ROAMING IN RIO !

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la....... at the copa copacabana.....

The song goes round and round in your head. It drives you crazy at times but the realisation that we were in Rio was great as much as it was a little unnerving.

Having checked into our hostel there was about another hour of light left so we headed straight for the Copacabana beach. We are only staying 2 blocks away so the walk is short and quick. We head out over the busy road and onto the promenade and there it is stretching out in each direction it is huge and very wide. We stand and survey but as it is late in the day there are not so many people on the beach. Having walked a short way we decided to stop for a drink and watch some of the local kids playing football after all they are Brazilian and Tim is keen to see how much talent they have. We watched for quite some time well into dark but we were impressed that the beach is floodlit so the game continued. As you look down the beach you can see so many people playing games. The section of the beach closest to the promenade is reserved for sport but mainly football as a first choice. They have proper goals and marked out pitches using large posts. Quite impressive and the talent of the kids is quite good. The local sellers keep stopping by with various trinkets for sale. A brazil T shirt in every imaginable colour, a hand bag that unzips into a piece of material, hats, peanuts (we have some of them) and the best a guy selling number plates who proceeds to give me kisses and shake our hands with great gusto. He then comes back for more kisses and Tim finds the whole thing very funny. mmmmm I wouldnt have minded but he was not your Brazilian beach god. Come to think of it I have yet to see one of those. Must keep an eye out in the next few days!!! With the football finished and what looks like a proper training session with adults about to start we wonder off to find somewhere to eat. Rio is very expensive at least it is for our budget and we bypass the frontal restaurants with main courses at 75 reals. Over 20 quid. We only have 25 quid for the whole day but it stands to reason as these places overlook the beach. We continue to walk away from the beach and back into the streets when we pass a restaurant with a promotion, 40% off and the menu looks good. We settle for spaghetti bolognaise and a salad which was tasty and the service A1. We do however recognise that it is going to be necessary to use the kitchen at our hostel so we dont overspend.

With a good nights sleep under our belt we wake to a clear and warm morning. Having tucked into breakfast of good coffee and toast we enquire about the city tour the hostel is advertising. It is due to leave in 5 minutes so we quickly suncream up and await the pickup. For 120 reals each they will take us to Christ the Redeemer, Sugarloaf, The Maracana, the Cathedral and some of the local city beaches. Lunch is also included - result. The pick up is late but that is okay finally we get underway in the heavy Rio traffic. Our guide speaks good english and the bus has aircon which is a relief. We wind our way through the traffic and the guide gets the driver to take some back roads through Santa Helena to get us up to Christ the Redeemer. We have waited so long to get here and see this and are both quite excited. At the foot of the statue is the national park so the drive is very green and pretty. The views break out every so often and the high rise buildings look insignificant from this high up. We change buses when we get to the gates as you can only go up in their transport and before too long we are at the entrance with our tickets. The day is hot but the breeze is welcoming as we begin the climb up the stairs to reach the statue. We round a corner and there he is arms stretched wide.

The first thing that grabbed my attention is that he is mounted on a plinth. I had not imagined that so it was a bit weird. Then you have people sprawled all over the floor trying to get the best picture they can which again is quite unusual. After you have marvelled at the sheer size of the statue the views then grab your attention. You can see everything from up here. The Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. The sugarloaf mountain rises on the opposite side. A large lake sprawls across the city at the rear of Ipanema. We did not even know there was a lake so this was a surprise and then you can see the landing strip reserved only for flights from Sau Paulo. A plane passes by below us and it is then you realise how high you are. When planes and birds are below you know your pretty high up. We now know the day we had was very clear but at the time the horizon looks milky and hazy. Even so the view is pretty amazing and we wondered around the viewing area taking our pictures and dodging others doing the same. It is very busy but everyone is polite and patient, even willing to take pictures of us together which was nice. Our allotted 40 minutes went quickly but it was enough to take everything in. We hopped back on the bus and back down into the city. On our way the guide tells us stories of the local favelas (residential areas for the poor) these are no go areas ran by the drug gangs and rife with crime. We had already been warned you do not wonder into these areas under any circumstances. Police had recently raided one favela that was running a drug operation for cocaine. Over 1 million reals worth of coke was confiscated by the police. Cocaine plants are not native to Brazil and the trafficking seems to come from other south american countries. It sounds like a logistical nightmare to even begin to pull these areas into line with society. It adds to my concern about safety.

