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Other entries in Rio de Janeiro

Girls in Ipanema

The trip had officially ended on Monday but most of us were staying on in Rio for at least a few days and with good reason as there was so much to see and do in the city. The football match was such an experience, the atmosphere was amazing with chanting, singing, so many flares being set off we could hardly see the pitch for all the red smoke, helicopters flying overhead, samba drums and giant flags being waved everywhere. It was like being at Carnaval except instead of skimpy bikinis and feathers everyone was wearing football shirts and face paint.
 
On Monday morning we went on an organised favela (shanty town) tour. Rio is famous for them as anyone who has seen the movie 'City of God' will know and anyone who hasn't seen it should. Around 20% of the city's population live in these slum cities with very little or no sanitation and running water and the only safe way to see inside one is to take an organised tour with one of the companies which have agreements with the resident gangs and drug dealers to let tourists in. I felt good about taking the tour as the company we used, Be A Local, is deeply involved with working with the people in the favela to help improve their lives and they have done many notable things with the money generated by the tours including opening a daycare centre so parents have somewhere safe to leave their children so they can go out to earn some money; and a scheme to provide improved housing for more residents. It was an incredibly interesting few hours, we went to the biggest favela in Rio, Rocinha, and started by taking motorbike taxis up the winding main road of the favela which goes right up a hill, the favelas obviously being situated on the most undesirable land in the city which isn't wanted by anyone else for building. My driver added to the sense of danger of being in a shanty town by talking incessantly on a mobile phone the whole time therefore only holding the motorbike with one hand but not seeing this, or the terrible condition of the road, as a reason to drop below 50mph at any time so we careered up the hill at top speed and I thought it was good going that we only skidded once on a patch of wet sand he didn't see as he was too busy gabbing.
 
The 'real' favela exists on the back streets off the main road and to see those we had to walk back down so off we plunged with our guide into a warren of windy, twisty lanes flanked on both sides by high, dilapidated buildings housing shops, workhouses and homes. We were only allowed to take photos in certain places when told so by our guide as the local drug dealers don't take kindly to having cameras pointed at them and it can be dangerous. I have to admit though my hands were twitching (as well as my stomach) when we stopped to let a group of young men walk past us, they can't have been any more than 18 or 19 and one of them was carrying a huge gun. I'm not too well up on weaponry but it looked like the semi automatic machine guns used by the army and it really brought it home where we were and that the lives of the people here are not just a movie like City of God, that is how it really is.
 
On a more positive note though we met a great group of young boys who played music for us on homemade instruments; went to the studio of a local artist where I bought a beautiful original painting of the favela with the Christ statue, the symbol of Rio, overlooking it; visited the daycare centre to see the kids who are being well cared for and educated thanks to groups like Be A Local; climbed up to the top of a very high and very condemned looking building to get a spectacular view of the favela spilling down the hillside; bought handmade bracelets from a local women's collective; waved at and were waved at by lots of kids and went to possibly the best bakery in the southern hemisphere which sold a staggering variety of doughnuts, cakes, cookies and puddings, all of which we had to try. As we were on our way out of the favela going through a market towards the main road we suddenly heard loud bangs and people began running and shouting, clearing up their street stalls and disappearing. The bangs were fireworks and they were being set off as a warning that the police had been sighted entering the favela. This happens fairly regularly although the police do not dare enter without a huge and heavily armed presence due to the gangs. The danger in these situations comes if the police and the gangs meet as bystanders often get caught in the crossfire. These guys have no compunction about shooting to kill but as it was we got back to the main road again without incident and it was fascinating to look back and see that a network of coloured kites had gone up all over the streets up the hill behind us as warning signs. Fireworks and kites operate as a kind of Morse Code or semaphore in the favela.
 
