Maybe God isn't Brazilian after all.

At least he may not be Carioca (a Rio native). I was all prepared today to begin chatting about all my cooking adventures (I've been dabbling in the kitchen for nearly a week, but only began working for real yesterday).  So far the trip has been amazing...until today.

It's been raining on-and-off for the past several days, but I didn't think much of it. Until today. Last night the rain came down hard and by mid-morning, nearly a foot of rain was dumped on the State of Rio de Janeiro. The average rainfall for the state is about 4-inches for the month of April and about 40+ inches per year. It's still pouring, so who knows how much rain there's been by now.

The city has been declared a disaster area with hundreds of mudslides (I saw several), trees down, electricity off in many areas and more than a hundred dead and more missing.

It's said to be the worst rain disaster in 30-years. Much of the city was closed for the day as people tried to cope with waters. This is the scene from my bedroom window (I'm in a highrise in Sao Corado, not too far away)