We head back into the busy traffic and find ourselves at the Maracana stadium. Tim had really wanted to see this and we walked into an open area where they have large pictures on the wall of the first and last generations of the Brazilian football team. Pele looms high in the first generation picture and Ronaldo and Ronaldinio preside in the forefront of the second generation. On the floor are plaques with the players footprints in and we find the big stars amongst many of names I did not even recognise. We were then ferried back to the bus and Tim was disappointed we did not get to go in the stadium. we had heard whispers of a game being played the following night but nobody seemed to have any info and our guide said that he was not aware of one until the weekend which was after we were due to fly so he was a bit disheartened by that.

We find ourselves back in the traffic in the blazing midday sun and in a few minutes arrive at a large open area with high grandstands on each side of the road. Tim recognises this area as where the Rio carnival is held and we are ushered into a small shop with all manor of this years costumes on display. For 3 reals you can dress up in one and have your picture taken. After some hesitation we got into the swing of things and soon found ourselves decked out in a proper Rio carnival costume. They are various colours and designs but by the time we had mucked around there were only a few left. We bagged a couple though and went out onto the sunshine to take some shots. Quite strangely we actually got stopped by a tourist who wanted her picture taken with us and then her boyfriend did too. Quite strange and we did have a giggle about that. We wondered if they thought we worked there or something, oh well we are celebreties now!!

From here we head off to the cathedral which inside was beautiful but outside was probably the ugliest building I have seen in terms of a cathedral. Wasnt really impressed and we sat in the sunshine waiting for the others in our group. We then headed to lunch which was pretty impressive. All you can eat buffet and the food was delicious. We topped up the fuel and an hour later were back in the van being whisked off to the sugarloaf.

There are two cable cars up to the sugar loaf. One from ground level at the independence square to a smaller mountain and then a steeper car takes you up to the sugarloaf viewpoint. The mountain was named sugarloaf by the Portuguese who decided on first srrival in the city that it resembled a loaf baked in portugal made with sugar. Quite simple really. As we are in a tour we get to go to the front of the queue and are soon on the first cable car which is a short ride. The views from here are good but we have a quick look round and then head off to the next cable car. As we reach the top there is about an hour before sunset and everyone in our group agrees that we would rather spend the time up here than go to any of the beaches. Not much point in going to beaches just before dark anyway. Our guide agrees to let us stay and we explore the viewing platforms over the city which are so pretty. There are many beaches that can be seen not just the famous Copacabana and Ipanema. Rio has 36 beaches which is something to boast about. Everyone we can see from up here is white and apart from the two main ones seem almost empty in comparison. The light is starting to fade and we pick our spot for sunset over the mountains behind the city. It is quite busy but again everyone is polite and patient, the sun starts to turn that beautiful orange colour and we watch as it drops slowly behind the mountains. Very romantic and pretty, well worth staying up there for. Strangely as the last haze of the sun disappears there is applause from the croud. I have never experienced applause for a sunset before and it was quite bizarre. Another memory for the ever growing bizarre pot. By the time we get back down the mountian and back to our hostel it is about 6pm. As we have already eaten we take a slow walk back and spend the rest of the evenign in our hostel. I´m not really keen to be in Rio late at night and to be honest apart from nighclubs we have not passed a bar that looks inviting. Couple that with the expense and risks involved and we were a bit put off. We have 3 more days in Rio before we leave the south american continent and we are determined to get out without being robbed or worse. We know that for that to happen we would have to be stupid or just plain unlucky but neither of us feel it necessary to find out.

