21 January 2009

In Country: Morretes and the Hard Rain


Sunday, the day we came by train into Morretes, was sweltering hot. Our room at the pousada had a fan but the air flow was not good and so we spent a miserable night sweating in the tropics. On Monday morning I woke up before everyone else, grabbed my camera and walked around town taking photos. My only company were some dogs, a fisherman on the banks of the Rio Nhundiaquara and a few town folks riding their bikes to work. Everyone rides a bike in this town.

After breakfast David, Hope and I walked around town some more. Morretes is a cute colonial town with well kept homes, a meandering river and gorgeous views of Serra do Mar, the mountain range that separates the inland city of Curitiba from the coastal litoral of Paranagua Bay.

As the day progressed, gray storm clouds gathered overhead. By late afternoon we could hear the thunder beginning to rumble over the mountains. And then, very swiftly, it began to rain. And rain. And rain. In fact it rained so much, so fast that the street in front of our pousada was flooded level with the sidewalk within minutes. I was not quick enough to catch it with the camera, but several of those early morning cyclists now rode through the flooded streets steering the bike with one hand and holding an umbrella over their heads with the other. It was a sight to see! Of course, I realized right away that this is normal for them; they live in a tropical rain forest, after all.

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