Addendum

So many things I want to tell you........and pictures to show you.........I might have to do it in two or three posts. I don't know that I can do it all tonight.

The day after our tropical rainstorm (November 27), which did cause some damage in some areas--I was sad to hear--we were on the road again. The rain washed a lot of red dirt and debris into the ocean.....and garbage, I'm sorry to say.........

You can see how dirty and turbulent the ocean is...... I was also interested to see that the cleanup began immediately. There were men in orange coveralls cleaning up along the roads, and the men in green had knee-high boots (like my father used to wear) wading through what little water was left in the "canals" (in Arizona we would call them a "wash") cleaning up the garbage and debris. (I hope the video doesn't make you motion sick. I have to take a lot of my pictures "on the fly").

I was also a little amazed at how quickly the ocean cleared up......... here is it November 28-- Thanksgiving Day. Some places were still a little muddy.......

By the 29th, it was mostly clean.........

And pretty much back to it's beautiful self on the 30th.......

I can hardly believe that I really live close enough to the Atlantic Ocean that I can see it 2-3 times a week! I hope we have a p-day before too much longer so I can wet my feet in that ocean. We are told it is warm! Can you imagine? .......Oh. In the picture above, you may notice what looks like a small island out there on the horizon....... It's a ship!! They are so much bigger than they appear from our apartment building. Just mind-boggling to me....... This picture--below--is looking across the mouth of the bay. There are ships out there, I promise. About eight of them! There were a bunch of them the morning after the storm.

Even the collapsed wall was cleaned up and a metal barrier, fence/wall, kind of thing in it's place. I don't know if it's meant to be permanent or not, but it all looks clean and nice as of yesterday, the 30th. I was so glad to see the backhoe.

Now another, unrelated curiosity............... Brazil has taken "Black Friday" to a whole new level. Or maybe not, now I think about it. I've never been Black Friday shopping, so I don't know what it's like at home. But I know what it's like here! We were crazy enough to go to the mall on Friday!! Never again! Truly, they advertise "Black Week".

These are washing machines here in front

See the red and black flags?

One of the stores we were in had black crepe draped across the ceiling and balloons everywhere. Even Walmart had black streamers everywhere throughout the non-food part of the store and piles of electronics, mostly TVs, and small appliances like blenders, fans, and microwave ovens. I've never seen anything like it! Maybe you have, if you are a black Friday shopper...........