TheExpatJournals.com

July 8th, 2004

This was a magical morning. I borrowed the neighbor’s dog, a wonderful Springer Spaniel named Manuela. She and I walked for an hour beginning at 8AM. Virtually no one is out in my neighborhood at that hour, at least not on a rainy morning. The intense thunderstorm woke me up at 5AM. The lightening seems to crack as though it’s just hit your building followed immediately by the immense rolling boom of thunder. It’s so loud you know it’s in your neighborhood, not simply
nearby.

So Manuela and I started our walk on the Paseo de Las Bovedas…which is the tourist name I think, but I can never remember the long name of who it’s actually named after. In any event, it’s the beautiful sea walk around the French Plaza. We had it all to ourselves. The rain wasn’t terribly heavy and because I left my umbrella in a taxi last night and donated my rain coat to cover the breaker box for the building so rain water would cease to run into it…yes, you read that right, which is why I was without electricity for two days recently…I was without any rain gear whatsoever. So I opted for an old pair of shorts and a sleeveless top, donned my Yankee Cap and took off. It reminded me of walking in the rain when I was a kid, when I didn’tcare how wet I got.

The sea was at full tide and the swell smashes the walls surrounding Casco Viejo with a voracity I was witnessing for the first time. There was such a veil of rain that the sea and sky sort of blended into whiter shades of gray. It felt magical out there on the sea with no one in sight on that perpetually beautiful path.

I love looking at the sea at full tide. I am still amazed at how far the shoreline recedes when the tide is out. Someone told me there is an 18 foot tide here in the Bay. It’s so common to see people out walking long distances away from shore in places that, at other times, would be way offshore.