April Showers

As the adage goes, when it rains, it pours.  Due the weather phenomenon known lovingly as El Niño, Cali's two rainy seasons have been long and seemly never-ending.  Had it not been for the brief reprieve during Christmas and New Years - which I wasn't here for - I would have thought Colombia was emulating the monsoon seasons common in certian part of southeast Asia.

Yesterday was one of those days, however, when the rain comes so fast it turns the streets into rivers, the lighting rivals a Van Halen concert, and thunder claps would startle a coma patient into consciousness.  It took me over twice as long to get home after school, which usually takes only half and hour.  Fortunately, I had my camera with me to capture the watery disaster:

 

It's Raining Monkeys

Yesterday around 4:30 in the afternoon it started to rain big fat enormous raindrops and didn't stop for about 12 hours. This is unusual for a couple reasons. The first being that it should not be the rainy season anymore and second because when it does rain here, it is never for that amount of time. Other places in Colombia, sure, but not in Cali.

The streets were flooded past the curbs in some places and looked more like rivers. Within seconds of stepping off the bus I was soaked to the core and still had two more blocks to go to reach my apartment. Crazy lightning and thunder flashed and sounded in every direction around me - the kind that stays from sky to ground in a white streak for 3-4 seconds and rumbles so loud it sets off car alarms, respectively. (I imagine dogs and cats and small children across the city hiding under beds.)

Needless to say, the power went out by 5 and didn't come back on until after midnight. I read by candle-light for a few hours and then basically went to bed at around 8:30. (It gets dark here about 6:15ish all year round.)

Incidentally, I learned a new word recently that came into play during the monsooning storm. The word "mono" means "monkey" in any Spanish dictionary, but here in Cali (and maybe other parts of Colombia) it means the same as rubio(a) or "blonde," as well as the simian noun. So there I am, standing in the rain, waiting to cross the street and this guy on a motorcycle rips by and screams "monooooooo!!!!"

Yes, I have light-colored hair. Thank you. (The thing is, anyone who does not have jet-black hair is a prime candidate to be a mono(a) so it doesn't take much.) I'm positive that this is just another Baader-Meinhof; I know I've been identified as a "monkey" before, I just didn't know it. And now I will.