The path not taken...

We had a tremendous thunder storm last night and it rained for hours and hours until morning. The rainy season has really begun! The storms here bring violent winds, brilliant flashes of lightning that go on and on, and the loudest, heaviest drum rolls of thunder I've ever heard anywhere. When the storms come at night I can't sleep, so I turn on the BBC world service and turn up the volume to hear it above the pounding rain.

It rained again this afternoon, leaving the paths too muddy to walk home. There's a wonderful track that starts just outside our office with enormous old eucalyptus trees, and as I walk down I breathe deeply enjoying their wonderful scent. The path dips down into the valley and then quickly turns up towards the area of town where I live, called Taba. It's a pleasant residential suburb with wide, unpaved roads and houses varying from modest to outrageous, inhabited by university professors, international NGO staff, and wealthier business owners. The photos above show the path, the one with the figure in the distance is taken near the office, the other one further down the track. Occasionally there are vervet monkeys playing in the pine trees on the right.