Water and Rocks
When I arrived back in Mexico two nights ago,
as I was leaving the airport in the backseat of a taxi, two events happened.
One was the eruption of Colima Volcano, 50 miles away from my house.
The other was a waterspout that took water from the lake and dumped it on the mountains above my house. That event, added to massive rain on that night and this morning, led to the culverts becoming swift-running streams and the cobblestone streets next to my house being littered by stones brought down the arroyos, which all happen to empty into streets which become part of the drainage system.
After the rain finally ended today and the skies cleared, I decided to venture out to see what condition the world around me was in. I could hear the rushing sound that told me that water was still rushing down from the mountain. 
Although the street that ran to the side of my house was littered with stones, the gardener across the street had gathered up all the stones on the street that ran horizontally across the hill, and put them in small piles, so it was passable. Luckily, no boulders had been brought down this time, for in the past boulders as large as small cars had rolled down, completely tearing up the roads.
At the end of my street, the culvert had turned into a small stream, and as usually happens after a series of big rains, children and their parents were treating the culverts like spas––wading and sometimes immersing their entire bodies.
At every street corner they could be seen cavorting like seals and having a wonderful time, as were this grandmother, daughter and baby boy at the end of my street.
I couldn’t resist going to talk to them. The baby was just objecting to the cold water when I arrived, and the mother had set him up on a rock and was gathering stones for him to hold.
He hoarded them in each hand.
“Does he know how to throw rocks?” I asked, and when the mother shook her head no, I set about teaching him how.
After an initial reluctance to let go of the rocks,
He was a fast learner!
And soon we had trouble keeping him supplied with enough pebbles.
Meanwhile, the little stream rushed on, tumbling some of the small stones down the hill towards the Raquet club 
to round the corner
and rush on down to the village and into the lake.
Those trees out in the lake were once on dry land and the chains of water hyacinths I could make out even at this distance gave testimony to the fact that in addition to the rainfall, extra water was being let out of the spillways of dams further upstream on the Lerma river. I decided it was time to drive down to the lake to take Frida for a walk to investigate further.
To Be Continued
If you are interested in seeing what happens when a tromba (super-saturated cloud or waterspout) empties out over the mountain above me after days of very hard rain, look HERE. You won’t believe this many rocks could come down in a 15 minute period! It took a year to repair the damage.
Today’s prompt is “breakthrough,” and if these aren”t two examples of types of breakthroughs, I don’t know what is! I guess I anticipated the prompt.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
beautiful…….
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That was a spectacular welcome home.
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Yes. I’ve heard of creating a stir, but . . .
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Ohh! 😮 Never a dull moment! But how about the volcano? It’s a HUGE scare for me, I have a feeling every volcano will erupt as soon as come close, that’s why Naples is still waiting.
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I wondered why you had been skirting that issue and that town.
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I’ve just finished reading My Brilliant Friend and other three books in the series that take place right there. I’d say that Rome is edgy enough for me…
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Obviously, you liked the books. I listened to an excerpt but didn’t like the narrator’s voice. I’ll give it another try.
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The voice? You mean the actual voice of the person reading the voice book? Hm… That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it? 😀 What does the book have to do with a poorly chosen voice to read it? Or you mean the voice in which the story is narrated within the book?
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What a dramatic welcome home! Love the story and pictures! Thankfully, not as dramatic as the last tromba and rock slide when Tony and I arrived home to see the roads piled high with rocks, mud, and our next door neighbor’s house inhsbitable from boulders, and a sea of mud.We were both so lucky our houses were unscathed. I can remember feeling the incredible energy in the air for days.
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Ah yes, I was thinking of that as the rain poured and poured and poured down.
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What a beautiful little boy!
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I had never seen him before. They had hiked up from the village to play in the water!
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Wonderful pictures.
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Wow, as much as the water thing was … well, an event. The volcano, is for me a bigger one. Happy to read, nothing too bad happened with the water run-off. When I lived in B.C. interior, once in a while we have something similar from storms or winter run-off. The volcano though, has life changing ramifications.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Fire
Cheers Jamie.
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You must have boundless energy. I admire that. There is a lot of water that is for sure. I’m assuming everyone is safe.
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Are you close enough to that volcano to be concerned for your safety? What an interesting confluence of events — but water does seek the lowest level, whatever it has to move along the way!
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This is what happened the last time a tromba (waterspout or super-saturated cloud) released in the mountains above my house–and why we are concerned over long periods of rain.
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I put a link to photos of that last catastrophic event at the bottom of my post today.. perhaps after you read it. If you are curious, have a look.
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Ah rain, rain! Just reading about it, seeing the photos of the water in the streets makes my body thirsty. We are so dry up here.
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I just read the earlier post — I’m so glad you were on a sideways street rather than those that run up and down the hill! What a scary time that must have been, although I understand about hearing the thunder without lightning. I rather imagine it’s a bit frightening every time you hear that sound or have more than a few minutes of rain! And I see that your volcano is still erupting — I hope you are far enough away that it’s not a threat to you! Stay safe!
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I have the benefit of it as it heats the water in my pool and hot tub. I’ve only felt an earthquake once and one other time it sloshed water out of my pool when guests were here but I was out of town. Fifty plus miles away means I’m not likely to see lava flow.
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We’ll dunk you in the ocean soon enough, Judy. Bring your suit.
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I’m glad to know you’re that far away, and safe!! We’ve had a swarm of 2.0 quakes recently in the Salton Sea area, about 100 miles from here — they’re saying it could — COULD — be the precursor of a chain of quakes going up the San Andreas Fault in the middle of CA, though the risk is diminishing quickly!
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I was near the epicenter of the Loma Prieta quake. Scary.
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That was a 6.9 quake — I was in LA then, but my boss was in the Bay Area! I’ve been near lots of smaller quakes, but never at the epicenter of a larger quake. Close in Seattle in the 60’s, and close enough to feel Northridge and Calexico. The big ones are scary — the smaller ones don’t bother me very much, although I do become alert enough to be ready if it’s a big one!!
My favorite quake story was from Loma Prieta — a friend lived on the epicenter, and ran with her 2 and 5 y/o kids to a large table that they could sit under. They had pre-decided to wait until there was a 5 minute stretch without aftershocks before coming out. After about an hour, the 5 year old looked at mom, and said “Give me liberty or give me death!”
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Wonderful pictures and glad you could have fun with the water and there was no serious damage.
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Really enjoyed all the photos. You really captured the baby’s learning curve.
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Wow – you certainly don’t believe in making a drama out of an event, over there.
In the UK, when it rains a bit – which it does all the time – everyone behaves as if a terrible disaster has occurred. They cower in doorways, terrified of getting wet, watching me – a madwoman – smiling as I splash through puddles, drenched through.
I think I’ll move to Mexico.
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