Bridge on the River Luangwa

Hawaii comes to my mind when I think about exotic flowers. Rain forests also come to mind but I usually think of Costa Rica with them. Costa Rica's name means "rich coast" because it has so many types of animals, plants, and other critters all in one place. More than any other spot around the world.

Here, in my rain garden, we get about 36.68 inches a year. To qualify as a rain forest, you need a lot more rainfall than that. Most rain forests are found in South America and around the equator. But places you do not typically think of as tropical, also have rain forests. They are are found in West Africa and in the U.S. The largest temperate ones are found on the Pacific coast of North America. They stretch from Oregon to Alaska for a mere 1,200 miles.

The forests of Mount Waiʻaleʻale in Hawaii are one of the wettest spots around, getting a whopping 460 inches of rain a year. Did you know it easily gets 90 inches during the month of May? With all that water around, I bet the plein air painters never run out of waterscape scenes to paint. This is a watercolor painting of the Luangwa River in Africa. I took a little canoe ride in my imagination. I hope you can feel the mugginess as you travel down the river, during the rainy season. The hot burning sun is reflected off of the mysterious swampy waters below. An observer described this painting as interesting and I would agree as it not my usual style of painting. Although I am not certain that "interesting" was not a euphemism for something else. The trees were done with many washes of dark colors to capture the impenetrable darkness of the dense rain forest foliage. I hope you enjoy the journey!