22 March 2010 * Rain

Rain is plentiful in La Fortuna. It comes with a whisper and falls like a soft cloud, nourishing the forest. We haven't heard thunder, nor felt the impact of heavy drops falling through deep clouds. Here, the rain is fine and light ­­—a close cousin to cloud mist. Everywhere, it is green, except for the brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows of the flowers.

The rain's soft patter is a scoresheet for the brilliant song of birds. Their calls slice the air shrill and sweet, one outsinging another, weaving a spacious melody upon the grey sky.

But the rain is not always such. We also watched rain fall in sudden drenching bursts, filling the air with vast dense arrays of heavy drops, drumming an infinitely textured thrum upon the roofs and leaves of our terrestrial domain. The realms of water and air mix; lake and sky co-mingle as birds flit and call through the liquid din.