Today is a holiday here in Brazil. In the United States it is known as Mardi Gras but here it is Carnival, the day before Ash Wednesday for the Catholics. Bonnie and I attended a zone meeting in the morning and then decided to take a walk in the park after lunch. As we left to drive down the 5 blocks to the park we noticed a very strange, dark cloud rapidly moving in our direction. 2 blocks from the park we were hit with heavy rain, not real uncommon here, so we decided to continue on to the park and turn around. As we reached the park the wind picked up and rain was falling horizontally. We turned around at the round about and began to see limbs and branches flying past us. It was very difficult to see. Cars were pulled over on the side of the road due to the lack of visibility. We journeyed on picking our way through the downed foliage blocking traffic. All of the stop lights were out due to trees down on the power lines. We were only hit once by something falling. It really gave us a scare. Carefully but rapidly we made it back to the apartment and had to climb the 13 floors to our abode. The storm left as rapidly as it came. The sun came back out after 10 minutes so we decided to go back down to the park to see the results of the storm. We bounded down the 13 floors again! Awesome!
The park was a disaster. Trees and limbs down everywhere. Here are a few of the pictures we took. Curitibanos were out strolling in the park as if nothing had happened.
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| Click to Open: The sign reads "Attention: Street blocked on Sunday 2pm - 8pm." It should read Sundays and Holidays! |
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| Click to Expand: Those are some serious roots! |
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| Click to Expand: This tree fell on a building housing a car museum. |
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| Bonnie found this one that took out a surveilance camera with it. |
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| Click to Expand: Bonnie did her best to support this poor tree however in the end, it didn't make it. |
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| RISE UP! Well, maybe not that much. |
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| Treetop...Gone! |
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| A look of concern and pain! Our poor Parque Barigui. OUCH CHARLIE!! |
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| Bummer! |
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| Looking back towards our apartment. |
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| This little guy was still trying to escape the destruction. I had to tell him that it was OK to return to his lake. |
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| Blue skies and palm trees. |
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| The homeless dogs in the park. |
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| Willy Wonka's Chocolate River. |
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| Araucarias! |
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| This is the street where Silvana and Jefferson live. We couldn't get down to their house. |
