Oct 3 - Starts raining early AM and still going strong when we find a taxi to the marshrutka station at 10:00. Batumi is a main destination so find one right away, sit inside and wait while it pours outside. The driver takes off at 11:00 before it is full, which tells me that they are allowed to wait only a certain amount of time before freeing the space up for another marshrutka.
It probably is because of the downpour, but as we ride toward the coast, I have the sensation of driving through a forested equatorial region in the rainy season. The plants are a mix of temperate and semi-tropical, and the way the clouds and fog cling to the hills feels very much like South America or Central Africa. I remember that this was similar to my experience first driving down from Artvin to Trabzon, Türkiye, many years ago. Coming down into the Black Sea basin from the drier highlands is a huge climate transition. I have read that this one of the wettest regions in the northern hemisphere.
We hit the coast at Grigoleti, and follow it south to Batumi. The ocean is clouded with river sediment and the waves pound the shore. We pass many beach resort towns, but they look anything but inviting in this weather.
Push the fare down on the taxi to our apartment in Batumi. Its a bit too wet to walk there. Traffic is crawling here, the rain seems to have blocked everything up. Apartment is a bit out from the center. Batumi immediately impresses me as a big city, with numerous high rise apartment buildings, and glitzy hotels lining the shore. The rain abates as we walk to a park near the ocean with an artificial lake (Nuri). The shore itself is in full storm wave mode, though the weather here has improved dramatically since our arrival.
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