes like a projectile, veered around and went flying into another. I tried to catch her emerging again, but she was too fast: you can see her if you look very closely in front of the nearest tube.

She stayed in “crazed mode” the whole time we were on the beach, running back and forth, in and out of the water at full speed. Something in the air, I guess.

After the rains: haven’t seen this before

muddy street

In almost 4-1/2 years here, I’ve seen lots of rain, but never this: the tosca, road-building material made from soft sedimentary rock, has become so saturated in many areas that it acts as mud. Ride into that on a bicycle and you’ll regret it.

After I wrote the above, my wife mentioned that just a couple hours ago she got stuck in exactly this place—in the car. Had to rock back and forth to get free….

 

The pond comes to life!

tajamar

The pond has filled to its exit point, also its entrance. I don’t like that design. At some point I’ll get to work making a drain at the far end. But not today: after the temperature plunge of a couple days ago, and the flooding, the temperature has popped back up to 32/90° with oppressive humidity.

Our plan when we made the pond was to introduce plants to clear the water, then fish. That is, if it ever filled with water at all. The floating stuff on the right just appeared one day; turns out our neighbor planted it. Today brought another surprise, one which I don’t think has to do with him (but you never know!).