Brrrrr …..

For the past week or so it has been rather cold here in Loja. Those of you in the northern hemisphere - where it is the middle of winter and freezing - probably wouldn’t think so, but for those of us who are used to temperatures that reach about 70 to 80 degrees F (~21 to 27 deg C) consistently, every day, it has been feeling pretty cold lately. It is hard to say what the actual temperatures have been here – there are no weather reports on TV, and the internet forecasts don’t seem to be very accurate (right now they are saying that it is 82 deg. F [27.7 deg. C] in Loja and I’m sure that’s not correct because I’m wearing a sweater and my nose is cold) – but it has been overcast and rainy for several days and it is definitely colder than usual.

I was hoping to write a little blog entry with some interesting facts about weather in Loja and the surrounding area, but after a not-so-exhaustive internet search I came up with very little real information. It appears that the rainy season in this region lasts from about January to around April. It has been raining a bit more since the beginning of the year, and I remember that last year around this time there was some heavy rainfall and flooding that occurred. August and September are supposed to be periods of high winds and colder temperatures and that was true last year and the year before. Also, according to local lore, it rains during the new moon and not during a full moon (I haven’t tried to check that one out, though).

Many years ago I took a physical geography class and I dimly remember learning about weather in the tropics. From what I recall, altitude has a bigger effect on the weather than season (i.e. the higher you go the colder it gets and vice versa). This is definitely true around here. During the 45 minute drive ‘down the hill’ from Loja to Vilcabamba (a difference in elevation of about 1,600 ft [500 m]) the weather changes from mostly cool and spring-like to generally hot and tropical. I’m sure that prevailing wind patterns (either from the ocean to the west or the Amazon basin to the east) also have some effect on the weather, but I’m going to have to do a little bit more research to figure that out. (btw – if anyone knows of any resources in this area please drop me a line in the comments section)

When I first got here I wrote a short blog post about how how variable the weather is here on any given day. But the recent cold weather seems to be more consistent and longer-lasting than any other weather pattern I’ve experienced here. Usually no matter how cold or windy it is on a given day, eventually the sun will make an appearance and (since we are in the tropics) it will get really, really, really hot; this means I must follow my dad’s old clothing advice – which at the time was meant for San Francisco – and always “dress in layers”. But for the past several days it has been windy and rainy almost all day long and the sun has barely peeked out from the clouds. I keep wanting to turn on the TV and watch minute-by-minute commentary on the ‘storm’ until I can’t stand it anymore. But, alas, I can only stare out of my window and watch the clouds go by.