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Published: August 19th 2010
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Sugar Loaf
Sugar Loaf mountain from the beach at its foot. Having now left Rio we wanted to record some of our observations about the city. We had a great time and it was truly a fantastic place to start our trip as if nothing else it has an amazing natural beauty that is very awe inspiring. The city itself however is a bit of a strange place and has been dubbed by steve as a city of clashes. You can walk down the street past a lady who's just paid thousands of reals for a face lift with a highly groomed dog by her side (a true spot) and 30 seconds later come across a man with nothing to his name least of all a pair of shoes. Although in many ways this sounds like any big city, we found it very striking. The crime rates seen in rio, (although lower than 3 years ago we were told), are very high. The hostel owner informed us that a few years ago tourists came across problems weekly. Now he assured us that it was only a couple of times a year. However, on entering the hostel after a very short trip to sugar loaf, (we got lost and returned for directions), we were
Copacabana
Copacabana beach from on top of Sugar Loaf greeted with "did you 2 get mugged?"... Seemingly not such a rare occurrence after all then!
On Saturday we went up to the favela on a tour. Many people disagree with this due to it's voyeuristic nature but we decided to go as a percentage of the money paid by tourists goes to fund a school up there. We also felt we wanted to see the real Rio, spending time in ipanema and copacabana was very fun but you got the sense that you weren't even scratching the surface.
The tour itself was fascinating, we visited rochinha, (the largest favela in brazil), and villa canoas, the smallest and calmest, where there is no drug crime.
On entering Rocinha we were hit by how much it looked like a town. From what you see in the media you expect to see rows and rows of shacks, but that wasn't the case. They really are small self-sufficient towns on the mountain.
At the start of the tour we were told that everything we had seen about the favela before that day was fiction. We left understanding that statement but also being very clear that that 'fiction' was very
much based on truth.
This was made most only too apparent by the men (Ellie saw 3) standing in the busy street with massive guns. The kind of guns you see in films. Specifically films about favelas. Things became more than a little tense when one of them became irate and marched up to a guy in our group, shouting in a mix of Portuguese and English demanding his camera. At this point I was glad I'd left mine in my pocket. The guide was excellent, she remained calm told the guy to hand over camera reassuring him that it would be returned. The man with the gun just wanted to check he hadn't been shot (pardon the very bad pun). Once all photos had been checked for his image (I hope he hadn't got any compromising ones of his Missus), the gunman metaphorsised in to the Fonz with thumbs up and everything.
A very surreal experience.
We were told by many people that the Brazilian government are doing much to 'clean up' the Favela and deal with associated crime but we both rather suspected that this had more to do with wanting to give the right impression when rio hosts the world cup in 4 years time... Much like london, Stratford and 2012!
This beautiful city of clashes, really leaves its mark.
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Naomi
non-member comment
That's v.interesting about Rio and the rich, poor divide. The more of the world one sees the more unusual our mass of the middle class appears to be, good ol' Blighty... Went for lunch today with Chris, Amanda and a spherical Holly, all miss you, wish you both well for now :) Nay x x x