The first day I was in Rota, Spain, it rained.  It was also cold.  This sort of weather does not good weather make for one's first day in Spain.  Despite my complaints, however, the rain didn't stop, nor did it get any warmer.  Perhaps I'll write a very strongly worded letter to the Spanish Tourism Department.

            The result of all this, though, was that on my first day, I didn't spend very much time doing anything but trying to get out of the rain and being annoyed with myself for not bringing anything warmer than what one might wear to a Caribbean beach.  Really, what had I been thinking?  Europe, even Spain, in the middle of winter?  Oh, surely it will be warm and sunny.

            Right.

            The next day dawned much metaphorically brighter.  There was still cloud cover that threatened the periodic downpour, and it was still cool, but it wasn't cold and there wasn't the constant patter of drizzle drizzling down.  I took the opportunity to explore the city.  There were fountains, piazzas, and pizza places (a companion on my walkabout that day insisted that American pizza was brought to the U.S. by Spaniards, and not by Italians.  I had a hard time telling, since neither the pizza that we had in Rota, nor the many pizzas I had a few years ago when I was in Venice and other parts of Italy, tasted or looked anything like an American pizza.  I'm inclined to believe, and perhaps this is just patriotic pride, that American pizza was invented by Americans -- wherever they happened to have originally been from -- and probably in Chicago).

            In the afternoon, the clouds cleared out and the sun shone on the bright, sandy beaches just down from the Urbana Centro (the “Urban Center”) of Rota -- Rota's shopping hub.  Not that we had been able to do much shopping.  Due to various delays, we hadn't made it into the city before the daily ritual of Siesta had commenced.

            “Siesta,” roughly translated, means, “Three to five hours in the afternoon when you roll graffiti-covered corrugated steel doors down over the front of your store, go home, and watch Oprah.”  Or possibly wander into a restaurant and have a three-hour lunch.

            Siesta bugs me every time I go to a Latin country that practices it.  Said bugging coming mostly from the fact that I ALWAYS get delayed going out into town and ALWAYS end up looking for a store that sells whatever it is I am looking for, right when Siesta starts.

            Sigh.

            Still, the practice is one that we should take up in the U.S.  I've never thought it was good for the soul to go into an office barely after daybreak, spend the entirety of the daylight hours slaving away in a cubicle under fluorescent lights, only to then go home just before nightfall ... and do that for five or six days of the week.  What are we, vampires?

            We stood on the beach for a while, enjoying the sun and watching Cadiz across the bay -- from whence Cristobal Colon set sail all those many years ago, looking for a passage to the Far East and finding something in the neighborhood of Jamaica, instead.  Then the clouds pulled back into their accustomed spots and it got cold again.  We went in search of a warm place to hole up and watch Oprah.

            The last day I was in Rota was a surprise.  I walked outside and suddenly everything was different.  The trees were greener, the streets were whiter, the roofs were more tiled-er: the sun was out, the sky was blue, and it was, wonder among wonders, warm!

            In honor of this unprecedented change in climate, I went looking for the botanical gardens.  I'd seen a sign pointing the way to them in our wanderings of the day before.

            But on the way, I got sidetracked.  Between the road I was strolling on and the beach was a long, wide, strip of forested park.  The sun was out, the day was still warm, the botanical gardens could wait.  I made my way in among the trees and wildflowers, keeping to the raised boardwalk paths that wound through the woods.

            About the time I was ready to settle in for a bit with the book I'd brought along, clouds rolled in to cover the sun, the wind turned brisk, and flecks of rain started dripping down out of the now gray sky.  I checked my watch and sighed.

            Time to go watch some more Oprah.

[Caption: A rare moment of sunshine illuminates Rota, Spain.]