chilling...

Trying to stay cool

When Spaniards warned us that we would be travelling during the hottest month in Spain, I must admit… I chuckled inside. I even wrote back to a few and said something along the lines of “well I’m sure India’s weather of 42C and above for 2 months must have prepared us a little bit at least.” I thought to myself, what do they know about heat? And it’s true, India gets much hotter then Spain for longer periods of time, and you can not find AC everywhere, and there is the pollution, smells, trash, population density, noise, etc… which make it all seem so much more intense and hotter. However, I also must admit that I was way too arrogant!

While Delhi may be scorching for months on end, I am not trying to sightsee during this time, I’m not even out on the street during the day! I used to be at the office where we had power backup during power cuts, and since I quit I’m either at home or out of Delhi. In fact, I have promised myself to not spend another summer or monsoon season in India again; four were enough.

But here in Spain, we are out on the streets. And since we don’t tend to leave the house early, ever, we are usually out and about during peak heat hours; the hottest time is after lunch, 1-6. So what did we do? When we found water fountains… we chilled out in them, literally. Ranging from just getting our feet wet to almost taking a full on shower, we found Spain’s fountains to be such a blessing! Here are a few shots of us trying to stay cool in different parts of Spain.

here is a cute little titbit. nisarga was often amazed how my nose or chest or back of the neck were cold, when it was hot outside. i explained to him that i sweat, and that's how my body cools down under heat, and that in fact that 's the case in everyone's body. he insists that my "cooling system", as he puts it, works much better then anyone else's because my body parts end up getting quite cool. however, my "heating system" is quite broken as i tend to freeze at anything below 21C!!!