Clowning in the Bathing Tub

“Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows.”—John Betjeman

In the narrow Isthmus of Panama, the rainy season extends from mid April to mid December.  It is expected that you will need an umbrella when you go out, or you’ll return soaking wet.  This doesn’t mean that it rains day and night.  During the mornings the sun is out and it gets pretty warm.  From ten o’clock to midday, some days can be hot, blistering, sizzling, stifling, sweltering, torrid, warm or caliente.  You get my point.  Even though we might be enjoying a rainy season, the sun can sometimes become absolutely excessive.

It was during one of these warm and sticky mornings, when the youngest Twister came home for a brief visit.  She was sweating all over when she crossed the doorway.  My wife came up with the idea of lowering the temperature and raising the child’s spirits by giving her an outdoors bath in a red bathtub.

It was a bright idea, as bright as the sun upstairs.  While Paola was clowning in her liquid throne; making all kinds of noises, faces, and gestures, I dashed to my home office and fetched my Birthday Camera, a.k.a. Canon PowerShot A720 IS.  As Paola performed her act, I took the following shots.  Nothing was artificial or posed.  All pictures are authentic, instantaneously captured by the magic eye of the camera obscura.  Here we go.

Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

With this last picture, Paola says, “Adiós”.  Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

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Dawn in Panama City

Snapshot of a dawn in Panama City, Panama. Picture was taken approximately at 06:30 a.m. We are in the middle of the rainy season. Bright sun in the morning and light showers in the afternoon until early evening. Nights are cool with soft breezes wafting from the nearby ocean. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

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Splendor in the Grass No More

Snapshot of our backyard displaying fallen dried up leaves and yellowish brown grass. As the dry season progresses our backyard lawn begins to lose its splendor. Can't wait for the next cloudburst in April. I'm a rain man all the way. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

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Cobalt Skies Above Panama City, Panama

In Panama we are in the middle of the rainy season.  That means we will have rain drops pelting our roofs until mid December.  Rat-at-at-at.  Rat-at-at.  Just like a drum beat.  Sometimes the volume of the drops augmented considerably—like an orchestra gone out of control.

Today, Friday, September 9, 2011 at exactly 2:03 p.m. (-5 GMT), I went outside to the back porch to take a breath of fresh air.  I was tired of looking at the computer screen all day long.  In addition it was getting dark.  The temperature was 84 degrees Fahrenheit and the sky was mostly cloudy.  Gradually the sky became darker and darker.  It was just perfect for a picture from my old Birthday camera—Canon PowerShot A720 IS.

This is how the sky looked like from the back porch our house yesterday afternoon.  Take a look.

Snapshot of dark clouds above our house in Panama City, Panama yesterday afternoon. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of the formation of dark clouds above our house before a heavy rainfall. We are in the middle of the rainy season in Panama. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

Cobalt skies over Panama City yesterday afternoon. They got darker and darker as the day advanced until the sky opened and spilled water into the sizzling city. ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of dark clouds hovering over Panama City, Panama yesterday afternoon. You don't have to be rocket scientist to know it was going to rain. (Smile) Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

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Playing in the Rain

One of the Twisters came over for a brief visit.  He had been absent for about a month.  I was amazed at how big he was and his mature way of thinking and expressing himself.  Baseball is his latest inclination, and is making plans to travel to Miami to play, if his team wins the championship.  His parents are over the moon at the possibility of seeing their son playing baseball in the States.

Anyway, about noon it started to rain profusely and soon rivers of water were flowing down the street in front of our house.  The rain was pelting the roof furiously.  Under these conditions, Abdiel decided to make himself a couple of paper boats and enjoyed placing them in the currents of water flowing downwards.  He was using an old umbrella to protect him from the tropical shower.  I noticed the battered-brightly-colored umbrella, and immediately made a beeline for my office to fetch my Birthday camera.  I just had to capture the scene of Abdiel playing in the rain.

This is what came out of the lens of my ole camera.  Take a look.

Snapshot of Abdiel posing for the camera under a cloudburst in front of our house in Panama City, Panama. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

Snapshot of Abdiel playing under a tropical rain yesterday afternoon. The red umbrella looks like a million bucks and so does Abdiel. Happy moments. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

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Crying in the Rain

Even though we should be one month into the wet season, it’s been awful dry and suffocating hot.  The day before yesterday, I was helping my wife wash some clothes.  After they were hanged out to dry, it took less than five minutes to have them back totally dry, folded, and ready to be stored in the closet.  It was so hot, you could fry an egg on the street.

The days are hot and so too are the nights.  You sweat in the light and sweat again in the dark.  The electric fan isn’t any good; it just blows more hot air into your body.  We turn it off and wait and wait until we get a feeble breeze to calm the heat.  And then again, sweat in the light and in the dark.

Yesterday the weather changed abruptly.  It rained all day long.  It wasn’t exactly a cloud burst, but nevertheless it rained and the temperature dropped to a comfortable level.   No more sweating in the bright nor in the dark.  The sheets felt nice and cool under our backs and the fan was set to Off.  For a change we were so happy to see the liquid freshness dropping from the sky, and a smile came to our faces, of course.

