As the summer progressed, the temperatures rose; I began to pray for rain. There had been some rain in the mountains that surround us, but not a drop in the village. Each week, I was told, "It will rain next week" NOTHING!! Then one night just as I was leaving my favorite bar, there was a light sprinkle. It was not a real rain, but it did drop the temperature by about 20 degrees. As soon as I got home, I took off my clothes and headed for the deck where I let the cool mist fall on my naked body. I loved it. Don't get excited, I was wearing my underpants. In the heat and humidity nothing is more comfortable than underwear. After the "snow birds" across the street went back to wherever they came from, my deck is really private. No sane person would ever want to look at my naked body anyway.
But then the sun came out and the humidity went up. For the next week or so we had a few light mists, but not real rain. Then one night after "happy hour" I was headed for a little (cheap) side walk cafe around the corner. Then it really began to pour. I was under a little awning while I ate, so I was fine. After paying my bill, I still had a full glass of beer (in a plastic cup) so I decided to walk home in the rain and finish my beer on the way. Drinking in public is not only NOT against the law, it is a tradition here. The rain felt good, but my sandals got soaked crossing the streets. It rained all night long.
The next day, I ventured out anxious to see what the rain had done. The trees and plants were washing clean and looked wonderful. The sidewalks and streets were another thing. There were mud puddles everywhere. It takes about a month of rain to wash everything down (there is a lot of dirt here). It has rained some almost every day, mostly at night.
Then one night I was awakened by a clap of thunder so loud it sounded like a bomb had gone off. The lightning was so frequent it looked as if the street was being lit by strobe lights. I went up to the deck. The drain spouts were shooting water 3 or 4 feet into the street. I love the sound of rain on a roof (as most people do). But my building (which has a tile roof) is surrounded by commercial buildings with corrugated aluminum roofs. You can not imagine the sound of several inches of rain an hour on all those tin roofs. It sounded like the opening act of a Cirque de Soleil. It rained all night and in the morning the trees on the mountains seemed to have greened up overnight (maybe it was just that the dirt was washed off)
The rain has continued for over a month, some of them fierce, but we have not had the 10 to 12 hours of rain that put the streets under two feet of water. We'll have to wait and see if the tales are true.
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