Before we got to Rio we knew you could hang glide over the city it is not cheap though and we had debatted whether it was worth the 80ish quid. As we still have som eof our fun money left we decided that it would be good fun so we book the next day to do that. We are told it will no be until the afternoon so we go out and do some food shopping/internet and are told to get back to the hostel by 1pm. We get back on time and the girls says the guy will pick us up at 3pm. Having unpacked our shopping and lazed on the hostel patio 3pm soon arrives. We are then told the guy has postponed we are not given a reason but we presume it must be weather conditions. It is really disappointing as we feel we have wasted a precious day waiting around. The weather is beautiful and rather than mope around we pack our beach stuff and head down to the copacabana for what is left of the days sun. Settling in a spot we spend the next 2 hours people watching and it is some of the most entertaining we have ever had. Brazilian beaches and their women have international recognition for their beauty in both areas. mmmmm well it is true to say the beaches are beautiful, it is also true to say that some of the woman also fall into that catergory. However there are a very large proportion that do not and we were both surprised and somewhat concerned about the amount of very small bikinis on some very very large ladies. What we did like though was how they dont give a damn what you think and we saw more flesh in that two hours then is healthy for any individual. As for the men well they are truly worse than the very beautiful women that use the beach as their catwalk. They stand in over muscled groups in their tight little shorts and it is hilarious to watch. The prance and they preen more than any women I have seen and it is pure entertainment. So as the sun sets once more we giggle all the way back to the hostel to cook our dinner and get an early night.

After further discussion we decide that the hang gliding poses quite a problem in terms of uncertainty. We wake to a very nice morning and decided that we can hang glide inother places where we have more time and that waiting around for a further day is not what we want to do. The hang gliding company cannot confirm if they will go today either so we can the idea and head off to Ipanema beach instead. The walk is about 30 minutes as we are staying half way up the Copacabana but it is nice and relaxing. We arrive at Ipanema which is smaller than its sister next door but even more surprising is the black clouds looming over the mountains at the far end of the beach. The promendade here is not so big either and we didge the walkers, bikers and skaters to get to the steps onto the beach. Finding a nice open spot we deck ourselves out for a day of sunshine and watch the impressive waves pound onto the beach. The surfers are out in force and are pretty damn good in some of the highest waves we have seen so far on the trip. The sun is beating hard on my back and we both feel relaxed and content. 20 minutes later and the sun has disappeared behind a cloud we wait and watch some more surfers the next time we turn round the sun has gone completely in a sky of cloud. The temperature has dropped a little and over at the mountains it looks like rain could be possible. We wait a bit longer but when we saw the locals packing up their refreshment stalls we figure they must know that it wont clear and we head off the beach a bit disappointed as the weather the day before had been great but we wasted the day hanging around for the gliding. We take a walk along Ipanema front but the promenade offers little in terms of things to look at so we decide to return to Copa. The weather shows little sign of improvement so we head back to the supermarket to shop for dinner and then back to the hostel. It was not the most productive of days but the weather is the weather and after dinner and a DVD we arrange to go on the favela tour the next day which will be our last in Rio.

So on our final afternoon in Rio we await our pick up for the favela tour. Notoriously dangerous places we are obviously going with an experienced guide. The Rocinha favela they are taking us to is the largest and oldest in Rio with 200,000 inhabitants. The drive is quite short as it is just on the outskirts of the Ipanema beach and soon we are standing at the foot of the houses looking up into the labrinth of buildings. There is an air of trepidation within ur group as we march across the road and are told by our guide to get on the back of a moped to be taken to the very top of the favela. I am dubious but manage to get one with Tim on his our drivers set off up the steep and winding roads that are the hub of transportation in and out. Without doubt it was the single scariest minutes I have spent on the back of a moped. It beacem very evident within the first few seconds as my driver sped up the roads at a stupid speed that he did not speak english. My cries of "please slow down" and "ahhhhhhhh" fell on deaf ears. At one point we rounded a corner and in my minds eye I could actually see myself strewn in the road having come off the bike but we made it to the top in one piece. Everyone in the group looked shaken and a little unsteady as we regrouped.

Our guide then gave us some general information about life in the favela. The first thing he pointed out was the electricity cabling. Each favela is run by a gang; there are 3 main gangs in Rio this one belongs to ADA, friends of friends as it translates. They are not charged for their electricity they illegally tap into the supply. The electricity board cannot shut the power down as some houses in the favela actually pay to make sure they get a more reliable supply. The maze of wires is just crazy. Secondly they pay no tax, everyone that lives in the favela is living illegally as the land was claimed from the forest years before. The problem is that the favela is growing and growing and is so large now that it is out of control. Everyday more houses are built and everyday more babies are born. This favela may be the largest in Rio but it is one of over 300. Because the inhabitants pay no tax they have no water. What the water people have done is agreed that every 3 hours they will turn on the water so people can collect it and take it home. The favela has no sanitary conditions to speak of the streets are full of open sewers. The situation is both desperate and out of the governments control unless serious money is pumped in.

