Tropical Depression

August until November is hurricane season in this part of the world. Curacao, Bonaire and Aruba are part of ‘Islanan Abou’ the western islands (Benedenwindse eilanden). St. Martin, Saba and St. Eustatius are the Islariba, the eastern islands (Bovenwindse eilanden). The Islariba are more prone to actually getting hurricanes. Once in a while Curacao is hit, but here it’s more storms and tropical depressions. In August we saw some rain, but September is really something else. It’s like all the rain that falls in the Netherlands in a year, falls her in a couple of days. Of course, the soil can’t handle it, neither can the sewers. Streets are flooding, houses are flooding, the gorge behind my house that is normally dry turned into a river.

Last night, I got home just in time to save my apartment from flooding. Though the consideration of staying at a beach hotel (I was there for happy hour ;-) was a pretty good one. The drive home was dangerous. My brakes didn’t work as well as they normally do and they made a terrible noise. Scary! I had to drive around to find streets that weren’t flooded which turned out to be impossible. The crossing Nacht by Schout Doormanweg and Cas Coraweg was totally flooded. A car wouldn’t drive anymore, so people were pushing. Two cars had bumped into one another. It looked spectacular, though it wasn’t. It kind of felt cool at some point as I was actually ‘driving on water’. Something like ‘walking on water’. Here’s the film.
Driving on Water

Finally I got to Gosieweg, the main street near my house. But the cars in front of me were not moving anymore. They looked like they were floating in the water. Luckily on my right there was a parking lot which lay a little higher. I took the exit and that way was able to pass over the other cars. I found a road that went up to my street. Since I live on a hill a lot of water was just coming at me. Luckily I was still able to drive up. When I got to my appartment I saw a little lake in front of my house. Seriously, it would have been easier to get to my house by rubber boat! It turned out that a stone was covering the hole that normally lets out the rain. We’d put it there because Vuvu would escape through it when she was still a tiny little puppy. So, a good thing I didn’t stay at a hotel!
Just to let you know: I got home safe, my house is fine and my car is still in good shape. As of now…I’m paying a little more attention to the weather forecast during hurricane season.

And what’s most beautiful, today the sun is shining brightly and we have a clear blue sky!

This post is a week late….because..i got a bad case of the cold…