Rain - São Luiz de Paraitinga

When I look outside the rain gushes down the windows. It doesn’t matter if you are in Brazil or in Europe. It rains. Only the temperature is different. This makes life in Brazil in general more comfortable. But when it rains there, the consequences are more serious. Landslides destroy houses. And now there are even many deaths.

 In 2009 I spend Christmas and the New Year in Brazil. Christmas was in Aparecida (the town with the huge cathedral) and on January the second (2010) we planned to go to the beach in Ubatuba.

It had started raining  after Christmas. It kept raining all the time. The road from Taubaté to Ubatuba was blocked by landslides. Paraty could not be reached. What was more serious was that the river Paraitinga had flooded São Luiz.

It took us 4 to 5 hours to get to Ubatuba by the road of Caraguatatuba. We were lucky we didn’t come back like all the people from São Paulo going home. It took the taxidriver almost 12 hours to get back.

After some days, on the normal way back to Taubaté, we passed São Luiz. The beautiful (recently restored) Church had dispeared. Only rubble. The square with the big old houses of the coffee barons and the colorful market were covered with mud. The beautiful little town was unrecognizable.

We need rain, but let’s hope it gets dry soon.

If you want to see more pictures (and larger ones) 

klick here

With abraços for my Brazilian followers.