I woke to the low buzz of my phone and a message this morning. “Heavy rain expected.” I lay there listening to the fan, feeling the kind of heat that promises a storm. Around here, you can feel it before you can see it. The mornings arrive warm and heavy instead of pleasant, and by noon, the air settles over the Bay of Banderas like a blanket.
I got up and went outside to sit on my porch in Bucerías, coffee cup in hand, the ceiling fan spinning overhead. The message feels a bit more like an act of optimism than relief, but I suppose we’ll see. The fan moves the heat around, sure, but it doesn’t really take it away.
From my spot in the chair, I watch my boyfriend wage his daily battle against the inevitable. He’s out there again with the hose.
Every day, he seems convinced that if he waters long enough and carefully enough, he can hold back what the dry season always brings. He stands in the garden directing streams of water across the grass, trying to keep everything green while the rest of the landscape slowly gives in.
But little brown patches begin to appear anyway. First one. Then another. Then a few more.
Waiting for the rain to come
The grass hangs on for as long as it can, but by early May, the earth is tired and the trees look dusty. The hills beyond town have lost some of their color. Even the jungle, which always seems larger than life, appears to be holding its breath.
That’s when everyone starts talking about the rain.
Not the way people talk about bad weather elsewhere. Nobody’s really complaining about it or dreading it. Here, we’re all quietly hoping for it.
“Any chance this week?”
“I heard there might be storms on Thursday. Fingers crossed.”
The rainy season isn’t something people endure. It’s something we wait for.
A new way of thinking about the weather
Living here has changed the way I think about the weather. Before moving to Mexico, rain was usually an inconvenience. It ruined my plans and made traffic worse. It kept me indoors, and I’ve never been very good at being indoors.
Here, though, it’s renewal and transformation.
The hills that looked faded and exhausted suddenly begin changing shades almost overnight. Brown gives way to a million shades of green.
Dry riverbeds start flowing again. Plants that seemed dormant spring back to life with startling speed.
It’s one of the reasons some of my favorite places around Puerto Vallarta are actually at their best after the first summer rains arrive.
The summer rains and the changes they bring
The trails above town are a perfect example.
During the driest weeks of the year, some sections feel dusty and exposed. The views are still beautiful, but the landscape can seem muted after months of relentless sunshine.
Then the rains come, and within days everything changes. The jungle thickens and new growth appears everywhere. Vines stretch across trees, and the mountains become layers of green so vivid they almost look artificial.
The air smells different, too. Earthy and fresh, carrying scents that have been missing for months.
Walking those trails after the first few storms feels like stepping into a completely different season.
Puerto Vallarta and the rainy season
Many visitors never realize how dramatically these areas transform because they only experience Puerto Vallarta during peak tourist season. But after the rains begin, water returns to places that have spent months nearly silent, and the sound alone changes the experience.
Instead of dry rocks baking in the sun, you hear movement. Running water in the rivers. The croaking of frogs. The chirping of insects. The songs of birds that seem to appear out of nowhere.
Life returns all at once.
One of my favorite drives is simply heading south or inland after a few weeks of rain have passed. The mountains seem larger somehow, draped in layers of vegetation that weren’t visible during the dry months.
The first year I lived here, the speed of the transformation surprised me most.
It wasn’t gradual at all. I expected months of slow change, but nature had other plans.
A few solid storms and suddenly the landscape looked completely different. It was as if someone had turned up the color saturation on the entire region.
I find myself looking forward to that moment every year now. Maybe that’s why I’m sitting on the porch watching clouds gather over the mountains.
Any day now
The grass below is still showing those stubborn brown patches despite my boyfriend’s efforts. The fan is still pushing around warm air. The afternoons are still sticky enough that even simple tasks feel harder than they should.
But there are signs.
A darker horizon. A breeze is arriving from somewhere beyond the bay. Towering clouds are building over the Sierra Madre in the late afternoon.
The waiting won’t last much longer.
Soon, the first storm will roll through and the sky will darken. The scent of rain will arrive before the rain itself.
And then, almost overnight, the entire area around Banderas Bay will become green again.
The trails will change. The rivers will wake up. The jungle will reclaim the mountainsides.
The grass will finally win. Or maybe my boyfriend will claim that he won all along after weeks of standing out there with a hose, refusing to surrender to the dry season.
Either way, the rain is coming.
And around here, the first rain isn’t the end of the dry season; it’s the beginning of everything.
Charlotte Smith is a writer and journalist based in Mexico. Her work focuses on travel, politics, and community. You can follow along with her travel stories at www.salsaandserendipity.com.