On Tuesday we had our big touristy day and in the morning we visited Rio's cathedral which is like something from a Star Wars movie. From the outside it's pretty hideous, a huge concrete pyramid with a flat roof which looks like it should have been built in a city in Stalinist Russia but from the inside it's pretty impressive with amazing stained glass windows stretching its entire height and fantastic acoustics. The size is immense, it can hold 20,000 people who sit in concrete boxes going right up the walls. Every time I saw it during the week I kept expecting to see Ewan MacGregor appear on the top waving his light saber but that was probably just wishful thinking on my part... Anyhoo... after the cathedral we caught the tram to the Morro do Corcovado to see Christo Redentor - the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer which towers over the city and which I have wanted to see for years ever since I bought a beautiful black and white photo print of it as a student. The tram journey took us through some lovely neighbourhoods and then up through the lush forest of the Tijuana National Park which is partly situated right in the city until we reached the last station and got out to walk the 200 steps up to old JC himself. The statue is awe inspiring and the views of the city stunning although it was absolutely heaving with tourists so it was like seeing Jesus with 500 of your closest friends. After this we set off back down on the tram to catch the metro again to go to Sugar Loaf (we wanted to use public transport and not go for the usual tourist thing of doing an organised trip although this was partly to do with the extortionate cost of everything in Rio compared to the rest of South America). We duly arrived un-robbed and got into one of the cable cars with another load of tourists up to the first viewing stage, the Morro da Urca. Again the views were spectacular and we stayed there for a while just looking at Sugar Loaf before getting in the second cable car which takes you across and up to the top of the hill itself. We timed our visit for sunset and I would love to say that I now know why they say that the vista from the top of Sugar Loaf is one of the world's best views but there was a giant cloud over the top of the hill. It looked like it was wearing a hat and we had the world's best view of a lot of white mist. Yippee. It did clear intermittently though and the cloud over the city made it look very atmospheric in the setting sun although whoever decided that the hill right behind the Christ statue would be a good place to put a load of pylons and communications towers should be hanged from one of them.
 
On Wednesday we could wait no longer and finally did what everyone who goes to Rio has to do (other than remortgage their house to pay for their stay)... yep, we went to Copacabana, baby. And yes, it is a big beach and yes, it is full of men in skimpy speedos and women in even skimpier g-string bikinis. Call them what you like but Brazilians are not shy and retiring, there were bodies of all shapes and sizes being flaunted in teeny tiny swimwear and more power to them, it's fabulous. Vendors of all sorts go up and down the beach constantly selling everything from sarongs to ice cream, caipirinhas, grilled prawns and our personal favourite, the guy in the tight speedos with the loudhailer who sold 'ACAI!!' at the top of his voice and who posed hilariously for photos with practically everyone on the beach (Acai (ass-ai-ee) for all you non-health food freaks out there is an energy giving 'superfood' Brazilian berry which is really expensive at home but super cheap and common in Brazil). We had a great day lounging on the sand watching the people and eating ourselves stupid. So much so in fact that we did it again the following day only we went to Ipanema for a change which is the even more expensive and exclusive neighbourhood beside Copacabana. Being commoners though we caught the bus to get there and again survived unscathed and unrobbed despite carrying cameras etc. with us. We'd decided to adopt a sod it attitude towards the potential dangers, we weren't going to do anything stupid like go wandering about alone or at night which really is guaranteed to get you in trouble, but we were determined to make the most of our time in Rio and see and do as much as possible and there was no way we were leaving our cameras behind 'just in case'. If they got nicked they got nicked, we just said we'd try to get them to let us take the memory cards out first which would be an interesting conversation if we were having a gun pointed at us as although I can understand Portuguese I can't speak much of it and the others none at all so we'd have basically been putting on a mime show for our muggers. 
 
Most evenings we headed to an area called Lapa which is to the north of the city near the centre which is the main samba area of the city and is where the locals go to party. Again, we got there by metro and walked around to soak up the atmosphere although we did always get taxis back to our hotel. Wednesday night was different though, on arriving in the city we'd spotted a billboard and several fly posters saying 'Muse' and the date 30th July which caused great excitement as they're one of my favourite bands, they're incredible live and to see them in Rio would be mind blowing. Me and a fellow Muse-o (har har) looked it up on the net, found the venue and walked to the ticket office to buy tickets and that was that, we were going to see Muse live in Rio (baby!). And it was mind blowing, the venue was pretty small, about 800 people, the huge majority locals and all die hard Muse fans, it was incredible, they're such an amazing band live and it was a brilliant, hot, sweaty, shouty, intense couple of hours and a real highlight of the week.
 
