There’s a sunny side to the Costa Rican rainy season.

For many Costa Ricans and residents, winter, or rainy season, is the favorite time of year. Temperatures drop, plants grow at astounding rates, and rooftop raindrops evoke the kind of comfortable feeling that makes you want to wrap up in a blanket and watch a movie. It’s good to be here during rainy season, enjoying the moister side of Costa Rica Weather, but if you’re going to spend the winter here, you need to arm your vocabulary.

They say that the Inuits (Eskimos) have hundreds of words for snow. That’s not actually true, but obviously, in places with extraordinary amounts of snow, there will be several words to describe its texture, density, and color. Likewise, ticos have many different words to describe their winter rain, and your Spanish acquisition won’t be quite complete until these terms rolls smoothly off of your tongue:

• pelo de gato: Translated directly, this term means “cat fur,” a perfect mental image for how this light, gently misting rain feels against your skin.
• garúa: This refers to those long, soft, misting raindrops that almost evaporate before hitting the ground. Enjoy them while they last.
• llovizna: Known in English as “drizzle,” a llovizna rarely stays a llovizna for long, usually making for the perfect transition into the heavier rains typical of a Costa Rican winter.
• cilampa: A pedestrian’s worst nightmare, cilampa is the sideways drizzle that is usually accompanied by irritating winds, managing to evade your protective umbrella, and soak your clothing.
• goterones: A goterón is one of those giant raindrops that, when it lands, makes an equally large plopping noise. Though they’re fun to watch and listen to, hope that you’re indoors when they arrive, as they are always a warning for the aguacero to come.
• aguacerillo/acuacerito: Embodying the tico proclivity to use a word’s diminutive, an aguacerillo is like a small aguacero, or essentially a steady rain that isn’t quite torrential.
• aguacero: Best translated as a torrential downpour, aguaceros are the staple of a Costa Rican winter. Aguaceros can be so powerful that you can hardly see 5 feet in front of you, though thankfully, they rarely last more than an hour or two.
• tormenta: Spanish for thunderstorm, tormentas are much less common than aguaceros. However, if you do get caught in a Costa Rican tormenta, prepare: the lightening is bright enough to light up the entire landscape, and the thunder rumbles so powerfully that your house shakes and car alarms get set off.
• baldazo: It can rain so hard here that Costa Ricans need a noun for “it’s raining buckets.”
• cielo roto: A baldazo’s older, meaner brother, cielo roto literally means “broken sky.” In English, we’d probably say that the “heavens had opened up,” but somehow, the Spanish seems a much more appropriate description for Costa Rican rain.
• temporal: By the time the October temporales roll around, almost everyone is ready for the rains to end. Though exactly the opposite of what you’d hoped for, the days-long, no-respite rains of a temporal are actually the best sign that summer is right around the corner.

Likewise, there are several phrases you may expect to hear when a storm is coming:

• “Ya viene la señora con los frescos”: Here comes the lady with the refreshments.
• “Viene la que moja” Here comes that which makes you wet.
• “Ya viene la agua”: Here comes the water.
• “Van a caer sapos y ranas”: (For a very heavy rain) Toads and frogs are going to fall.
• “El cielo esta encapotado”: The sky’s all covered up.
• “San Pedro esta enojado”: (When it thunders) St. Peter is angry.

The next time that the rains begin, test your vocabulary, and describe the falling water like a Costa Rican. Pride in your new knowledge might be just enough to forgive the unforgiving skies.

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Filed under: Living on June 12th, 2008