Greetings. This week, our friends at Silverblogger invite us to comment on the best way to spend a rainy afternoon. Here's what I think...
Until a few years ago, my brother had a country house in a beautiful spot in the Yaracuy mountains in central-western Venezuela. The place was truly enchanting, the only problem was that you needed a four-wheel drive vehicle to get there. At that time, I had a Jeep CJ7 that was in very good condition. My brother, on the other hand, had an old pickup truck, also a Jeep, which he had been improving and which also served to take us to and from the mountains.
Every August or Easter vacation, our fun was to go to the mountains. We would leave Maracay very early in the morning, at sunrise, and after about three hours on the road, we would arrive at “Candelaria,” which was the name of the hamlet where our country house was located.
It was a very beautiful place, a mountain with many trees. The main activity in the area was coffee cultivation, which is very ecological. Coffee plants thrive in the shade of large trees, so they are always accompanied by abundant vegetation.
One of the things we all liked was the climate, which was much cooler than in sunny Maracay. In La Candelaria, it was common to have fog from mid-afternoon. The fog almost always arrived around four in the afternoon and stayed until the early hours of the night. Then, as night fell, the fog gave way to a starry sky that we rarely saw in Maracay. That sky full of stars was a great spectacle that fed the eyes and renewed the spirit.
It rained a lot in La Candelaria, which was one of the reasons why the mountains were always green. The rainy season was particularly intense during the month of August, when the roads became very difficult to travel on because the dirt roads turned to mud and cars sometimes got stuck, but in the end, it was always something that could be solved.
During those August seasons, it often rained in the afternoons, combining fog and rain, which we all loved. That combination of fog and rain is one of the experiences I miss most from those days.
On those rainy afternoons, we would all gather at the house. We spent our time playing board games and drinking large cups of coffee with sweet breads. When we weren't playing board games, we would talk. We could spend long hours talking about anything. It's amazing how many topics can come to mind when fog, rain, and the desire to talk combine.
Those rainy afternoons in La Candelaria have remained in my memory and in that of my family. Often, when we get together as a family, we remember those beautiful moments we experienced in our country house in the mountains of Yaracuy. The truth is that they were memorable times.
I remind you that this initiative is still open, and everyone can participate. Those who wish to join can click on the following link.
Thank you for your time.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version).