By that stage though some of the group had started to leave which was really sad. Of our little core of 6, 2 left on Wednesday afternoon amid many tears and vows that we're going to do it again as soon as possible. Thursday found the remaining 4 of us on the metro heading to Lapa to see one of its daytime attractions and another big reason why I wanted to visit Rio - the Escadaria Selaron - the amazing mosaic staircase which is the obra maestra of Chilean artist Jorge Selaron. Eighteen years ago it was a run down inner city staircase and he has turned it into a living work of art by decorating every inch of it with tiles collected from all over the world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escadaria_Selaron It is beautiful, colourful and we were incredibly lucky yet again as we got halfway up and I realised that I recognised this older guy in red shorts with a walrus moustache who was sitting on the steps with a couple of younger guys.,. it was none other than the artist Selaron himself. He live in one of the houses beside his work of art and is often there we were incredibly lucky to have timed our visit exactly to concide with him sitting outside on the steps drawing. We got talking to him and his two young helpers and they took us into his gallery where he sells drawings and paintings to fund his work on the steps and I bought two orginal drawings which he then proceeded to sign for me and pose for photos with. He is an incredibly interesting man, eccentric in the way that artists often are and he showed us a huge collection of press cuttings of celebrities and models on the staircase, including Snoop Dogg and Pharrell Williams and, of course, and the one I was waiting for, U2, who were filmed on the staircase in their 'Walk On' video which is set in Rio. After that we'd decided we'd had enough culture for one day and we went back to Copacabana yet again followed by another night at a samba club in Lapa. Brazilians really do have samba in their blood, the rhythm is as natural to them as breathing and to hear the music played live and watch them dancing and join in (badly but enthusiastically) is just amazing.
 
The rest of the week was just a blur of walking and metro-ing around the city, watching capoeira on the beach, drinking yet more caipirinhas, lying on the beach watching the world go by, eating ice cream and thinking how lucky we were and that we didn't want the trip to end and buying all kinds of Brazilian tat, mostly yet more pairs of Havianas flip flops (I am now the proud owner of 8 pairs), sarongs, football t shirts and tiny bikinis which I bought but didn't actually wear as I prefer my bikinis to cover both my arse cheeks but I had to get one. We went back to Lapa for the huge street party which takes place every weekend. We basically wandered around the street with about a thousand other people buying drinks and food from stalls and dancing to live music spilling out from every bar and also from a stage set up in the open air. People were walking, standing and dancing everywhere and yet again, I had my camera and although I was careful not to flash it around I got some amazing photos and wouldn't have wanted to miss out on it 'just in case'. On Saturday, my last full day on the trip we were down to 3 so we hit the beach yet again and then on Saturday night we went to a huge samba party in a kind of community hall in Lapa including rehearsals of a samba school for Carnaval 2009 (Carnaval is in February and rehearsals start about 6 months beforehand each year). Oh what a night, the music, the dancing, the costumes... On Sunday morning we decided to treat ourselves and had brunch beside the pool at the Copacabana Palace Hotel which is one of the oldest and the most famous of all the hotels in Rio. Everyone has stayed there from Marilyn Monroe to Kofi Annan to the Rolling Stones. It was eye wateringly expensive but we had a blast and I think we also entertained the waiters by eating about as much between the 3 of us as all the other (posh and rich) guests did between them. We were determined to get our money's worth and at the price, that was a lot of breakfast. 
 
One last visit to the beach later though I was in a taxi on my way to the airport to come home and the trip really was at an end. It's hard to believe it's all over, I have had the most incredible time, this blog has only scratched the surface of the things I've seen and done, the people I've met and the experiences we've had together. To anyone thinking of doing something similar go for it and to anyone not thinking of it, you should be. I'll be doing it again as soon as I possibly can, if it wasn't for my three monster mutts waiting for me at home I would be off again right now. Much as I have missed them it has been the most amazing, life changing, perspective altering experience and more than that so much fun and I can't wait to do it again and hopefully with the same people... To you guys when you read this, you made it for me, I love you all and it's been a blast. Here's to the next one although hopefully I'll see you all in Melbourne for the wedding before long!!!

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