What a rain

Coyota slept in the bodega to avoid the rain

Look like a river bed? It was last night

Sewer pipe uncovered

We should have paid attention to the Internet weather because our backyard carne asada party got rained out yesterday. We cooked under the overhang and took all the food inside. Still had a great time and good food.

The big holes (charcos) coming back to Pinal Villa were full of water and as we came into Pinal it turned into a river. I turned into the community to avoid the section of road in the fotos. The water was easily over a foot deep and really moving. It rained again early this morning but the weather channel says it's over. Sun for the next week. Relief because I'm picking up friends at the airport this afternoon.

El Naranjo II - A forty year project

Not exactly 40 but the original plans sat quiet for 30 years until about 2008. A friend and I went up there a few times and the first time only the spillway was started and nothing on the dam. We got a tour of the spillway and power generating section from an engineer. Security was very loose back then but they won't let you near it now. When hurricane Jova came through all the work they had done was washed down river. Another time they had a cement base about half way across the valley. Just found this article from late last year and they have made progress.

Colima, Mexico, Advanced (18-12-2015) .- For over forty years, farmers in the region of Manzanillo and Cihuatlán have expected a reality of the promise of building a dam on the banks of the River Marabasco, but after countless obstacles, setbacks and unfulfilled government commitments, currently the work has not even reached 50 percent of its construction.

The first project, called El Naranjo, was drafted in 1971 but remained stagnant over thirty years.

In 2003, the theme was taken up by the federal deputy Roberto Preciado Cuevas under the name El Naranjo II, and a year later was adopted by Governor Gustavo Vazquez Montes, but both died in February 2005 when the state government plane crashed in Michoacan, while returning from Mexico city.

Rest of the Diarioavanzada article in Spanish

After the storm - Norbert

More water than I have seen since Jova ... but I wasn't in Pinal for Jova. Looks to be the Agua Portable pipe for Melaque and Pinal has been uncovered. About a foot of earth has been removed from the road bed. Further toward Melaque that is usually a road, not a river.  A neighbors dad lives on that road and said water was over a foot higher and came through his house.  I didn't drive into school in Melaque because water was bumper deep on the road ... and there are holes a foot or two deeper.

Water pipe showing

River by flooded house

He wanted me to see the mess

Another 100 yards and that truck was bumper deep

Ol' swimming hole dam

This was on a Sunday trip to two dams up the Marabasco river. This dam is the first just past Cihuatlan and is a diversion dam for irrigation. One side goes to Colima and the other to Jalisco. What this dam does for people wanting to relax and cool off on the weekends is creating several swimming holes both above and below.

Spending a day here used to be a much more regular thing until Hurricane Jova came through in 2011 and swept away all the shade trees and changed the whole river bed. The swimming holes are coming back but there is no shade to speak of. Be smart and bring your own if plan to stay the day like many do.

Irrigation dam from below

Can't see the dam from above

Good swimming behind the dam

Lake behind dam

Halfway up the valley to second dam

Wide but very shallow 

Rio o Mar

Yesterday was a water day so the idea was to try Arroyo Seco just past Aguacate. The arroyo is dry most of the year but we are still getting run off from recent rains. Hugo works on Playa de Cocos and said there were a lot of people enjoying the "river" on Friday. The turn off is on the Aguacate side of the bridge.

Very attractive setting and we were early enough to find a shade tree for the car. Problem is there is no shade down by the river. The water was clean and clear, shallow for the kids .... but it was warm and not refreshing. We had fun for about a half hour and decided we couldn't spend the day there so we headed for the beach.

Back to our usual beach destination of Sirenitas on the west end of Melaque. The ocean water was cooler than the river which is probably unusual. Broke out the ceviche of caracol, beers and Coke and had a great afternoon on the beach.

Looking up river

Bring or build your own shade

Mom and the kids

More refreshing on the beach

Six and a half inches in 12 hours

One real rain gauge reported 6.5 inches, some bucket gauges reported considerably more.  Sinks and pools over flowed.   I got another sink hole below my main roof drain probably requiring me to uncover my french drain and build a better one.   No leaks in the roof at least. All this and nothing on the weather radar but a bunch of clouds.

The main road into Pinal became a river bed again with the upper part requiring a 4WD or large pickup to get in and out.   The lower part (second foto) actually gets better because water washed sand fills all the potholes.   Water from here all heads for Melaque and the lagoon and this morning the lagoon was opened to prevent it from backing up into town.  Video is from a few years ago

Upper road - not many people this far out

Lower road a couple hours after the rain had stopped

A short one of the Marabasco River in Cihuatlan

Behind Cihuatlan - up the river

We drove up the Marabasco river valley the other day as far as you can go to the larger dam site (Presa El Naranjo). Lots of work going on there but mostly cleanup and repairs from the rain from Jova. They gave the impression there were no tours like I'd had before so we just took the road to the right outside the gate that leads towards the river.

Down stream you can see the results of the massive amount of water that came down that valley. The access road was closed for over a week while they cleaned it up. The diversion dam area does not look the same at all .... all swimming holes gone and shade trees are down. Totally rebuilding the irrigation canals that feed from the diversion dam

Future dam opening with rocks from up river

Diversion dam

Behind the diversion dam

Rebuilding the irrigation canals

Video of Presa El Naranjo after Hurricane Jova

Some dam construction fotos from about 2 years ago

Basic housing in Mexico

I drove out to the dam on the Marabasco river behind Cihuatlan the other day as some friends were spending the afternoon cooling off in the river on someones birthday. Turns out they were there but on the other side of the river and I didn't feel like a crossing the "spillway" adventure so I missed them.

The dam creates irrigation ditches on either side of the valley, one for Colima and one for Jalisco. Along the canals well past Cihuatlan are a number of very basic housing situations that grabbed my attention on the way back. Some of the most basic housing I have seen in Mexico.

They have a bridge over to the road