city of water (but none to drink)

The weather in Mexico City actually stays very moderate during the summertime, mitigated by daily rains in the late afternoon/early evening.

On paper, this sounds fantastic, and it probably worked out pretty well for the Aztecs who also became expert hydrological engineers. I read that when Cortez arrived to Tenochitlan, he was stunned by the advanced system of canals and sewage treatment, when at the time the cities of Europe reeked with excrement in the streets.

However, the lessons of the Aztecs were forgotten as soon as the Europeans gained control, and the city has been an hydrological disaster ever since.

My coworker told me that the rainy season has started.
I could have guessed from the four inch deep puddles on sidewalks and streets that I have to cross. The city is nearly all hardscape, and its sinking into the soft ghost lakebed. When it rains, the city floods, a la the everyday catastrophes of New Orleans. When I emerged at my metro station, there was a small waterfall flowing down the steps. The walk home was miserable. It was raining, not pouring, just raining, and the city could not accomodate it. I ended up having to walk through some sizable bodies of water that ran from the flooded streets to the wall, so there was no where to walk around. I was frequently in water up to my ankles.

The apartement garage was flooded with a few inches of water, which I also had to cross on foot. The doorman suggested I wait for a car to arrive and jump in and ride in past the worst of it, but if I were a driver, I woudn't let me with my soaked pants and shoes full of water in the car.

As an ironic side note, the apartment building is running low on water. Apparently the apartment pulls from tanks on the roof which ran dry, so water has been spotty. I don't know if this is typical or its a unique condition to mitigate sporadic domsetic water service.

If it keeps raining like this, I'm going to either need to invest in galoshes or really cheap canvas sneakers that can take soaking and dry out overnight. I'm guessing the soaking-drying cycle is not so good for my leather Bostonians.

Need to get to the grocery store too. Last night's dinner was yogurt. And a shot of tequila for desert as I did laundry. As thrilled as I am to have a laundry machine, last night, my clothes came out wet. Not 'cubbord dry' not 'sopping' but still thoughly wet. I don't know if its because I put too much in, or because the air is so humid from the rain that the water won't leave the clothes. Anyway, without a clothesline, I ended up spreading them all over the floor of my room to dry.