Having said that, I would like to explain the title of this post.  I related yesterday’s rain to a beautiful song performed by Willie Nelson and Shania Twain called, Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.  It has been a favorite of mine for a very long time.  Yesterday’s rain brought this song to my mind, so I decided to share it with you today.  Whaddya know, two songs back-to-back in my last two blog posts.  Rather unusual.

Please join me in listening to this delicate song about rain.  It’s a lovely song indeed.  Here we go.

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Cobalt Clouds Above Panama City

As far as I can recall, it seldom rains in Panama City during the Dry Season.  Maybe a drizzle or two now and then, but not on a continued basis.  This year the weather has changed for the better.  We have been blessed with gentle breezes during the day and cool temperatures during the evenings.

After a light shower in the blazing afternoon, the temperature falls a bit giving us a respite from the sizzling sun.  I thank the man upstairs who has been so kind to us in more ways than one.  We still have one more month of verano, but the weather continues to be still nice and cool.  Thank you Señor for all your blessings.

Below is a picture of the sky above our home early afternoon on April 29, 2011.  As you can see, the clouds were so thick, they looked nearly solid enough so that you could cut chunks of it and eat them like eating slices of grandma’s lemon pie.

Dark clouds over Panama City last Tuesday afternoon. We had a refreshing shower that day and the temperature was absolutely delightful. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

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The Dry Season in Panama

December was an unusually wet month.  Starting December 8th (Mother’s Day), all the  heaven’s faucets were opened to their maximum capacity.  It rained cats and dogs for days.  Even Noah hadn’t seen so much rain.  In only fifteen days, it rained 265 millimeters of precipitation.  The Province of Darien was almost covered with water; not even the roofs of the houses could be seen from above.  Drinking water was scarce for more than fifty days.  I don’t recall having seen anything like this.  The sun went somewhere else looking for shelter.  All we saw above us were dark cobalt skies.

Then the rain stopped and the sun came back and the Dry Season started.  The water supply was fixed and there were smiles everywhere.  There were long lines of automobiles and buses waiting in line to travel to the countryside where they could take a dip on the ocean waters.  Panamanians love to go to the beach during the Dry Season, which we call verano.

In only a couple of months,  the ground felt the scourge of the blistering sun.  Yesterday I went outside and took a shot of our front lawn.  The picture depicts the results of the blazing heat of Panama’s tropical sun.  Take a look.

Snapshot of the ground of our front yard cracked by the blazing sun. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

The Gods haven’t been too harsh on us.  We’ve had a few showers during the Dry Season.  For example, yesterday afternoon it rained for approximately half and hour.  It was a refreshing experience that plants, the ground and the birds appreciated immensely.  I had a big smile on my face.

Picture of a dry piece of land in front of our house. It has been a very hot and dry season with a few showers this year. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

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Dry Leaves Tossed by the Wind

Photographs of dry leaves from trees in our neighborhood's park. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

Panama is in a transition from the Rainy Season to the Dry Season.  If Mother Nature behaves, we should have clear skies and bright sun till the mid of April when it starts to rain again.  Last year was unsually wet,  millions of dollars were lost due to severe floods and mudslides in various areas of the country, mainly in the Provinces of Colon and Darien.

When I walked over these dry leaves I could hear the clear crackling sound of the leaves scattered down on the ground.  Another characteristic that caught my eye, is how fresh and green the grass still looks.  Soon it will adopt a brown-yellowish color, distinctive of our Dry Season in Panama.  Good Day.

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Blue Skies Over Panama

Mother Nature has been pretty naughty in many parts of the world.  Manhattan was  blanketed with the white stuff as well as many countries in Europe.  In Latin America it rained cats and dogs for too many days—specially Colombia and Venezuela.

In Panama it rained so much it broke all previous precipitation formal records.  In only fifteen days it rained 265 millimeters of rainfall in December.  We have never seen so much precipitation in at least ninety years.  Miraflores Dam, Madden Dam and Bayano Dam had to open their relieve valves to prevent damage to their electric turbines.  The artificial lakes were filled to the very brim.

For weeks we didn’t see the face of the sun.  The skies were gray, loaded with water and temperatures were unusually low.  For the first time I had to sleep with a wool sweater and socks to withstand the cold temperatures.  Ten persons were killed in the town of Portobello due to mud slides and hundreds of people lost their harvests, their homes with all their possessions in the Province of Darien and the Comarca of Kuna Yala.  Even as we speak, there are still people living in schools which have been adapted as temporary relief centers.  What a sad way to spend Christmas and New Year.

Fortunately, Mother Nature regained its sanity and things are returning back to normality.  The skies are clear and blue again.  The sun is warm and the temperatures are typical of the transition between the wet and dry season.  The mornings are cool with a soft breeze, and the sun looks like a million bucks ascending on the sky.

Below are several pictures of the blue skies over the narrow isthmus of Panama.  Here we go.

Photograph of blue skies over Panama City three days ago. This picture was taken from our kitchen window. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

The gray skies have turned into beautiful shades of blue. Even the moon could be seen in the late hours of the afternoon. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

Photograph of a white moon floating in the blue. No further words are necessary. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

I tried to zoom in the moon in an effort to see the man on the moon, but no joy. The zoom of camera is not that powerful. Anyway, the man was not there; he went to the other side of the moon. Photo ©Omar Upegui R.

Greetings from Panama where the skies are clear and blue and the sun is warm and friendly.  Good Day.

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