Waiting out the weather in Valle de Bravo

We drove to Valle de Bravo with one idea: soft light, a dark car, a black dress. Simple.

The drive itself was half the fun. The road climbs and curves through pine trees, the windows go down, and somewhere around the tenth curve you stop checking your phone. I had a whole playlist ready for the moment the lake appeared. It appeared during a song I don't even like, and I laughed so much I forgot to change it.

The sky had a different idea. When we got to the water it was grey from one side to the other, and the wind kept throwing my hair across my face no matter which way I turned. I leaned on the hood and waited for the sun to come out. It didn't.

So we took shelter in the car. The best photos from that day are the ones where I'd given up: door open, one hand on the wheel, the other holding on to the roof, thinking about dinner.

But we stayed one more day

We almost drove back. Instead we decided to give the town one more evening, and I'm glad we did.

That afternoon I bought a bunch of pink flowers for no reason except that they were pink and I was in a good mood. By the time we went back out, the clouds had moved off and the light was going soft and purple. The car's tail lights came on, red against the dark paint, and suddenly the whole plan from the day before worked. It just needed a day's delay.

Blue hour

Then we walked down to the lake. The sky turned that deep blue that only lasts a few minutes, and the lights came on one by one on the far shore. It was quiet except for the water and somebody's music drifting from a terrace up the hill.

I kept the flowers in a water glass in the room until we left. Plan A is overrated. Sometimes the weather knows better.