We begin our walk into one of the main entrances to the favela. These are manned by the gangs lookouts who are hoping to tip off the members to any unexpected raid by the police. Our guide informs us he will tell us when we can and cannot take pictures and I nervously stick right behind him as we enter the alley way. The walkways are tight and small there are shops either side selling everything from dairy products to meat and fish. People recognise our guide and he chats and shakes hands with various people. Sanitary conditions are not too bad here it seems but out guide informs us that it is much worse in the lower sections as everything passes down through the streets. It is a town within a town. They have their own rules and crime surprisingly is non existent as the gangs will not tolerate it. So in some respects they are protecting there own people as much as they are themselves from the outside world. The houses are tiny and all the steps are very steep and dangerous. At times there is not enough room for people to pass going in the opposite direction. We are taken to a showroom for locals art and the pictures are impressive. This project is one way the local people are trying to earn their money fairly. We head on from here further into the favela and get our first sighting of a guy walking towards us with a machine gun strapped to his chest and a smaller hand gun strapped to his hip. This is life in the favela and only the day before there was a clash between police and the gang where a drug dealer was killed but a 23 year old girl got caught in the cross fire and also shot. Our guide informs us that this is common and the police raids do not help the situation. They can only access the favela from the bottom section, by the time they are into the labyrinth all the look outs have got news to the gangs and the top people have already gone into hiding. When you look around you at the numerous places a person could hide you can understand why the police´s job is almost hopeless. The fact that many of the police are also corrupt just adds to the ongoing frustration of any answer for these people who live here.

We continue our walk down through the streets and as our guide told us the open sewers get worse. Not only that but there is no rubbish collection due to the non payment of tax so each person has the responsibility of carrying there rubbish to the main street. It just doesn’t happen and the place is a festering rat haven. Tim spots a few rats along the way the size of a guinea pig!! Another guy passes with a hand gun and then we stop further down and a guy is chatting with our guide leaning on a machine gun. We hover here a while and I am both nervous and edgy about being so close to this guy but he seems to be oblivious to the fact he is even in possession of a gun. It is here that we get some info on what the gang members earn. A look out will start on about 400 reals as they progress through the gang a guy with a machine gun will earn anything from 1200-1700 reals a month. The top guys selling the drugs bag a massive gross profit of $3,000,000 a year from the industry. The police are paid around 800 reals a month. You can see why they are easily turned by a backhander even if our society tells you it should not make a difference.

We then stop at a day care centre ran by the company we are being guided by. They provide day care for some of the children in the favela so that their parents can go off and work. They currently have 100 kids, the simple fact is that you could fill this place 10 times over and there would still be the need for more. It’s a start but nowhere near a solution to the problem. It is common for each woman in this area to have around 5 kids each so the problem just keeps getting bigger. Our guide is very passionate about the plight of the people and you can see his frustration over the problems they encounter. They are trying almost single handedly to provide help, education, general hygiene schooling etc..all from donations. The government will not supply money to the favelas. Whether that is because they are in the possession of the gangs or because they don’t want to part with the money is unknown. The fact remains though that their negligence has allowed this originally small problem to grow and grow and someone has to take responsibility for that. Even helping with the sewers would stop some of the sickness the children suffer but again the donations help supply that much needed medical supplies into the favela. You would think that the gangs would pump some of the money back to help the people that they use to hide behind, that doesn’t happen either. As we stand on top of the daycare centre roof the true size and scale of this problem stretches above and below you. As much as I can see both sides and Tim and I spent a long time after this visit debating the whys and wherefores the simple fact is that even looking to scratch the surface is almost hopeless. We soon wind our way back to the bottom of the favela and into our waiting car. There are many things I have found to get passionate about along our travels and the favelas are certainly one of them. Within 10 minutes we are back onto the main stretch and heading over to Copacabana so much wealth so close to such poverty. An answer to this problem is along way off…..

We left Rio on July 25th after 4 great eye opening days. It would have been nice to stay longer and linger on those beautiful beaches but we were on our way to Miami…..

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