And for a Change.....

....It's raining again, hard, with hail. We actually had two, count 'em two, straight days of no rain earlier this week, but the last three days have seen rain every day and into the night. Across the street from my apartment, on the local high school football field frogs have appeared (well ok, I can hear them, but haven't seen them) which croak happily throughout the night and well into the morning. Frogs notwithstanding, the school's hardy footballers play right through the afternoon and evening rain into the dark, to the accompaniment of their new mascots, the urban frog (species to be named and identified later).

I thought about having my car washed during the dry spell earlier this week, but I held off, suspecting a return of the rain, and I'm happy to say I saved myself the money of the carwash. I don't really recall the last time I had the car washed, but it was sometime before - way before - Christmas, which gives you an idea of how long the rains having been going on (and yes, I WOULD have washed the car if, say, there'd been maybe a dry week, but no such luck). Still, there's kind of a cyclical aspect to it: Car gets dirty/muddy, new rain comes along, KIND of washes the mud off, rains generate new mud, car gets splashed with new mud, and etc...

It's kind of fun, though, watching a truly wet year (worst in, oh, 5,10, 15, 20 years, depending on which native you talk to) because plants and trees outside are going bonkers in terms of growth, and the normally dry, sere landscape to the north of Quito is green, all green, for the first time since I've been here...

And.... Sunday (the above part was written on Friday): Well, it mostly dry today except for the afternoon only - only - rained for an hour or so out on the road to the south of Quito.

Yesterday, Saturday, we went out on photo class photo shoot on which I took two analog (film) cameras, but no digital, unfortunately, so no shots of the lakes, mountains and rivers to the north that I can share, unfortunately.

I came up over one fair-sized waterfall, 20 meters or so, Peguche it's called. the other times I've seen it, it's been rather tame cascade, but this year, this wet, wet, wet year, it'd become one of those falls where you feel it through the ground before the mist hit and the mist almost blinds you before you see it; that kind of fall.. Usually you go into that with some sort of protection over the camera, like a bag or something, but I shucked off my knapsack and just went in there, no cover and took a bunch of shots. Film, like I say, black and white, so we'll see how it comes out later on this coming week, when I get to the lab.

Long day, about 10 kms of walking to get to locations, but a good day. Last part was rain, naturally, and I get pretty wet, including time around the waterfall, but I feel fine....