Deluge

Day 153

Once again, the world is coming to an end. This time in Mar del Plata and even more intense than last time. Currently, I am sitting on the seventh floor of our hotel, looking at the slowly awakening metropolis. We planned to spend ten days here for a beach vacation. However, the weather is not cooperating. But that's just how it goes.

It is 26 degrees Celsius as I walk through the streets of Mar del Plata in my pale green swim trunks, a small backpack on my back, and a white towel draped over my shoulders. According to Booking, it should take eight minutes to walk to the beach, so I check my watch to compare. I pass butcher shops and bakeries, weaving through the busy locals. Finally, I reach the beach and glance at my wrist. Spot on. The sky is mostly blue, with a few clouds that don't bother me. The air is warm, the waves look good, and the weather app promises no changes for the next four hours. Yesterday marked the end of summer vacation in Argentina, yet here on a Thursday at 11:30, the beach is packed. Mar del Plata is considered the bathing and beach paradise of Argentina and is extremely popular among the residents of Buenos Aires, offering a getaway from their stressful daily lives on the Atlantic coast. For us, it was not so much about escaping a stressful routine, but rather the desire for a few days in one place and, of course, the beach, which drew us to the seventh-largest city in Argentina. Once I found a free spot, I spread out my towel amidst the numerous beach umbrellas, lay down, and enjoyed the warmth and blazing sun. After twenty minutes, the heat forced me into the sea. I frolicked in the cool waves before returning to my towel and briefly closing my eyes. Just ten minutes later, the entire sky was covered in a thick layer of gray clouds. People around me began packing up and leaving the beach. Some foolish individuals, including myself, thought the clouds would soon pass and that our beach day wouldn't be ruined. Suddenly, the rain started pouring. At first, just a few heavy drops, but soon it was pouring buckets. I quickly gathered my belongings and stumbled towards the beach exit, joining the panicked masses. The rain whipped from the sky, accompanied by flashes of lightning. Soon, we were not walking on sand, but rather in soaked mud. Within minutes, I was soaking wet to the bone, as if I had jumped back into the sea. But instead of getting annoyed, I started laughing. I laughed loudly, confused looks from the Argentinians around me, although some joined in. The whole situation was just too absurd, something I had never experienced before. The greatest storm had suddenly emerged out of nowhere, and it was just hilarious to see all the overwhelmed and helpless people trying to shield themselves with chairs or clothes, but to no avail. We were all soaked anyway. And then it started hailing, and it became cold. Several hailstones accumulated in my flip-flops, and my feet froze. So I continued in a sort of running step, hoping to find suitable shelter. I simply followed the masses and made sure not to step into the deep puddles. This slalom course maneuvering among all these people must have looked beautiful from a bird's-eye view. Finally, we found somewhat decent cover, although it was just a tarpaulin barely reaching a few centimeters above the edge of the roof. So we all stood there against the wall, although at least half of us, myself included, continued to stand in the rain. But because of the thunderstorm and the pouring rain, it was so loud, so cold, and so uncertain that simply cramming together tightly against a wall provided some relief. The hailstones had now grown to the size of bottle caps, triggering car alarms. There were flashes of lightning, thunder, hail, rain, wind, and we just stood there. With open mouths, unable to comprehend the events happening around us in any way.

Eventually, the downpour turned into a regular rain, and I decided to make my way back to the hotel, where I could finally take a warm shower.

A warm shower, the savior of the day. A few weeks ago, I thought the savior would be a cold shower. Who would have thought that here in Mar del Plata, the most popular beach destination in Argentina. Fortunately, we are not just here for a short vacation, but have already experienced so many beautiful beaches and so much sun in the past five months that this doesn't bother us too much. So, I'm sitting on a covered balcony, typing away on my laptop, and gazing at the towering clouds. They have already started to dissipate.