The rain is truly torrential now, large drops falling at a  rapid pace. The road we’re on has turned into a veritable river; dead leaves and other debris from the surrounding jungle have been washed out onto the road and gotten caught on the edges of the many cracks in the asphalt, forming little islands here and there. The road is steep enough for a current to form, it keeps splitting and reconnecting as it flows around the little islands, even building up swells as it passes around some of the bigger ones. Separate streams flow down the ditches on the side of the road, white, foaming torrents that plunge down the mountain. I keep riding upwards, the gear low and the engine gunned, there is nowhere else to go and no cover to hide under. What rain clothes we have are insufficient for the onslaught of heavy rain, this is absolute misery, but there is nothing for it, forward is the only direction that will bring us closer to a hot shower.