A (Very) Windy Weekend in Panamá

On this visit to Panamá, we are staying at a friend’s house in the Santa Lucia neighborhood of Volcancito. It’s a beautiful house overlooking a fairly deep gorge with a nice view of Volcán Barú. The elevation of the house is around 4,100 feet and its been sunny, cool and breezy.

We’ve spent enough time in Panamá to be used to wind and power outages, especially at this time of the year. On Friday as we were going to bed the wind really started picking up and by midnight it was getting pretty strong. We didn’t think too much about it but then in the wee hours of the morning the power went out. When the power goes out in this house (as in most of the houses we have stayed in here) the first thing that happens is the battery back-up for the router starts beeping, first fast then slowly, and then everything stops and gets very dark. Its enough to definitely wake me up, and between that and the wind noise it took a while for me to get back to sleep. Just as I was falling asleep the power came back on, with a few beeps and various lights from chargers and this and that, along with the ceiling fans starting to spin again. I was wide awake again, but I thought that all was well and end of story. But the wind got stronger and gustier, and a bit later the power went out again, came back on, and then towards daylight went out again and this time stayed that way.

Saturday is the day the gardener comes and he always enjoys a cup of coffee before he gets started, which we were unable to provide with no power. He told us the entire district was without power and said that it was probably a large tree down over the wires somewhere. Mid-morning the power was back and the gardener got his coffee and once again we thought all was well. Until 1:30 when it went back out again, this time for the afternoon. All the while the wind kept gusting and blowing relentlessly. Finally late in the afternoon the power was back and we had dinner, and were just settling down to watch tv, when at 7:00 pm we lost it again. We waited for a half hour or so and then went to bed where we read and listened to the wind. There is’t that much else to do with battery lights, candles, and no internet, and we started to fall sleep around 9:00.

I had trouble sleeping because the the wind was gusting to the point that we could feel it pushing against the house, blowing loose objects around and rattling the leaves and branches. I did eventually fall asleep, because I was awoken at around 10:30 when the power came back on. The wind was almost a bit scary, it was so strong. Shortly after midnight we lost power again, it came back a little later, it went out again, came back, went out and finally came back before daylight. Every time the power came back it seemed like the wind got stronger and gustier, as if it was trying to knock things about and down. It would get silent and quiet and then come back like a hammer. It almost seemed alive, and my imagination was running amok.

Early Sunday morning our power cam back and this time it stayed. One of our water tank lids had blown off but luckily stayed in the yard, and there was a lot of wind blown debris about. A friend of ours that gives guided four wheeler tours told us that when he went out on a tour Sunday morning trees were down everywhere. He has lived in Panamá for many years and he said this was one of the worst wind storms he remembers ever seeing.

I’m not sure what kind of clash of weather systems caused our weekend of wind but it was something. It came mostly from the north from the Caribbean. I don’t think the Panamanians let it slow down their Carnivál celebrations too much but it was certainly an interesting weekend, even for Panamá.

Saludos, Craig