Here Comes the....Rain! Woo?!

{{Raindrops on roses}}

The rainy season is officially beginning here in Peru. Now, along with lugging your fleece with you everywhere so your family doesn't worry that you'll get sick because you didn't "abrígate", you also have to make sure to lug your rain jacket. You never know when the wind might bring in the heavy, dark clouds that seem to permanently hang over the mountains and dump heavy buckets of rain over Urubamba. The rain pours for a while--10 minutes maybe, an hour at the maximum--thundering against the metal rooftops, creating rivers and lakes in the streets, drowning the plants, as heaven opens up above us. And then it stops and the clouds clear and suddenly it's sunny and hot again. Or sometimes it stops but the clouds remain all afternoon, a grey covering over the sky (reminds me of home! That's what it's starting to look like there, no?. You leave your house and have to wade through the mud wallows that now populat the streets, looking as the homeless dogs that wander Urubamba shake themselves of excess water that they couldn't hide from and continue their wanderings for food and who even knows what. The mornings are all quite hot, however, the sun beating down with extra force, as if to try and make its last stand against the clouds and rain that are about to come. It smells fresh now, the earth happily drinking up the water that it receives. My family has been worried that it hasn't been raining as much as it normally does this time of year because many of the crops aren't growing as tall as they should be. Let's hope that it keeps coming in force.

The scorpions are also, unfortunately, coming out with the rain. I hadn't even known that there were scorpions here in Urubamba until Michaela found one on her bedcovers one day while napping. My family informed me that the scorpions signify that the wet season is coming soon, which I find funny because I always have associated scorpions with hot, dry places where the coming of rain is like a gift from god. I search my shoes and my bed every day, but so far no scorpion sightings in my house. Let's keep our fingers crossed; hopefully I haven't cursed myself by saying that!

It's off to Spanish class now. See y'all later!