Living in the Canyon

Sunday, 06 September 2009 11:43 jennifer Around the House

I was really afraid how I would react to losing our views when we moved. For two years, we had panoramic views of the Pacific and the city: 360° views that included the lighthouse, the bay, Olas Altas, and the cathedral. My views are now restricted to our courtyard and the little piece of sky that can be seem from within its walls. All of our windows face the courtyard. For all intents and purposes, the rest of the world simply does not exist while we are at home. It kinda rocks.

There are so many things we didn't think about when we moved. We just got lucky. One of the luckier things is our location, cozily nestled between two hills. I call it the canyon (it's as close as we are going to get in Mazatlan, anyway). Those hills protect us from all kinds of stuff.

We don't get the extreme salt air that we used to. No longer is there a rime encrusting the truck when we get up in the morning. One of our daily chores used to be to rinse the truck. And the windshield had to be washed before we left the house, or we couldn't see a thing. That also means that most of our stuff isn't rusting away like it used to. We gave everything a good scrubbing when we moved in, and the rust has not progressed.

Surprisingly, it also means lower humidity. I never would have guessed that a few blocks and a hill would make a difference, but it does. Whenever we go to Olas Altas, we can feel the air getting more oppressive the closer we get to the beach.

The biggest boon is our relative safety during thunderstorms. We used to be the highest thing around us, so whenever a storm came through, we had to run around shutting everything down and unplugging it. We had some really close calls. But now, the storms just skip over the top of us. Between that and actually having grounded outlets, we are quite relaxed.

Last night, a loud and furious storm passed over. Instead of getting out of bed, running around in the rain, freaking the dogs out, and securing everything we own, we rolled over and went back to sleep. Bliss, I tell you.

Comments (3)

|216.137.227.xxx |m-d-Y H:i:s Anonymous

It's really good news to read there is a place in Maz like that. So happy for you
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|SAdministrator |m-d-Y H:i:s jennifer

Thanks. We love it.
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|174.21.98.xxx |m-d-Y H:i:s Nancy

I am so happy that it has worked out so well for you! We like our location behind icebox hill, even though sometimes I would love to see more of the sunset.

I can't help myself, every time a storm comes through I get up and watch. I check the windows and then just look out the windows and marvel at the volume of rain and the amazing lightning. We had rain when we lived in Washington, but not with the same velocity as in Maz... and they just don't have such amazing lightning in the Northwest either. So I just lap it up.

We were commenting about how our son's neighborhood in the US feels so fishbowl-ish... everyone looking into each others yards - we love the inward facing house we live in, too.
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|SAdministrator |m-d-Y H:i:s jennifer

That's one thing I really miss, too - the sunsets. We now have to make a point of going to the beach to see them. It makes them more special, though.
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|96.51.68.xxx |m-d-Y H:i:s Angel

Yup, local microclimes, and it gets much better further inland away from the coast if not real close to a river, corrosion becomes a thing of the past.
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|SAdministrator |m-d-Y H:i:s jennifer

I wish there was an easy way to determine the microclime before you rented or bought a property. It would be nice to be able to anticipate the effects of the weather in a given location.
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